This just in from California Republican Party Vice Chairman Tom Del Becarro…
I attended the event in Pleasanton, California yesterday. I was just a guest and neither myself nor any Party official played a role in putting it together.
I arrived at 11:30 am and for the next 3 ½ hours I watched thousands of people, of all ages and walks of life, stream into park where it was held. Armed with homemade signs and the principles that founded this Nation, these salt of the earth people expressed a simple wish, that government get out of their way and let them live their own lives. Of course, the motivation for this latest outpouring is the excessive tax rates under which they labor today. These protestors (who apparently our own government under King George Obama labels extremists) voiced a simple message: enough is enough when it comes to taxes.
Incredibly – or perhaps not so – from person after person to whom I spoke, I heard that lower taxes will lead to a faster recovery than any government program; that lower taxes are necessary for freedom to survive.
I certainly wasn’t sure to expect when I attended the event. Obviously, and sadly, Republicans today aren’t always thought of as the Party of lower taxes. As I left the left the event, I was more than gratified to know the wisdom of the late Bill Buckley’s comments that he would rather be governed by the first hundred names in the phone book instead of hundred Yale professors.
The challenge going forward, not just for the Republican Party, but for the activists themselves, is to recognize that anger is no substitute for action. All of us must harness this spirit in an effort to renew the principles which make this Country great.