By Walter Frazier, News Staff

The Tea Party rally was in full swing in the middle of Boston Common as former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin spoke Wednesday morning. People with Tea Party merchandise paraded the streets and sidewalks surrounding the park and “Fox News Fan” T-shirts were selling like hot cakes. American flags were scattered around.

The rally was a stop on the Tea Party Express, a national bus tour that aims to “highlight some of the worst offenders in Congress who have voted for higher spending, higher taxes, and government intervention in the lives of American families and businesses,” according to its website. The Tea Party movement is a national anti-tax movement named after the 1773 Boston Tea Party, when colonists protested taxation without representation by stealing tea on British ships and dumping it in the Boston Harbor. The recent Tea Party movement, sparked in 2009, gained new life as President Barack Obama’s health care legislation.

“I’m tired of laying here and taking it and having other people tell me as an adult what to do, particularly in the health care bill,” said John Billings, a retired Navy office from South Texas and rally attendant. “I want the administration to be accountable.”

When asked of who he would like to run the country, he said, “The Tea Party is not supporting any candidate. What we are about is the people getting back our country. I’m not a republican, I’m not a democrat, I’m a patriot.”

The event was bipartisan – Democrats and Republicans showed up to have their voices heard. Several groups of college students held signs that read “God Hates Flags,” “Generic Angry Slogan,” “White People Are Pissed.”

“The worst part of the rally was seeing people, both liberals and conservatives, who were clearly ill-informed or simply falling into rhetoric. People had signs calling Sarah Palin the “village idiot,” when she is really a smart person,” senior Matt Soleyn said, who attended the event. “On the other side, you had people holding pictures of Barack Obama with a swastika on his forearm and a Hitler-style mustache. When you compare someone to Hitler, unless they’re actually responsible for mass-murder and invading sovereign nations, your argument is pretty weak.”

Some spectators said they went to the event merely to watch, not support the Tea Party.

“I was curious to see what the Tea Party was about,” said Dan Walsh, a retired schoolteacher from Lexington. “I’m impressed by the people coming here. There are 2,500 people here saying different things.”

Before a Harvard professor took the stage to support the group, the announcer said, “From Harvard? Are you sure he’s not a communist?”

Singer Lloyd Marcus provided the music for the festivities. Marcus wore a huge cowboy hat and sang about American corruption, lyrically pointing out that “the Tea Party is not racist.” Other Tea Party members act as back up dancers to Marcus’ one-man show forecasting a revolution in which the Constitution will be the only document applied to government decision-making. Other songs included an edited version of Queen’s “We are the Champions” with the lyrics being changed to “We are the patriots.”

Palin praised the crowd, and referenced the original Tea Party in 1773.

“Boston, if anyone knows how to throw a tea party, it’s you,” she said.

Though the state is considered democratic, Soleyn said bringing the movement to Boston was logical, and he liked seeing the diversity.

“The Tea Party Express coming to Boston made a lot of sense, despite the state traditionally being a “Blue” state,” Soleyn said. “While I am not a member of the Tea Party, I understand where they are coming from and would consider myself a supporter of their goal of lower taxes and less government intervention.”