Here's one first-hand account one such happening:

For some it was wildly excessive and confusing tax laws. Others were there out of concern for their children and grandchildren. Some were there because they’re maddened that the same glorious policies that have made Detroit look like Bangladesh after a garbage haulers strike are being introduced on a national level, a few were upset because the same people who created these massive problems are charged with fixing them, others don’t want their country sold out to some global entity, and one man I saw had a sign that said “Government job’ is a contradiction in terms.” Many were there for the reason of “all of the above.”

This is, of course, a dog's breakfast. And it does indeed recall the loony left marches and protests of the recent past. End the War! But which one? And how? I guess one theme is that government should have no proactive role in a recession like the one we're grappling with. But as those governors trying to refuse stimulus money will attest, this is not exactly a popular meme right now.

Here's a suggestion that will fall on ears with hands clasped tightly around them: why not just make them tax simplification rallies?

That's something that appeals beyond a Palin base; most of us feel angry about it at this time of year; it can rail against the rich and the special interests for carving out privileges that hurt everyone else; and it's a dagger at the heart of the lobbying industry.

No takers? One senses that this is essentially a counter-cultural protest event - against the result of the last election (with some muted disgruntlement with the eight years that preceded it). And it suggests that the right is returning to its 1950s roots - kooks, cranks, disaffected and paranoid gun-nuts, born-again culture-warriors, Birchers, book-burners, and black helicpoter worriers.

Oh, well. I told you it would get worse before it gets better.

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