Watching the various Tea Party groups ramp up their rhetoric in preparation for their April 15th rallies (subtitled “Help Us Build a New Revolution”) reminds me of my own youthful protesting against the war in Southeast Asia. It got me wondering how this year’s protesters were so different from those I remember joining with.

Protesting has been part of the American political scene since the Boston Tea Party (or even before). We were founded by dissenters, and populated by men and women of courage who would rather leave their homelands than abandon their faith and beliefs, serve in the military, or face starvation.

So if political protest is something I agree with, something I have done personally with commitment and enthusiasm, why does the Tea Party movement feel “wrong” to me? This needed some research and considered thought, which I will share.

First, every attempt at dialog I have made with folks involved in the movement has failed. When I was outside the Expo Center in Portland, I tried talking to the protesters. I asked them what cuts in federal and state spending they felt should be made to lower taxes (no suggestions), whether they would like to cut spending by withdrawing our military from foreign wars as Ron Paul suggested (no takers), and what alternative to federal health care legislation they would have preferred (no suggestion, just repeal, but nobody happy with the status quo either).

The folks I talked to (and I’ll admit I didn’t talk to each and every one, just about a dozen at random) felt just as strongly about their position as I did about mine. What I felt was missing was a way to move forward.

If you’re protesting a war, explaining your solution is easy: negotiation leading to a peace agreement. When it comes to legislation, things get knottier, I guess. But the other thing, the thing that really set my teeth on edge, was the anger at government itself, the feeling that absolutely nothing emanating from a central authority would be acceptable, the threatening, confrontational manner (getting closer and closer to those waiting to see the president, until they were mere inches away).

When I protested war, even to the point of civil disobedience, it was non-confrontational. We took a stand against the taking of life, but there was no sense of impending doom, no hate-filled signs. What I saw in the protesters in Portland was quite the opposite. The tea party supporters, by their own words, believe that this nation is under attack and that they need to defend it. They believe that:

Many are in fear of the demise of our Great nation. The fear is legitimate. There is only one entity that will turn things around and save our constitution and our country as we once knew it. “We the People”.

They believe that:

The Tea Party dream includes all who possess a strong belief in the foundational Judaic/Christian values embedded in our great founding documents.

Please judge for yourself. I would never dream of telling you what to believe or how you should define your political beliefs or actions, and I completely respect your right to believe and act as you think you should After all, we are a faith that believes in personal responsibility. Thing is, I don’t understand how a movement that claims to defend the Constitution can violate its First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…

Maybe that’s nit-picking (I don’t believe it is), but it goes deeper than that.

I can’t understand the failure to believe that we, as a people, are resilient, have been through challenging times and been strengthened by them; have the will to join together as Americans, whatever our beliefs; have the common sense to elect leaders we believe in, and to elect someone else if we don’t like the result. We don’t need anger; we need dialog, and I just don’t see that in the Tea Party.