Debbie Ellis-Dooley, one of the organizers of the Atlanta Tea Party, received quite the grilling from Libertarian talk show host Neal Boortz this morning.   

Ms. Ellis-Dooley had called “The Neal Boortz Show” in an attempt to explain to the host what the “Atlanta Tea Party” was about. Mr. Boortz, who had already been ranting about the tea parties just moments prior, was immediately combative from the beginning, demanding Ms. Dooley to explain what exactly they were trying to accomplish with the event. 

Unfortunately, the best answer Ms. Dooley had for Mr. Boortz at the time was something along the lines of “to protest against taxes and the government stimulus (not exact words, but I can only write notes so fast on a scrap of paper.)”.  

Wrong answer. This is exactly the kind of vague response that drives Boortz crazy, and he immediately pressed his attack against Ms. Dooley, pointing out that (in his view) she did not offer any of her own proposals to seriously address the problems besides throwing teabags on the ground (I don’t know if this is actually what they did, I didn’t witness any of this at the Orlando Tea Party, which I attended.), and that they didn’t really give the politicians any tough questions that they are actually forced to respond to, such as questions about the FairTax.

When Ms. Dooley attempted to explain that there would be FairTax representatives at the rally, Boortz fired back that since it wasn’t an actual FairTax rally, no one would really care, particularly not the politicians they were trying to reach.  He also pointed out that his cause for the FairTax had much more purpose, was much better organized, and more attention grabbing than the “tea parties.”

Something I should point out… back in May 15^th of 2007, there was a huge FairTax rally that took place in Columbus, Georgia. Roughly 9000 people attended the rally, which was hosted by Neal Boortz himself (with staff members Royal Marshall and Belinda Skeleton, who had bravely tried to defend Ms. Dooley and the tea parties after the call), and featured several famous guest speakers, including Herman Cain, Sean Hannity, Clark Howard, John Linder and Mike Huckabee. While the event was a huge success with the attendees, it suffered the same fate as most of the tea parties across the nation did; it received scant attention from the media, who instead found a mere handful of anti-war protestors across the street more “newsworthy”. Few people even know that the rally happened.

It just goes to show you that it doesn’t matter how well your cause is organized, how purposeful it is, or how well executed… if the media doesn’t want to cover it, it’s not going to cover it.

While Ms. Dooley should probably have prepared herself better against Boortz prior to calling his show, I did feel a lot of sympathy for her, as Boortz can be extremely intimidating to argue against, especially if he’s in a bad mood. Boortz can actually be very accommodating, insightful and even chatty when he’s in a good mood, even if you’re calling to disagree with him, but if he’s in a bad mood, you’d best have your flame retardant suit on. I should note, though, that it’s these calls that usually make the show fun to listen too.

In the past, Mr. Boortz has repeatedly expressed his frustrations with Americans who were unwilling to do more than show token signs of support for real change against the Obama administration. He has stated that “a bunch of people throwing teabags on the ground (or in the water) is not going to impress the politicians, nor is mailing teabags to them”. In his eyes, this is taking the lazy way out, and hoping that someone else will come along and do the real work for them.  

I actually agree with him completely. Seriously, what is a politician going to do when he opens the envelope with the teabag in it (providing it even gets past security)… hold it up and burst into tears about how wrong he was? Not likely.   As Boortz has suggested, a much better idea would be to form a voter registration recruitment drive, then mail the politicians a copy of the voter’s new registration card with the message “I’ve had it.  Next election, I’m voting”. That’ll be sure to get his attention.

However, I think that Boortz, despite his understandable irritation with the lack of real substance in combating the Obama administration, is missing the real point of these tea parties. 

The way I see it, the tea parties are not intended to change the minds of the politicians. Rather, they’re intended more as an inspiration to the attendees themselves, who in turn will be motivated enough to actually organize or participate in something that truly will help change the course of events. These rallies are for them, not the politicians, who in all likelihood, aren’t going to see the rallies anyway, I suspect due to lack of media coverage. The organizers are likely already aware of this, so they do what they can to get the audience themselves fired up. If this means throwing teabags on the ground in a symbolic gesture, then that’s what they’ll do. If it means listening to guest speakers railing against the government’s actions, then they’ll do that. 

At the Orlando Tea Party that I attended (attendance estimated at 6,000 people), organized by Lisa Feroli and emceed by talk show host Bud Hedinger of “Bud Hedinger, Live!”, we participated in a variety of activities, including taking an oath of allegiance (similar to the one recruits of the U.S. military take), two 10-minute rounds of ordinary people speaking their grievances, and even signed a “Tea Party Declaration”, a parchment that had a list of listener’s grievances and contained 50 feet of blank space to sign our names in. Some photos and videos of the event can be found on Bud’s webpage. Not one teabag was thrown anywhere that I’m aware of. If this is what people feel that they need to do to be inspired enough to take their activism to the next step, then let them do that.

 I also noticed several people carrying FairTax signs, banners, and t-shirts there as well (many of them suggesting to readers to “ask them about it”). Who is to say that Boortz didn’t get a lot of supporters for the FairTax as a result of this rally? How many really did “ask about it”? It’s possible that the first time some people may have heard of the FairTax was at this tea party. Maybe many of them will actually show up at the next FairTax rally being held in Jacksonville on April 11^th.   Wouldn’t that make Boortz happy?

There were also a lot of “Who is John Galt?” signs as well.  Curious attendees may google his name, and learn that he is the main hero in Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged”, a book that I understand eerily mirrors today’s lean towards Socialism in America.  The book is plugged frequently by Boortz on his show. Wouldn’t that be good exposure?  

As Boort’s producer, Belinda Skeleton pointed out to him, not everyone has the same resources as he does. Not everyone can devote the same time and energy as he can towards their cause. Some people truly want to make a difference, and just do it the best way they can. Will they all be productive? Of course not, but maybe that one thing they do, no matter how shallow or silly it will seem to others, will encourage them to take the next step that really will make the difference.  

Neal, love ya long time. You have, in my opinion, the best show on the air, topping even Limbaugh and Hannity, and I’m going to keep right on listening, but seriously, lighten up a tad, will ya? Not too much, mind you, just a smidge.