Recently at Reason.tv: Live from the Sept. 12 Taxpayer March on Washington

Are the Tea Party protesters a small group of radical freakazoids or a large crew of taxpaying regular joes who are fed up with government spending, Democrats and Republicans, and business as usual?

Reason.tv fanned out through the crowd and the backstage of the September 12 Taxpayer March on Washington, the controversial anti-government protest that drew somewhere between 75,000 and 1 million people, according to press reports.

We talked with folks from all over the country and snagged interviews with speakers and media including Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), CNN's Jeff Greenfield, actor Steven Baldwin, Freedom Works' Matt Kibbe, and many more.

What we found was a group of people united in their calls for less government spending and their disgust at the Republican and Democratic pols who made it all happen.

Interviews by Nick Gillespie, Matt Welch, and Michael C. Moynihan. Shot and edited by Dan Hayes nd Meredith Bragg. Approximately 6 minutes.

For more Reason coverage of the protest, go to Reason.com.

Comments

[Sandi]

I took a shit in Washington, D.C. once. It kept floating to the top.

[Big Jon\'s Tea Party Rap]

From the widows (from the widows)!
To the hags (to the hags)!

'Til 0's face sticks to my bags!
('Til his face sticks to my bags!)

Skeet! Skeet!

[shrike]

Even conservative right-wing blog 'LittleGreenFootballs' took a dump on these dumbass reactionary Bush rednecks.

Yet Reason.com runs cover for these insufferable idiots?

Jesus fucking Christ - reason - shut this fucking conservative echo chamber down.

[24AheadDotCom]

I'm going to guess that Reason's video is a bit different from the Max Blumenthal video from their buddy (or at least Weigel's buddy).

As I say in that post, the leaders of the "parties" just don't have what it takes to make an answer video, and he's on the right track about Armey. Make sure and see the "DC" link at the link above for several interesting facts about those involved in the DC "party".

[shrike\'s evil twin]

I really need to get 0bama's balls out of my mouth.

And I need to admit that Chuck Johnson is a thin-skinned far-left green-fascist Pajamas Media de-linking anti-Christian in the same mold as Andrew Sullivan.

Also that anybody who names himself "shrike" is an anti-semite. (I have to be! It rhymes with "kike" after all!)

[Johnson Chucker]

Open your mouth, shrike: here comes another dump!

[24AheadDotCom]

Here's something that's to a very small degree sensible, at least for the first part: link. However, the bit about the perfect storm generated an EPICLULZ; Reason, the DK, and the TP leaders will all be on the same side for that battle.

[Attorney]

Nice video, Nick.

[ed]

I'd love to see a coherent, consistent, pro-liberty movement, but the protesters, like libertarianism itself, lack an explicit philosophical base. They might very well grasp and grope and stumble to an electoral victory in 2010, but the victory will be short-lived, if not pyrrhic. The politico-economic system of capitalism cannot be sustained with slogans, cheap signs and bad manners.

[bretzky]

I understand the less Govt spending from the teabaggers...what I don't get is that they don't understand that backing the Insurance Companies that want to kill health care reform and Big Oil companies that want us to be at war...they themselves are the Nazi like fascists. True American Fucktards!

[Sam Hill]

Hey, thanks alot. That was a great video. Really nice to see those people of good sense getting together.

(And yes, I did subscribe and got my confirmation email.)

[Silentz]

Holy smokes! This thread is a drinking game DREAM!

[ykzterb]

I understand the more Govt spending from the 0bots... what I don't get is that they don't understand they're backing insurance companies that want to promote health care nationalization and leftist dictators from oil-rich countries that want us to subsidize their wars against their own people... they themselves are the Stalinist fascists; American traitor Lefturds!

[Mike Laursen]

They're all a bunch of racists. Jimmy Carter says so, so it must be true.

[bretzky]

Its so hard to debate people that have no IQ...America has turned into dumbfuckistan...When you have no logical debate for the topic its all about character and personal attacks. There is a place for y'all to go where there is no Govt...no taxes...no one to take anything away from you...Somalia, it's a perfect fit. Now get the fuck off the sidewalk...it was built by BIG Govt!!!!!

[Rhayader]

Noooo not Steven Baldwin. Not only is he a Baldwin, but he's a prohibitionist douchebag.

And he's also a Baldwin.

[T-Bag]

I've got a question for Matt Welch, who I saw on the News Hour last night:

Why didn't you call Gwen Ifill out when, while asking YOU a question, referred to the protesters as "teabaggers"?

[Johnny Longtorso]

Anyone who thinks Steven Baldwin is an actor is clearly racist. Straight up.

[Tony]

somewhere between 75,000 and 1 million

Actually I think the number was closer to a gazillion trillion. Heard it from the University of... I forget.

[Xeones]

Its so hard to debate people that have no IQ

This is why no one is even trying to debate you, bretzky.

Who shat all these trolls into this thread? I bet it was somehow Naga's fault.

[aelhues]

Didn't we have this thread yesterday? Where did the extra idiots come from?

Bretzky, if you actually made a point bordering on validity, you would actually get a real response. Instead, you get what you got, and an extra bit of fuck off.

[SugarFree]

The video threads seem to bring them out, like a herpes outbreak right before prom.

