The "Homemadeness" of It

That's how Jay Nordlinger described the Tea Party signs he saw:

I’ve seen many, many pictures of the tea parties around the country. But my favorite was sent to me by a friend this morning. A woman is holding a sign that says, “If Obama Screws Up Health Care, Where Will the Canadians Go?” Perfect, in so many ways.

There was also the young woman who held up a sign saying, “Help Me, Mr. Obama — They Want Me to Work and Stuff!”

And I would like to echo a point that Jonah has made: One of the most touching things about these tea parties is the homemadeness of them — the unorganizedness of them. These are just Americans, saying what they have to say: freely and rambunctiously. The signs are all homemade, and all different. Some are clever, and some are dumb. But they’re all individual.

These tea parties are so, so different from the robotized rallies we see from the Left all the time — with their seas of identical, professionally produced signs. It’s no wonder that Anderson Cooper and the like hate them so: hate the tea parties. They go sharply against the modern grain, thank goodness. They are not . . . well, controlled, and official, and approved.

You ever seen a SEIU demonstration? The term Orwellian is too loosely used, but . . .

Unlike many of the campaign events from both parties where signs are faked to look like they're handmade, everything I saw, the good and the bad, were the work of the protesters and some were pretty creative (my photos here). It's the spontaneous nature of the protests that probably concerns the left so much. These people didn't show up because they were party loyalists or were attracted by a personality. They showed up because they believe in what their signs say.