Left Blogistan is gloating about how to interview persons attending the Tea Party protests on April 15 to make them look like fools and bigots. I was a reporter for two years of my well-spent youth for the Harford Democrat in Maryland. I have some advice.
Here’s how to give an interview at your Tea Party:
- Prepare for the possibility of being interviewed by writing down three reasons you are attending the Tea Party protest.
- Put those three reasons into a brief statement about 30 seconds long. Write it out, if that helps you organize your thoughts.
- If someone asks to interview you, write down their name, work phone number and e-mail address and ask for their company’s main number if they have claimed to be from a news organization. Call it on your cell phone to verify that such a company really exists. Take a photo of the reporter and camera crew, if there is one. If they consider this a hassle and bail on you, follow them to their next victim and advise that person to request the same info you requested. If you sense they have bad intentions, just stick with them politely and keep prompting any new victims to request their complete info and photo.
- If the reporter gives you the contact info you request and allows you to take a photo of them, then go ahead and let them ask you anything they want.
- However, only answer with your three-point, 30-second speech.
- Give your statement and then thank the reporter and walk away.
That how YOU control the interview.
Here are my three reasons for attending my local Tea Party protest:
- Obama’s proposal to tax charitable donations will reduce what my favorite charities can accomplish and maybe even kill them. Charities can do a better job at many tasks than government can. The arts also would suffer. Charitable donations should not be taxed.
- We are borrowing too much money as a nation. I do not want the United States crippled by debt or to be bankrupted by the out-of-control spending by Obama and the Democrats.
- Obama’s tax increases hurt entrepreneurs and small business persons and will destroy jobs and innovation in our economy. The Bush tax cuts should be renewed and taxes should be cut to create the business climate that will allow entrepreneurs and small businesses to innovate and create jobs.
For more information about the Tea Parties, I recommend:
Michelle Malkin: “An Army of Tax Revolters and a warning to fair-weather Republicans,” “Tracking the Tea Party Crashers” and “Where Will You Be for Tax Day Tea Party?”
Little Miss Attila, “Tea Parties Are Racist”
The Other McCain, “Alabama Here I Come!”
Legal Insurrection, Law professor William Jacobson on “Liberal Doughboys afraid of Tea Parties”
Protein Wisdom, “Tax Day Tea Parties” and “Another Developing Situation”
Gateway Pundit, “Rush Limbaugh Says Report on ‘Ring Wing Radicals’ Timed for Tea Parties”
This would have been good advice for me.. a week ago..
😉
just kidding.
Thanks for the information.
President Bush squandered the surplus left by President Clinton by giving the richest Americans a tax cut during war time for the first time in our history and we now have the largest debt in history! When Mr. Bush took the oath of office in 200l, the nonpartisan CBO projected $5.6 trillion in federal budget surpluses through 2011. Bush left a trail of deficits and debt that has sharply constrain his successor, President Obama.
A great American, Oliver Wendell Holmes, stated. “We pay tax for a civilized society!” Those whose people immigrated to America after the founding and don’t which to pay taxes should leave. They come to America and say not, “What can I do for America, but What can America do for me”? Too many immigrants think that – AMERICA – HOME OF THE BRAVE AND LAND OF THE FREE , means they don’t have to pay tax, they don’t have to serve this country in the military, they don’t have to contribute in any manner to America. The insidious ingrates who think that we came to the Colonies in the 1600s and fought, sacrificed and died for our Democracy and our Constitutional freedoms just so they could immigrate to America and enjoy the freedom for which so many brave people, including mine, sacrificed so much and not pay tax are delusional and un-American!
Those who don’t want to pay tax for civility should find another country! Bon Voyage!
Chagrined,
You know, last August I would have written exactly the same comment. But during the campaign in the fall, I finally did a lot more reading about taxes and the effect of lower taxes on unleashing economic growth and creating jobs. Lower taxes are especially beneficial for the real job creators, entrepreneurs and small business owners. When the government is taking too much of your money, you do not have enough left after covering your basic needs to donate to your favorite charities or to start and grow your own business because you have a dream, a passion or a great discovery. That is what high taxes kill. I suggest you spend some more time at American Thinker, Michelle Malkin, Gateway Pundit and the Heritage Foundation.
