“Neil Abercrombie meets the TEA Party tonight--his place”
The Maui TEA Party brought 22 people wearing TEA Party t-shirts to Neil Abercrombie’s June 11 Wailuku, Maui campaign HQ grand opening. They were there to protest Abercrombie’s remarks in a June 3 Maui Time interview. Abercrombie stated that the TEA Party is led by “cynical sociopaths” among other things. (See Abercrombie’s TEA Party question and answer from interview below.)
Here is an account of the encounter from Brett Glass, Maui TEA Party President.
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Update: 6/11/2010 8PM
“I have never seen so may wide-eyed people in one place”
by Brett Glass, Hawaii TEA Party President
Well now, Neil can say he has seen a real TEA Party Patriot. Twenty two of us to be exact. I must say I have never seen so many wide-eyed people in one place as we walked into his campaign headquarters. We got there just as Neil was finishing his speech. Sorry I missed it.
I and several others in the TEA party group went right up front to speak to him. He told me that he really was not for raising taxes. I did one of those taken-aback stances of, oh really. I responded by saying, “I’ll believe you when you cut the budget by the same percentage the economy has dropped over the past two years.”
I told him I didn’t want to show up empty handed so I brought him one of our TEA Party bumper stickers for him to put to good use. About that time there must have been a hundred cameras flashing all around us, though there weren’t even that many there. It just seemed like it.
Then I joined others in the food line. Even though it was obvious that some of his supporters did not want us there, we were all together in one small room where everyone could see that each one of us there was just another Maui citizen. Many folks in the room had friends on both sides of the varying array of ideologies and political thinking.
We accomplished our goal. Now when Neil speaks of the TEA party next he will have a real first-hand experience to draw from in his very own state.
I have a feeling we sent a much bigger message to the rest of the folks in that room and the community. The TEA Party is here to stay growing everyday. We are not afraid to step up or step out and be heard and seen.
An uncomfortable Neil Abercrombie receiving Hawaii TEA Party bumper sticker from HTP President Brett Glass
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Neil Abercrombie’s statement about the TEA Party Movement, Maui Time June 3:
Q: On the subject of distrust of government, what’s your take on the Tea Party movement and what impact do you think it’ll have on this election cycle?
A: They’ll have some [impact], not as much out here. But you can’t institutionalize a mood. The Tea Party is a reflection of an atmosphere. It has no object, other than to say, ‘We don’t like this.’
It is kind of a choked reaction to the idea that you’ve been shoved totally to the sidelines. You have no control over your life. Particularly when you’re being propagandized all day long that you get to make choices, always variations on the theme of you as consumer of goods. And when politics takes on the same aspect, when you’re just the consumer of whatever’s being fed to you by cynical sociopaths who have no other purpose in life than to manipulate and maneuver you into doing what they want you to do, then you have a situation like the one we have now with the Tea Party.
They don’t like it, but they don’t know what to do about it. I ran into somebody recently who asked me if I [supported] the health care plan. I said, ‘Yes, I’m for this healthcare plan.’ ‘Well then I’m against you. The government is coming into our lives. It’s a government plan, I’m against it.’
So I said, ‘Well are you against the Veterans Administration?’ ‘Hell no, we can’t do enough for the veterans!’ ‘Well, that’s totally a government program, [like] Medicare and Social Security. I suppose you don’t want that either.’
Now some people say they don’t. They don’t want it right up until the time they need it. I’m citing that not so much to say they’re hypocrites, because I don’t think they are being hypocritical. They don’t make the connections.
[It's] an emotional reaction to being frozen out of participating in life. They feel their tax dollars are not well spent. They feel they’re being tapped and tapped hard and often and deep and they’re not getting out of it what they think they should.
But the political consequence is that it dissipates into the ether. It’s like a wave. All waves dissipate into the sand. No matter what kind of kinetic energy is associated with them, they dissipate into the sand.
(Just for fun, try applying all Abercrombie’s statements about the TEA Party to Abercrombie’s 1960s protest movements.—AW)
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Maui TEA Party calls on members to visit Abercrombie’s Campaign HQ: (June 10)
Recently Neil Abercrombie had a few words to say about the TEA Party Patriots. See his statement below. So we feel it is only fitting to show up tonight at his grand opening event at his campaign headquarters here on Maui in Wailuku and politely let him know we are real.
I think he really believes some of the things he says like some kind of “cynical sociopath” .
When he states “they don’t know what to do about it” . We do in fact know what to do about it, and have made all of the important “connections”. We know that he will just fold to the progressives that want total power and control at all cost. That he is just a rubber stamp for the Big Government regime in Washington DC, and we have a plan that only starts with our vote in November.
He has it wrong when he compares us to a wave that will dissipate into the sand. This movement is a tsunami that will turn this country back around and smash the hostile take over plans of the radical progressives.
So plan to join us tonight Friday 11th. We will meet just down the street at 59 Kanoa St. Wailuku HI 96793 . Click here for a Map. Come with your Hawaii TEA Party shirts on and TEA Party cards in hand at about 5PM. We will walk up to his place as a group from the address above. Be sure to bring your camera. Be polite but let them know we are here watching and listening . His grand opening starts at 5:30PM at 1980 Main Street in Wailuku.
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