It's tough to figure out which I'd rather see: the tea parties fizzling or for the conservative to come out in droves. I don't want to hear Hannity and Co. go on and on about how great the tea parties were but, at the same time, I don't want to hear Keith Olberman gloat if the Tea Parties fail to muster up many supporters. Of course, regardless of the outcome, I'm sure MSNBC and Fox News will claim victory so it's kind of silly to worry about it either way. I'd say that MSNBC and Fox News were two sides of the same coin but coins have actual value. (And I'm now going to make a resolution to try not to ever complain about MSNBC or Fox on my blog again since it's a waste of time and makes me no better than them.)

As for the tea parties themselves, the actual tax complaints seem to ring hollow. It's like a lot of people getting together to scream, "I Love America... but I don't want to pay for it." On top of that, there isn't even a shared cause. Some people don't like that we're spending so much money. Other people don't like various tax hikes. More than a few still think Obama is a socialist. One site wrote, "As unemployment soars and anger over Wall Street bailouts mounts, public outrage will seek an outlet." I'm sorry but if you don't want Wall Street bailouts then odds are that even more people are going to be unemployed. This complaint strikes me as someone getting mad at the fire department, As the fire burns and firemen get your house all wet... The Clinton and Bush administrations screwed everything up and now we're going to have to fix it. And that's going to cost money.

At the end of the day, I really wish people would just stop spending so much time and money on ad campaigns and random protests and use the money to actually help someone. The state of child care in America could be helped immensely if the money spent arguing over abortion was put towards improving schools, foster care, child health care, what have you. The amount of money that is raised for political campaigns could solve most problems. Some reports have the two major Presidential candidates raising over a billion dollars. I know that isn't going to make a dent in the big problems or help military spending but it could do a lot for a lot of social/family programs. It would be nice but unfortunately, it's never going to happen. People don't pay for a better America, they spend money so their own voice can be heard.