(Link)VETERANS SHOW hands and receive applause for their service during Sunday’s Gorge Constitutional Tea Party rally in Dallesport. RaeLynn Ricarte photo
Tea Party rallies voters
1,800 attend political rally at regional airport
By RaeLynn Ricarte
The Dalles Chronicle
Brian Ahier of The Dalles joined a crowd of about 1,800 people at Sunday’s Gorge Constitutional Tea Party rally in Dallesport.
“This is not about Democrats or Republicans, it’s about common sense,” said Ahier, a city councilor. “Common sense would tell you that you can’t spend your way into prosperity and you can’t borrow your way out of debt. I think we have a major incumbent problem in D.C. and if they are not willing to restrain themselves we need to replace them.”
The theme that Pres. Barack Obama and Congress were “out of control” was woven through most of the comments made at the rally, which took place at the airport.
Keynote speaker Lars Larson, a Northwest and national radio talk show host, encouraged the audience, most of whom were Republicans, to get politically active. He said the future of America, the world’s “last great hope,” hinged upon its citizens holding leaders accountable to follow constitutional principles that limited the reach of government and maximized individual freedoms.
“This president increased our national public debt by $2.5 trillion dollars during his first 19 months in office. That is more debt than has been amassed by all other presidents combined,” said Larson. “We need to take our country back because we can’t waste the sacrifices that our military has made over the years to protect our freedoms.”
Two Washington State officials traveled to the gorge to attend the second rally organized during 2010 by Jerry Smith of Husum and other area residents. Rep. Bruce Chandler, R-Granger, and Rep. David Taylor, R-Moxee, said it was encouraging to see citizens exercising their right to assemble and speak freely about their concerns.
“If more people would come to events like this, it would really change the direction for this state and country,” said Chandler. “This election (November) is going to define a generation; it’s a watershed moment and these folks seem to understand how high the stakes are.”
Taylor told the crowd that they should hold government officials accountable but that they, as citizens and voters, also had to take responsibility for protecting their rights.
“This is not about politics, it’s about right and wrong,” he said.
Smith said the Gorge Tea Party, like similar groups across the nation, formed to provide citizens with a venue to protest government actions.
“We have a voter registration table set up and we want people to go away from here energized and ready to participate in the political process,” he said.
Smith said the first Klickitat County rally in the spring had drawn about 1,000 people and he anticipated that the size of the crowd would continue to grow with each subsequent event.
“People aren’t really happy about what is happening in this country right now and the tea parties are a grassroots movement to send that message to elected officials,” he said.
Jan Jones of Trout Lake and Bill Biersch of Glenwood have attended five tea party rallies to date and plan to be present for as many future gatherings as possible.
“We’ll do anything that we can do to fix this country,” said Jones.
Kenan Heppy and Joseph Jackson, both of Hood River, said they were drawn to the Dallesport rally out of curiosity.
“I just wanted to see who was here and to support the cause,” said Heppy.
Larson said the tea party movement formed primarily to warn Republicans that they needed to return to their conservative roots or lose support from their constituents. He said if elected officials do not get that message, it is likely that Tea Party activists will start a separate political movement. http://chum.ly/n/324dbb
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