Political TEA Party in Olympia

This morning I asked my son if he wanted to go with me to a tea party. He gave me a very strange look. Realizing his confusion I said, “Politics not Earl Gray.” With that he agreed and we set out for Olympia, the state capitol.

           A crowd of about two hundred mingled on the lawn as we arrived at Heritage Park just below the capital campus.  A clear blue sky, bright sun and cordial people made this a great place to be, but I instantly wished I had brought a hat since I have only wisps of hair on most of my head.

As we walked through the crowd someone announced that Tim Eyman was present. Eyman is aKyle Pratt & Tim Eyman conservative activist from Washington State. He has used more than a dozen initiatives and one referendum to achieve goals that the legislature is either unwilling or unable to accomplish. His work has prohibited affirmative action, cut property taxes and car license fees and required a supermajority to raise taxes and fee. Consequently liberals tend to spit his name and that endears all the more with conservatives. I signed his latest property tax petition and shook his hand. You can download or request the I-1033 signature form at the Permanent Offense website.

            Bob Basso spoke at the rally and, I must admit, that I had not heard of him before that day. When I got home I looked him up and enjoyed several of his YouTube videos. As I finished watching the second video I wished I had paid more attention while he spoke at the rally. I won’t make that mistake again.

After talking with Eyman, I was approached by a very earnest woman who wanted to discuss SB 5599. Signed by the governor on April 28^th of this year, this law pledges that our state electoral votes will go to the winner of the national popular vote in presidential elections. If adopted by enough states I can easily image a case where the voters of Washington State would be disenfranchised. While this might be constitutional, the states have wide latitude to run elections as they wish, it is another truly bad idea to come out of Olympia. You can learn more SB 5599 and referendum 70, the ongoing attempt to void the law, at the Seeds of Liberty website.

            Others were collecting signatures and discussing referendum 71 and initiative 1043, selling flags, bumper stickers and books. The real purpose of all the tea parties is to rally citizens to action. As we were reminded today, the government of the people cannot be reclaimed unless we all do more than just listen to speeches, sign petitions. We must be vigilant in knowing what our government is doing and telling our representatives what we want them to do and what we want them not to do. Elected officials who do well need to be supported and those that do not must be actively opposed. And we must always vote.

Washington State Tea Party Contacts

Facebook: The Seattle Sons and Daughters of Liberty

Web: http://teapartywa.org

Update on Sunday, June 28, 2009 at 4:42PM by Kyle Pratt

The Seattle PI published a short article on the June 27^th TEA party in Olympia on that day. The next day The Olympian printed a longer article.