Tea Party Day at King's Island

I attended the Tea Party day at King’s Island in Mason, Ohio last weekend. 

There was a lot of traffic so it took a long time to get to the gate and get parked.  There were apparently liberal protesters with signs standing by the road as I was waiting in traffic.  One had a picture of George Washington and said “Coffee Americans”.  Another had a picture of what appeared to be the back of Steve Chabot’s head.  I couldn’t read the message underneath it. 

There were booths with representatives from various organizations including the Ohio Project, End Ohio's Estate Tax, the Libertarian Party, and others.  There were many interesting speakers at various venues.  I shook hands with Charlie Earl, the Libertarian Party candidate for Secretary of State.  I also saw and got some information about Dr. Michael Pryce, the independent candidate for U.S. Senate.

As I walked around the park, I saw some displays with skeletons.  Forgetting the proximity of the Halloween holiday, I wondered if the displays were meant as a warning that that is what would happen to us if Cap and Trade and passes and we forget to use only energy efficient light bulbs.  Some skeletons had more than one head or more than two arms.  I wondered if that was meant to warn us that we would only be allowed to eat the “Frankenfoods” produced by the multinational agricultural corporations who heavily donated to Obama’s campaign.  I also saw some little kiddie ride in which the kids got into their cute little cars which slowly moved along a track.  I thought, will these be the only cars that all but the elites in Washington would be allowed to drive?

There was a forum for “serious Tea Partiers”.  The speakers were obviously either pure libertarians or close to it.  The first speaker was that guy who does the instructional videos for petition circulators on the Ohio Project website.  He talked about monetary policy, with a bent against the existence of the Federal Reserve.  I agreed with everything he said. 

The second speaker basically had a bent towards the idea that the courts are our main recourse in the fight for freedom.  He mentioned that the Supreme Court at first struck down Social Security under FDR.  Then someone raised their hand and asked if it wasn’t wrong that the judge struck down California’s law against gay marriage.  The speaker responded that he basically thought that the decision was a reasonable interpretation of the due process clause of the 14^th amendment and that conservatives should embrace using the courts as means of riding ourselves of unnecessary government restrictions.  He seemed to be very knowledgeable, and I agree with him about striking down Social Security and that other grievances could be addressed through the courts, but he was out to lunch on the gay marriage question.  Briefly, “equal protection under the law” does not apply to people who commit acts of wickedness.  The California law does not discriminate against people with immutable characteristics, but provides that no special protection or benefits be given to those who claim some kind of same-sex marital status.  And as I have said many times, the ratification of the 14^th amendment is more than a little suspect.  The libertarianism of the speaker seems to have blinded him to both the truth of the Scriptures and of the Constitution. 

The third speaker talked about local issues.  Specifically he talked about consolidation of the jurisdictions and getting rid of longevity pay for public employees as cost savings measure.  I don’t really have much of an opinion one way or another on these issues.  When they started talking about teachers, I thought why not just get rid of the public schools?  In this age of modern technology, children can learn at home through e-schools.  We no longer have to build multimillion dollar buildings for education.  Its not necessary to pay so many teachers nearly six figure salaries to do what any responsible parents could do at home.

But I was most interested the candidates forum.  Seth Morgan, the former candidate for state auditor, was the moderator.  He pointed out a Democrat spy in audience who was filming the event.  But he said go ahead and let him film--we have nothing to hide. 

Steve Chabot spoke first.  I missed most of what he had to say because I was misinformed about the location.  But I didn’t really care because I’ve already made up my mind that I’m going to pass again on the congressional election, barring some dramatic repentance on Chabot’s part for his war and DHHS votes.

The next speaker was Dave Yost.   He was the one who beat Seth Morgan after having switched from running for attorney general to auditor under pressure from the Ohio Republican Party chairman Kevin DeWine, so that his cousin Mike DeWine would have no opponent in his primary.  Booooo!  I guess I agree with about everything Yost said in the forum, but the cowering to Kevin DeWine was not mentioned.  I recall some statement about not making “across the board” cuts, but rather cutting out things we really don’t need first.  Fine, I agree with that, but what does that have to do with the state auditor’s office?

The final speaker was Robert Owens.  Not long after he began speaking, I noticed that the Democrat guy with the camera stopped filming.  It happened at about the time that it was mentioned that Robert Owens was not a Republican, but a Constitution Party candidate.  No need to get any dirt on him, he has no chance of winning, and in fact could pull votes away from DeWine and give the Democrats a win.  Well, I am hoping come Election Day that there is big surprise for both the Republicans and Democrats in the Attorney General race.  With all the miracles that have already happened in the primaries, who knows?  Anyway, Robert Owens, who looked a lot fatter than I expected, asserted his pro-life position unequivocally by stating that it is the role government to protect the unborn by making all abortions illegal. When Seth Morgan asked Robert about why there was a need to run against Mike DeWine, Owens confidently pointed out that Mike DeWine has a “zero” rating from the NRA on second amendment issues. Owens also said that he was the only candidate in the race who would use the power of his office to protect Ohioans from being forced to purchase health insurance.

At the end of the forum, I lost a lot of respect for Seth Morgan.  That he gave Yost a pass is fine--his sin is rather small.  But Morgan then rolled over and endorsed John Kasich and Rob Portman (who were not even present).  They are corrupt, warmongering, Planned Parenthood funding shysters.  And with Kasich being in bed with Lehman Brothers, that puts the icing on the cake.  I might compromise and (against my better judgment) vote for Yost for Auditor.  But since there is definitely no real pro-life candidate in the governor’s race, I’m definitely going to leave that one blank.  I will either vote for Pryce or Deaton in the U.S. Senate race.  I wish that Deaton had run for governor instead.  That would have made the choice easier.

In conclusion, I had a mixed reaction to the Tea Party at King’s Island.  It is good that they got a lot of signatures for the Healthcare Freedom Amendment and that some people were educated about various political subjects.  But there was a lot of misinformation too.