Matt Collins
07-05-2009, 09:46 AM
YouTube - Sen John Cornyn at Austin Tea Party (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i92zmYCd81s)
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2009/07/04/cornyn_booed_at_capitol_tea_pa.html
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn drew boos from a crowd outside the Texas Capitol this afternoon as he spoke at a “tea party” rally organized by the Texas office of Americans for Prosperity.
Cornyn was booed at the start and close of his remarks, which assailed actions in Washington; there were no boos while he awarded a Purple Heart to a Copperas Cove resident injured in Iraq in 2006.
“You’re the problem,” a crowd member hollered.
Another crowd member yelled that Cornyn voted for the initial federal bailout of Wall Street approved by Congress last year, the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Cornyn was the first elected official to speak, though Gov. Rick Perry and others are expected to have turns.
UPDATE, 4:04 p.m.: Governor Perry drew scattered boos, notably from crowd members aware of his advocacy of toll roads to relieve traffic congestion.
Cornyn, a Republican elected to his second Senate term last year, said before today’s gathering that he wasn’t sure what kind of reception he’d field.
“I don’t yet know exactly what it’s going to be like,” Cornyn said Wednesday.
He said he’d agreed to “come and talk about my belief that local government including state government is closest to the people and more likely to be responsive to their needs. And we’ll see how it goes.
“What do you think?” he asked a reporter. “You think it’s going to be OK? I’m waiting to see.”
“I didn’t want to come some place that I wasn’t wanted.”
http://www.examiner.com/x-13390-Austin-Independent-Examiner~y2009m7d4-Cornyn-speaks-at-Austin-tea-party (http://www.examiner.com/x-13390-Austin-Independent-Examiner%7Ey2009m7d4-Cornyn-speaks-at-Austin-tea-party)
It was a boiling Texas Tea Party in Austin on the 4th of July. The only thing more scorching than the Texas sun was a battery of angry remarks from the crowd as Sen. John Cornyn took the stage. He was greeted by boos, accusations of being a thief, and persistent reminders that he voted for the Wall Street bailout. At one point Sen. Cornyn addressed individuals in the crowd, suggesting that they may not want to hear it, but there were others there that did—I’m sure there were.
The audience consisted mostly of Conservatives, Libertarians, Ron Paul supporters, and other Texans who oppose economic programs put in place by the Obama administration, putting Sen. Cornyn squarely in the crosshairs for the few who believe that it is not only Washington Democrats who are overreaching their authority. Despite criticism drawn from some members of the audience, Conservative Republicans were out in force to send Washington a message about taxes, overspending, and the perceived encroachment on Americans’ freedom by the federal government.
Picket signs at the Austin Tea Party drew correlations between President Obama and people like Hitler, Stalin and George W. Bush (who most true conservatives would never claim as their own). Many people (especially those on the right) equate Obama Administration policies with communism or socialism. These Anti-Neo-Commusocialists insist that the federal government has too much power over their freedom and individual liberties because of Obama’s attempts to stabilize the deteriorating economy.
For those who have been isolated in the wilderness for the past eight years, it is the Conservative laissez-faire approach to the economy that got America into this crisis in the first place. Does it only take Americans a few months to forget that it is a direct result of under-regulation, non-regulation, and unchecked greed in the financial sector of our free-market economy that has lost this nation billions, even trillions of dollars—not to mention the power and diversity of American business? I guess so. The general attitude is “hands off my American car companies and healthcare system!” You want breaking news?—American car companies would have been gone months ago had the Obama administration not “socialized” GM and Chrysler, and our healthcare system will also suffer the same fate in the months to come if something is not done now.
Many Conservatives at the Austin Tea Party also insisted on using the anti-tax platform to push religion in the face of the federal government (how taxes and religion are related, I can’t even begin to fathom). Many Austinites were sure to let people know that President Obama is not nearly as Christian as Ronald Reagan.
I think, at the very least, Obama has tried to pull this nation together and put us back on our feet. While many are afraid of further taxation, Obama administration policies are not without representation (that is just an idiom from the revolutionary war that is being recycled as modern-day rhetoric).
Once again, the Texas Tea Party was used as an instrument with which to draw lines between the American people, lines that will further serve to divide our country and weaken our society until we can no longer stand on our own.
