Sights From the Soggy Tax Day Tea Party in Fort Lauderdale

Despite the rain, the threat of intentionally misspelling infiltrators, other silly-but-hot conservative options within driving distance, and some intense taxpayer-funded security (what we like to call irony), hundreds of people showed up at yesterday's Tea Party at the federal courthouse in downtown Fort Lauderdale. They brought signs and shared their...

By Michael J. Mooney

April 16, 2010

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Despite the rain, the threat of intentionally misspelling infiltrators, other silly-but-hot conservative options within driving distance, and some intense taxpayer-funded security (what we like to call irony), hundreds of people showed up at yesterday's Tea Party at the federal courthouse in downtown Fort Lauderdale. They brought signs and shared their hatred for all things Obama and their love of all things Glenn Beck.

I went to the same event last year, and there was considerably less fervor this year. And less hysteria. There were plenty of people selling T-shirts, plenty of people eating hot dogs and protesting health-care reform from lawn chairs, a brass band playing in the rain, and a lot of horses' asses. There was not, however, an enormous amount of racism or horribly misspelled signs.

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