A liberal friend of mine visited a Tea Party rally in her county over the weekend. She told me that, all in all, the rally wasn’t the collection of right-wing nutjobs (my word, not hers) that the media portrays Tea Party members to be. Instead, the rally she attended was mostly attended by people who seemed afraid of the present and who appeared to want to retreat to some mythical past when things were better and/or simpler. She also said that several speakers at the rally railed against “Liberal Democrat Socialist Progressives.” Which makes the rally’s choice of opening music ironic.

The rally opened with the song “This Land is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie. You know, blacklisted card-carrying Communist Woody Guthrie.

This raises a question for me: were they ignorant of Woody Guthrie’s politics, or did someone subversively sneak in that song? I expect the former, personally, but I’d find the latter a lot more fun.

Image Credit: Lester Balog