[Xeones]

like a herpes outbreak right before prom.

You had a rough adolescence, huh?

[Naga Sadow]

Negative, Xeones. Though . . . you know what? Maybe. Trolls seem to follow my beck and call. I must have some sort of troll musk or something.

[P Brooks]

Maybe you should provide Comrade Bretzky an explanatory *link* Naga. You know the one; it explains everything in excruciating detail.

[Naga Sadow]

P Brooks,

Nah. I gotta be in the mood for that one. Besides, everyone always throws a hissy fit when I post it.

[Xeones]

I just clicked on the link in bretzky's name, apparently because i hate my life. I would say it looks like a tenth-grade class project at a Montessori school, but i'm pretty sure even Montessori kids don't spell it "phresh."

[SugarFree]

You had a rough adolescence, huh?

Only certain parts.

[Naga Sadow]

SugarFree,

Did it have anything to do with your uncle? 😉

[Joe Steen]

Wow, I would have to say its about high time!

Jess
http://www.web-privacy.de.tc

[SugarFree]

[runs sobbing from thread]

[Naga Sadow]

Damn you privacy bot!!!

[P Brooks]

It's always "high" time for the privacy bot.

[T]

It's always "high" time for the privacy bot.

I thought we were for drug legalization. Why do we care if privacy bot tokes up before posting? Shit, nobody complains about the rest of the regulars, some of whom must be chemically enhanced.

[Xeones]

Why do we care if privacy bot tokes up before posting?

Well... a couple weeks ago, privacy bot copped to a heroin addiction. We're all very concerned.

[Son Of Privacy Bot]

I learned it from watching you, Dad!

[Naga Sadow]

Chemically enhanced? I don't do 'roids, sir! I expect an apology!

[ChicagoTom]

Are the Tea Party protesters a small group of radical freakazoids

Yes! And dumb as a box of rocks to boot. Here are some of these anti-government patriots bitching about the lack of good service from the DC Metro and complaining about having to rely on the the private market and take *GASP* a cab to get to their retard rally.

Tea baggers bitching about public transportation not being up to snuff -- you can't make this shit up.

[P Brooks]

Just for you, "T".

-NTTAWWT-

[SugarFree]

Couldn't possibly be that they expect the exorbitant price in taxes that public transportation consumes to be reflected in an equivilent level of service. That would be a good faith interpretation of their comments, right? Can't have that.

[Xeones]

joe must have laid eggs in ChiTom's brain before he departed. Now they are hatching. Poor guy, he never had a chance.

[P Brooks]

If you're going to have trains, they might as well run on time.

[aelhues]

Hmm, CT, makes perfect sense to me. We pay for a private service, and it is sucks, we take our money somewhere else in the future. We pay for a public service and it sucks, and well, tough, you have to pay for it anyway. Seems a perfectly reasonable reason to bitch.

[T]

Chemically enhanced? I don't do 'roids, sir! I expect an apology!

Funny, I don't mention names and you pop right up insisting on an apology. Guilty conscience much, Naga?

And thank you, P Brooks. We get accused of being conservatives and republicans enough around here. We wouldn't want anybody to think we were drug warriors or something equally as morally repellent, too.

[WWJGD]

There is a place for y'all to go where there is no Govt...no taxes...no one to take anything away from you...Somalia, it's a perfect fit. Now get the fuck off the sidewalk...it was built by BIG Govt!!!!!

Drink?

[SugarFree]

It can't play the drinking game no more. The thick spattering of bullshit the trolls lay down would lead to liver failure if I crank to it all.

[62across]

Texas Rep. Kevin Brady asked for an explanation from DC Metro for why the government-run subway system didn't adequately prepare for this past weekend's rally to protest government spending and government services. Seems Metro didn't plan for addition cars and trains. Tell me again how this was a group of people united in their calls for less government spending.

[T-Bag]

"Tell me again how this was a group of people united in their calls for less government spending."

Keeee-rist you're stupid!

A Rep from Texas asked for an explaination of why the DC Metro didn't adequately prepare for an event and for that you fault the people who attended?

KEEE-FUCKING_RIST!

[62across]

C'mon T-bag, educate me. I'm dying to benefit from your superior intelligence.

The DC Metro was adequately prepared for typical weekend traffic. The transit system scores very high on customer satisfaction, so there is every reason to believe that's how it goes on most weekends. Now, a large private group comes to the city and some from this group plan to take advantage of this public system, yet apparently no one makes any arrangements with the responsible agency to expand their services to accommodate this additional use of the system. So, there are complaints about how crowded the trains are and how the trains didn't get people to where they wanted to go fast enough. In other words, DC Metro still performed the service it was designed to, but not with the convenience the people wanted. So these people contact their government representative and complain.

Contrary to your claim, I'm not faulting the people that attended the event. They behaved pretty much the way I would expect them to. But again, I'm not trying to pretend that they are limited government types in the way people at Reason define limited government types. Around here, limited government means there are few or no public services worth the taxes required to pay for them. The 9/12 protesters are for limited government only to the extent that they want government limited to only the things they benefit from or believe in.

If libertarians want to make common cause with them, that's their prerogative. They just shouldn't pretend they want the same things.