Wednesday, September 19, 2012
CANFIELD — Discontent with the country’s current economic malaise and unbalanced federal budget were among the predictable themes of a Tea Party Express rally on the Village Green.
“American families are not better off than they were four years ago,” when Barack Obama was elected president, Amy Kremer, chairwoman of the Tea Party Express, told several hundred people at a noon rally today.
The rally here was part of a 21-day tour of 25 battleground states that began last week in Orlando, Fla., and is scheduled to end Oct. 2 in Fairfield, Calif.
Two identical buses arrived a few minutes before noon for the well-orchestrated event, which was part of the “Winning for America” tour that is focusing on states Tea Party organizers believe are key to conservative victories in the Nov. 6 general election.
“Fire the worst administration in our country’s history,” and replace it with a Mitt Romney-Paul Ryan administration, Kremer urged. “Take back America. Put us back on the path to prosperity so we remain the greatest nation on earth,” she urged.
The Obama administration is leading the country down a path of “redistribution of wealth, which is socialism and leads to Marxism,” she added.
During the rally, Obama supporter Harold Liller of Canfield, who stood on the edge of the crowd, became embroiled in a verbal argument with tea party supporters, which was followed by the arrival of two city police officers.
“I think he’s the only hope to keep us from the plutocrats,” Liller said of Obama. “Mitt Romney’s a plutocrat and he gets his money from other plutocrats,” Liller added, using a term that denotes a member of a wealthy ruling class.
“When billionaires and millionaires decide to become president, that’s not democracy. That’s plutocracy,” he added.
Liller objected to the tea party’s reference to socialism, which he said describes a system where the government owns the means of production and does not accurately reflect this society.
For the complete story, read Thursday's Vindicator or Vindy.com.