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2009/07/04/cornyn_booed_at_capitol_tea_pa.html
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn drew boos from a crowd outside the Texas Capitol this afternoon as he spoke at a “tea party” rally organized by the Texas office of Americans for Prosperity.
Cornyn was booed at the start and close of his remarks, which assailed actions in Washington; there were no boos while he awarded a Purple Heart to a Copperas Cove resident injured in Iraq in 2006.
“You’re the problem,” a crowd member hollered.
Another crowd member yelled that Cornyn voted for the initial federal bailout of Wall Street approved by Congress last year, the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Cornyn was the first elected official to speak, though Gov. Rick Perry and others are expected to have turns.
UPDATE, 4:04 p.m.: Governor Perry drew scattered boos, notably from crowd members aware of his advocacy of toll roads to relieve traffic congestion.
Cornyn, a Republican elected to his second Senate term last year, said before today’s gathering that he wasn’t sure what kind of reception he’d field.
“I don’t yet know exactly what it’s going to be like,” Cornyn said Wednesday.
He said he’d agreed to “come and talk about my belief that local government including state government is closest to the people and more likely to be responsive to their needs. And we’ll see how it goes.
“What do you think?” he asked a reporter. “You think it’s going to be OK? I’m waiting to see.”
“I didn’t want to come some place that I wasn’t wanted.”
http://www.examiner.com/x-13390-Austin-Independent-Examiner~y2009m7d4-Cornyn-speaks-at-Austin-tea-party (http://www.examiner.com/x-13390-Austin-Independent-Examiner%7Ey2009m7d4-Cornyn-speaks-at-Austin-tea-party)
It was a boiling Texas Tea Party in Austin on the 4th of July. The only thing more scorching than the Texas sun was a battery of angry remarks from the crowd as Sen. John Cornyn took the stage. He was greeted by boos, accusations of being a thief, and persistent reminders that he voted for the Wall Street bailout. At one point Sen. Cornyn addressed individuals in the crowd, suggesting that they may not want to hear it, but there were others there that did—I’m sure there were.
The audience consisted mostly of Conservatives, Libertarians, Ron Paul supporters, and other Texans who oppose economic programs put in place by the Obama administration, putting Sen. Cornyn squarely in the crosshairs for the few who believe that it is not only Washington Democrats who are overreaching their authority. Despite criticism drawn from some members of the audience, Conservative Republicans were out in force to send Washington a message about taxes, overspending, and the perceived encroachment on Americans’ freedom by the federal government.
Picket signs at the Austin Tea Party drew correlations between President Obama and people like Hitler, Stalin and George W. Bush (who most true conservatives would never claim as their own). Many people (especially those on the right) equate Obama Administration policies with communism or socialism. These Anti-Neo-Commusocialists insist that the federal government has too much power over their freedom and individual liberties because of Obama’s attempts to stabilize the deteriorating economy.
For those who have been isolated in the wilderness for the past eight years, it is the Conservative laissez-faire approach to the economy that got America into this crisis in the first place. Does it only take Americans a few months to forget that it is a direct result of under-regulation, non-regulation, and unchecked greed in the financial sector of our free-market economy that has lost this nation billions, even trillions of dollars—not to mention the power and diversity of American business? I guess so. The general attitude is “hands off my American car companies and healthcare system!” You want breaking news?—American car companies would have been gone months ago had the Obama administration not “socialized” GM and Chrysler, and our healthcare system will also suffer the same fate in the months to come if something is not done now.
Many Conservatives at the Austin Tea Party also insisted on using the anti-tax platform to push religion in the face of the federal government (how taxes and religion are related, I can’t even begin to fathom). Many Austinites were sure to let people know that President Obama is not nearly as Christian as Ronald Reagan.
I think, at the very least, Obama has tried to pull this nation together and put us back on our feet. While many are afraid of further taxation, Obama administration policies are not without representation (that is just an idiom from the revolutionary war that is being recycled as modern-day rhetoric).
Once again, the Texas Tea Party was used as an instrument with which to draw lines between the American people, lines that will further serve to divide our country and weaken our society until we can no longer stand on our own.