What I realize now is that liberalism believes in government, rather than the individual, and it uses high taxes to take individual freedom and hand it over to the government. I had to use plenty of government services for my late life partner, and it was hell. Almost every single bureaucrat I worked with cared only about himself or herself. One even forced me to withdraw Margaret from hospice care because she had an insane and wrong interpretation of a regulation. I had to apply pressure through our state senator and the press to get that reversed and get Margaret back into hospice care. This was not the exception — this was extremely TYPICAL of what I had to do to fight for her.
Fiscal conservatives believe in the individual and support policies, including tax policies, that foster all kinds of creativity and allow individuals to realize their ambitions and prosper. Everyone wins. Also, fiscal conservatives are not asking to pay no taxes but rather only to be taxed for the minimum things that government does best. Communism and socialism already have shown that centrally planned economies produce failure, stagnation and even starvation. Check out the history of Cuba and Argentina if the history of China and Russia don’t appeal to you.
Also, my ancestors did come as colonists in 1648 and one fought with George Washington at Valley Forge. I am eligible to join the Daughters of the American Revolution. FYI.
Have you considered that since you are in a hurry to live in a socialist country or under the dictatorship of a planned economy, there are plenty of places for YOU to go?
I lived for many years in a community overwhelmed by illegal aliens. I agree that they are exceptionally ungrateful, feel extraordinarily entitled and far too many do not want to pay their fair share of taxes or sacrifice themselves or their children to serve the U.S. in the military. But it is Obama and the Democrats who want to open our borders and give illegal aliens drivers’ licenses, Medicaid, schooling and welfare benefits and allow them to vote as if they were citizens. And it appears to be Obama and the Democrats — who are bankrupting this country — whom you support. Dude! Do your homework! Come toward the light!
Cynthia
Hopefully, we won’t see any major issues come out of today’s Tea Parties. However, since the left has professional agitators working for it, I’m certain one action will be the lead on at least one of the lamestream media’s even edition.
Still, we regular Joes are doing the right thing.
Just wanted to tell you that I have written down your advice (my printer is out of ink *groan–and I’m out of $$$) I am taking it with me to my Tea Party here in Des Moines, Iowa. What a good idea to organize your thoughts before someone asks you out of the blue…We all may mean well, but if we don’t KNOW why we are protesting, we will be shot out of the water.
I want to add that I “found” you about two weeks ago, and have become a fan.
Teabag Lady,
Thank you for your kind praise and for becoming a fan!
Cynthia
Cynthia,
I just “found” you today, and will make your blog a regular read. Thanks for your initial pre-interview advice. I too am having to write it down due to lack of printer ink, but that’s ok! It’ll be worth it.
I also appreciated your comments in response to Chagrined. I’ll add my AMEN to them. 🙂
Your site name says “Newly Conservative”…Glad to have you in the conservative camp! It’s always nice to read well thought out comments from conservatives. Have a blessed day!
Sandi
Sandi,
Thank you for your kind praise. I appreciate it with all my heart.
Cynthia
Wow…
1. Your original post is excellent, and timely.
2. Your response to Chagrined rates its own post, is also excellent, and is timeless.
In my own experience, the Federal Government does two things well (one arguably well, and one excellent), make highways and military operations.
With your experience with the hospice, I would add that anyone who is in favor of nationalizing health care needs to tour some V.A. hospitals.
Archivist,
Thank you for your kind praise. It helps because I’ve been hurting about getting caught up in writing the reply to “Chagrined” when I wish now I’d realized my little cat, Grace, was in the last hours of her life and I’d been petting her instead.
And, yes, anyone who believes in the benevolence and wisdom of any government has never had to work with one over matters of life-and-death, either for a loved or for their company.
However, I believe fiscal conservatives do not have a satisfactory alternative to universal healthcare provided by the government. I’m one of the 48 million without health insurance and the last figure I read about the under-insured said their numbers include at least that many. The status quo isn’t working and we’ve got to come up with a better plan than socialized medicine or that’s what we’ll get.
Cynthia