[kel varson]

The Religious Right, namely, Falwell & Pat Robertson, did a good thing by mobilizing an entire people groups to vote for issues that are near-and-dear to their hearts. Unquestionably, the country has titled left since the sixties (or so), and basically thumbed its nose as God. Falwell & Robertson brought awareness to issues and helped register voters. Reagan won the election b/c of the help of the Moral Majority.

I think the problem started to arise when the Republican Party saw the Religious Right as a constituency, much like the teacher's unions or trial lawyers are in the pants of the Democrats.

Somewhere down the line, the lines between the Religious Right and the Republican party blended. Go to the Christian Coalition website and one of the biggest issues its taking on is making sure the Death Tax doesn't get re-instated.

Also somewhere down the line, people got tuned out to the Religious Right, because of what I just said. There are other virtues Christ preached, such as caring for the poor -- and it seems as if the 'social justice' left-wingers have struck a chord with them. That's why you saw many evangelicals voting for Obama -- even pro-life ones. They figured he would help care for the down-trodden, and thus, the down-trodden wouldn't seek abortions.

(I, of course, saw through this ruse).

All of that to say... a 'let's get angry at the government' session didn't really A) raise awareness of an issue or B) change anything. At best, it was ineffective, at worst, it gave the media a chance to marginalize this group.

I don't know, I think despite the marginaliztion from the mainstream media, the tea parties did raise awareness that there is a large group fed up with the Obama Administration. I think you will see more 'average joes' get involved with politics before the next election.

At least I am hoping. And remember, most people don't watch the mainstream media, they watch Fox.

[LUconn]

So as successful as this was (in terms of number of people across the country) can we say that protesting/demonstrations are just a huge waste of everybody's time? It's not even a month later and this was basically forgotten and ignored a couple days later.

[matshark]

Wow, talk about digging up an old thread.

I'd have to disagree with you. It was a great opportunity to link up with like minded citizens. I personally added over 100 people to my FB friends list and linked up with several people that run political groups and blogs on FB. The protests served as A. a statement that couldn't be ignored (no matter how much the mdia wanted to play it off) B. enabled conservatives to create a strong network of grassroots individuals who are now linked up with each other to do work in the future C. showed that conservatism isn't dead, simply that the GOP doesn't have the answers - although the support is there should they ever return to their conservative roots

[Libertine]

So they should have just called it Conservative Networking Day then.