VOA News Sunday, September 12th, 2010
The conservative Tea Party Movement held rallies in a number of U.S. cities Sunday, promising to galvanize opposition to Democratic policies and mobilize a surge of voters for pivotal congressional elections in November.
Several thousand people marched to the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C., many carrying signs reading “Congress, you’re fired” and chanting “Vote them out!”
In Sacramento California, an estimated 4,000 people
Many attending these events wore red, white and blue clothing and carried yellow flags with the picture of a snake coiled above the inscription “Don’t Tread on Me.”
The entire U.S. House of Representatives and 37 of the U.S. Senate’s 100 seats are up for re-election in November.
The vote could change the balance of power in both houses, where the Democratic party of President Obama now holds the majority.
The rally at the U.S. Capitol marked the anniversary of the Tea Party’s first major protest in Washington last year. The date, September 12, has been branded by controversial commentator Glenn Beck as a symbol of a new political awakening for the conservative movement.
Beck did not attend Sunday’s rally. Instead, he and another Tea Party leader, former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, spoke to a crowd in Palin’s home state of Alaska late Saturday.
Organizers of the so-called 9/12 rallies say the events were called to highlight a message of smaller government and to recall the sense of national unity Americans felt the day after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Some information in this story was provided by AP.
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