Tea Party Protest of Albany and NYS Budget Process

Videos

Buffalo Tea Party Protest of Albany

see larger video

sourced by Buffalowatchdog

• 

  Created by Buffalowatchdog | add comment

• 

  Created by Buffalowatchdog | add comment

About 300 people attended Rus Thompson’s tea party this afternoon to call on Albany to reform itself and let Western New York be Western New York.

The structural and substantive deficiencies that plague Albany are things that, more often than not, people on all sides of the political spectrum can find consensus on. In the end, we all want a better future - less of what keeps us down and more of what can lift us up.

This tea party was directed at Albany. Republican State Senator George Maziarz was the only Albany politician present (and the longtime incumbent wasn’t all that well received). While not unexpected, there needs to be a way to effectively express our discontent in a way that makes elected officials sit up and take notice. If SEIU was pissed, they’d listen. Perhaps if we took a cue from the public sector unions and fought them on their turf, and under their rules, we’d have a decent shot.

It was an impressive turnout, a positive event, and somewhat heartening. But the hard part starts on Monday.

 - Story written by Alan Bedenko