Walsh Urges Tea Party Members to "Save America"

U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh joined Huntley Tea Party members Saturday at the third annual Tax Day Rally, telling members it is up to them to evangelize the principles behind the Tea Party and save America.

Walsh, who is running against Democrat Tammy Duckworth in the hotly contested District 8 race, arrived in a white recreational vehicle that he will be using in his campaign over the next seven months.

“The message on the RV is simple. The message is clear,” Walsh said to cheers from the crowd of about 60 Tea Party members and supporters. “It’s time. Are you ready? Are we ready?

“If we don’t get this right, we may lose this thing we call America,” Walsh said. “We don’t have an election to win. We don’t have a few elections to win. We have a country to save.”

The Huntley Tea Party’s rally drew people from the entire region including Carpentersville, Arlington Heights and Crystal Lake. The rally is aimed at protesting the scale of taxation and government spending, organizers said.

Many Americans are struggling, frustrated about the high taxation and are “scared to death by how big government is getting,” Walsh said. Most Americans do not want to leave their children saddled with the debt the U.S. is amassing, he said.

Tea Party members need to spread the word and stand up for Americans, he said.

“We have to fight for the very idea this country was founded on. We have precious little time to get this right,” Walsh said.

Another ideal Americans cherish — the right to voice one’s opposition — was evident Saturday as a handful of people protested Walsh.

“I disagree with his stance,” David Webb of Schaumburg said. He does not agree with the Tea Party but was only protesting against Walsh on Saturday. While he is not a Tea Party supporter, the people at the rally were cordial, he said.

The CREDO SuperPac brought people in to counter-protest Walsh’s speech, said Kyrian McCann, district manager. The CREDO SuperPac is not the kind funneling money into campaigns, but is a grassroots effort to target several members of Congress for their “war on women,” their efforts to end Medicare and “extreme Tea Party values,” she said.

McCann wore a sticker that read “Take Down Joe Walsh” as she stood with other protesters. Tea Party members wore American flag T-shirts, carried colorful signs with slogans like “Take Back America” and waved flags along Route 47 that had many motorists honking their approval.

Bill Broderick, one of the organizers, said the protesters had a right to voice their opposition but pointed out they were attacking Walsh personally.

“His personal life is irrelevant,” he said.

For his part, Broderick thinks the problem with American’s political landscape is a two-party system.

It is as if one political party is driving a bus at 80 miles per hour toward a cliff and the other party wants to slow the bus down to 60 miles per hour, he said. The Tea Party wants to throw everyone off the bus and stop it.

“And we are considered radical,” he said.