Tea Parties Attract First-Time Activists

Great piece from WSJ, "Tea-Party Drive Steeped in Political Novices: Movement Attracts First-Time Activists Mad About Debt, Expanding Government; Incumbents in Both Parties Face Risks":

The "tea-party" movement brewing in the 2010 elections is being driven in part by a potent force: first-time activists.

Matthew Clemente, a 20-year-old college junior, says he wasn't politically active until recently. But working at his family's Purchase Street Market in Worcester, Mass., in 2008, he says, he saw that business was down because many of the regulars were in hard-hit construction and contracting businesses.

"The taxes my dad was paying were laying on him hard, and you see these failed banks getting billions in taxpayer money after making bad investments and not playing by the rules," Mr. Clemente says. "It was disheartening."

An outlet came in 2009 with a tea-party meeting in Worcester. There, he heard stories similar to his own, he says, of individuals trying to do the right thing only to see the government bailing out others.

He is now an activist with tea-party organizations in Boston and Worcester and says he hopes to have a strategy session in the near future to focus on the 2010 elections. He also joined FreedomWorks, a Washington, D.C., group that coordinates local activities, and has become its state coordinator.

More at the link.

Top Photo: Midnight Blue, ""Tea Party 3 - Independence Hall - July 4th."