By Andrew W. Griffin

Red Dirt Report, editor

Posted: February 27, 2009

OKLAHOMA CITY – Braving the cold, north winds blowing through Oklahoma City, over 400 protesting taxpayers gathered on the south steps of the Oklahoma State Capitol Friday morning holding signs and listening to speakers as part of a nationwide, grassroots “tea party” to protest the government stimulus package.

Oklahoma City was just one of many cities, including Tulsa, that held a non-partisan tea party protest gathering. In some cities, like St. Louis, Mo., over 1,000 showed up to have their voices heard and their outrage over the $787 billion federal stimulus package.

Oklahoma City revolt organizer, Alan Webb, told Red Dirt Report that despite the last-minute organization of the protest, he was amazed with the number of folks who were mad enough to stand out in the cold and express their frustration with an increasingly tyrannical government.

“The silent majority needs to be heard,” Webb said.

“I’m very impressed,” Webb said of the turnout, adding that while a couple of politicians spoke, that this was “an average Joe rally.”

Among the “average Joe’s” out in force, a number held signs with slogans saying everything from “Growing government shrinks freedom” to “Extend benefits to our troops, not the lazy” to “Andrew Jackson was right, no to bank nationalization.”

“I’m mad as hell, what about you?” said Stuart Jolly, director of the Oklahoma chapter of Americans for Prosperity.

“Yeah!” the protesters yelled back in unison.

“I’m mad because I’ve been lied to,” Jolly said.

And the crowd knew what he meant. This included working-class folks, white-collar workers, mothers and fathers and children. One woman yelled out that more people would have been there today but they had to work and couldn’t make it.

Oklahoma Republican Party Chairman Gary Jones spoke, saying that the government, by putting forth this outrageous bill, is making a sick economy even worse.

“When you want to do what’s right, you don’t dig your hole deeper,” Jones said. “It’s time we stood up to them and said, ‘no more.’”

Cheryl Williams, the vice-chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party, was fired up, sounding like Hillary Clinton when she is on a roll.

“They are spending out children’s money … they’re wild, out-of-control gamblers,” Williams said of the stimulus plan.

Poking fun at arrogant New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and comments he made in support of the “porkulus bill,” Williams added, “Americans do care about those little porky details.”

Others spoke as well and all were outraged with a government that doesn’t listen to them anymore and thinking about a past where parents and grandparents went through hard times, like the Great Depression, and didn’t go around begging like too many people these days.

Red Dirt Report talked to several attendees of the event and most agreed that this nationwide tea party gathering is just the beginning of a series of political protests which will guarantee that the voices of the people are heard.