NAS Blog

I have attended two “Tea Party” meetings of the Kingston/Rhinebeck Tea Party.  About forty people attended the  first meeting and about 75 attended the second.   Given that the meetings were both held on cold winter days in a rural area with driving times averaging 25 minutes or more, the turnouts were encouraging.

A wide range of people attend, varying in socioeconomic status and education.  Mostly they are conservatives but not well read.  The Hudson Valley was the birthplace of Martin van Buren and many have Lockean instincts.  But they are construction workers, butchers, tailors and phone salesmen, and lack knowledge and, more importantly, the self confidence to educate themselves.  Bad education has disabled citizens’ abilities to participate.

Members of the group sense that things have gone amiss.  Several have started an education subcommittee that aims to reform the local schools. More than a few attendees told tales of political correctness, suppression of alternative views and left wing indoctrination in the Hudson Valley’s and Catskills’ public schools.

Few attendees have the knowledge to question what they hear on television or the radio.   As a whole, the group lacks a plan or vision. They have trouble accepting that there may be systemic problems behind the declines in living standards, the current high unemployment rate and creeping socialism.

Members of the NAS can make an important contribution to the Tea Party.  The mere attendance of a professor with a Ph.D. encourages them.  As well, guidance as to ideas, history and tactics would be productive.