SWAC area tea parties - Expoland & Gypsy Hill Park

Tea parties are popping up like mushrooms, and the SWAC area is no exception. Bob Stuart at the Waynesboro News Virginian checked out why tea parties, both locally and nationally, are so popular:

Angst over taxes and reassessments is spreading.
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“People think it’s all conservatives, but we’ve got Democrats who are fed up with the government bailing out banks and Wall Street. This is not a Republican-Democrat issue. It’s a milk in my refrigerator issue,” said Ben Marchi, executive director of the Virginia chapter of Americans for Prosperity, an organization that focuses on the free market and transparency in government.
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On Tax Day the following night, tea-party protesters will gather at Gypsy Hill Park in Staunton and Augusta Expoland in Fishersville.

“These events are what the grassroots are all about,” Marchi said. “They are not pushed by a particular special-interest group.”

The tea party protests got their start with an on-air rant from CNBC editor Rick Santelli earlier this year about the White House agenda, Congress, stimulus spending and pork. Santelli called for a Chicago tea party, and others caught on.
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Lynn Mitchell, an Augusta County Republican Party member, called the timing for citizen involvement “a perfect storm.”

“There are hundreds of jobs lost, an economic downturn and the baby boomers lost money in the stock market,” she said.

Mitchell said the disenchantment is being felt at all levels, from the federal to state to local governments.

“They [citizens] are tired of their hard-earned tax money not being spent responsibly.”

Americans are fed up with the constant demand for higher taxes and irresponsible spending. Check out the rest of the article here, and join a tea party somewhere.