Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson: I Love the Tea Party People!

Tea Party — who are they?
Published: Saturday, March 27, 2010


By CHARLES CRUMM
Of The Oakland Press


Republican Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson knows something about movements, and is pretty sure he knows who Tea Party supporters are.

The 71-year-old launched his political career after a stint as the attorney for the locally formed National Action Group in 1971 that opposed court-ordered busing of students in Pontiac to achieve racial integration in schools.

Protests, sit-ins and legal measures failed to block institution of the court order, however.

But Patterson, who has also attended Tea Party rallies in the past year, says they’re the same type of people who opposed court-ordered busing.

“I think in the old days they were called the Silent Majority,” says Patterson. “They’re the people who pay their taxes, they go to work, they support their community, they support the country.





“I love the Tea Party people,” Patterson says. “It’s the guy and gal next door. It’s probably the grandpa and grandma who never got involved in a protest in their lives, standing down there on Big Beaver and Coolidge, or in front of Somerset, holding up a sign saying, ‘Don’t take our health care.’

“All of a sudden, they saw the country changing hard left,” Patterson said. “It was the socialist train running down the track and without any brakes. So they came out of their homes, they protested, and I love ’em.”

The third Tea Party Express gets under way Saturday in Searchlight, Nev.

It’ll travel across the country before ending April 15 with a rally in Washington, D.C.

Along the way, there’ll be stops and rallies in Michigan at Ironwood April 8; Escanaba and Sault Ste. Marie April 9; Traverse City, Grand Rapids and Lansing April 10; and Detroit April 11.

At the Tea Party Express Web site, www.teapartyexpress.org, there is no distinction between Democrats and Republicans, but plenty of ire directed at Congress in general.

The Tea Party takes its name from the 1773 Boston Tea Party, when colonists protested unfair taxation by the British by dumping tea off English ships.

On the Tea Party Express Web site, Washington politicians in general are the target.

“You, the politicians in Washington, have failed We The People with your bailouts, out-of-control deficit spending, government takeovers of sectors of the economy, Cap & Trade, government-run health care, and higher taxes!” the Web site says. “If you thought we were just going to quietly go away, or that this tea party movement would be just a passing fad, you were mistaken. We’re taking our country back!

“Join us from March 27th to April 15th, 2010, as we tell Congress and the White House: ‘Enough!’”

As the Tea Party Express kicked off in Nevada, former Alaskan governor and former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was scheduled to highlight the start of it.

Palin has been accused of inciting violence with messages on the social networking site Twitter, such as, “Don’t Retreat, Instead - RELOAD!”

Patterson, the Oakland County executive, says he doesn’t like to see professional politicians jumping out in front of the tea party movement.

“These professional politicians who don’t do a damned thing except get in the way and demagogue a good issue are now starting to show up,” Patterson said. “That makes me nervous. It’s a good movement by good people who don’t need professional politicians trying to take them over.

“Good grassroots movements are tempting for the professional politicians to run around in front and say, ‘Now y’all come join me and I’ll lead you to victory,’ and I’m very, very careful to make sure, as I watch who these people are jumping out front.

“I will obviously point them out to the Tea Party and say, ‘This is not who you want to lead you.’”

Patterson even contends that some of the Tea Party supporters may even be Democrats — an assertion Democrats scoff at.

“Philosophically, we’re joined at the hip,” Patterson says of Tea Party supporters. “I resent what Obama is doing to this country, I resent what he’s doing to health care, what he’s doing to cap and trade, and energy and manufacturing.

“I’m sure half the audience at the tea parties were Democrats,” Patterson said. “But philosophically, we’re kindred spirits. I’ve had Democrats in my home, had them over for dinner. I just don’t want them to marry my sister, that’s all.”

Most Democrats, however, say Tea Party people tend to fall into two groups.

They’re either Republicans who see issues such as health care reform legislation as a chance to erase Democrat gains and control in Congress, or people angry at Congress in general and with no party affiliation.

Contrary to Patterson’s opinion, Democrats say they know of no one in their party who claim to be Tea Party members. And they tend to refer to them as tea-baggers.

“Personally, I don’t think I know a single Democratic tea-bagger,” says Oakland County Commissioner Dave Coulter, a Ferndale Democrat.

“They tend to be Republican or a Libertarian kind of group,” Coulter says. “I can’t say I know a single Democrat who’s a tea-bagger, and I know a lot of Democrats.”

Contact staff writer Charles Crumm at 248-745-4649 or charlie.crumm@oakpress.com. The Associated Press contributed to this story.

http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2010/03/27/news/doc4bad178aa9840724182152.txt