Republicans and local radio hold 'Tea Party' protest

Organizers collected tea bags, which will be sent to Missouri senators.

By Greg Young

Published March 12, 2009

In 1773, a group of Bostonians, to protest a British tax on tea, dumped almost 100,000 pounds of it into the Boston Harbor.

About 236 years later, Republicans across the country aren't hoping to inspire revolution, but are using the name "Tea Parties" for a series of protests to express their frustration with the $787 billion federal stimulus act passed last month by President Barack Obama, as well as the $410 billion omnibus spending bill signed by Obama on Thursday.

Local Republicans got in on the act Thursday, as KSSZ/93.9 FM, a radio station in Columbia, hosted a tea party at Flat Branch Park that featured appearances and call-ins from some prominent Republican officials, including former Rep. Ed Robb, R-Columbia, and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder.

"I'm here because I'm really fed up with how the government is being run," former MU student Daniel Shaffer said. "We can't just throw money at the problem."

The event, attended by about 400 people, was broadcast live on the radio station. Throughout the event, the hosts, Gary Nolen and Tom Bradley, brought audience members to the gazebo to get their opinion on the economic stimulus bill and federal government spending.

Audience members were encouraged to donate tea bags, which the radio hosts promised would be mailed to both of Missouri's senators, U.S. Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Kit Bond, R-Mo. as well as the president.

MU College Republicans member Roman Keselman said the event tapped into the anger people have at the stimulus.

"I think these events hit at the root of what we are trying to get at," Keselman said. "There is a lot of anger out there."

The fact that the original Tea Party led to a revolution was not lost on some of the people in attendance.

"I think if things don't change, the American people are going to have enough too," Columbia resident Kim Olmstead said. "I think people are starting to get fed up with being taxed to death."

A few members, such as former MU student Ryan Pickerell, decided to take the American Revolution parallel to an extreme, dressing up as a soldier from the Revolutionary War.

MU College Republicans spokesman Brett Dinkins, who was in attendance, went to a similar event in Washington earlier in the year. Dinkins said the event in Columbia had about roughly the same turnout as the tea party in D.C.