Merced Tea Party protesters fed up with taxes, waste

All that was missing were drums and tricornered hats during a conservative rebellion at UC Merced on Wednesday.

More than 200 community members and a few students gathered on campus for a tea party.

Many of them were Republicans, but there was also a sprinkling of Democrats, Libertarians, Blue Dogs and others.

The tea party wasn't all crumpets and Lipton's, though. Instead, it was the first local version of a national trend: modern-day protests named after the Boston Tea Party, the 1773 event against "taxation without representation" that fueled the American Revolution.

Partiers chose the April 15 income tax filing deadline to denounce government spending and other issues since President Barack Obama took office. Similar events were planned in more than 2,000 U.S. cities on Wednesday.

The UC Merced event was one of many in the state -- from Eureka to El Centro, including a politico-packed event on the Capitol steps. Tea parties took particular hold of the Central Valley, with more than a dozen official events.

Nearby, 700 protesters turned up at a Modesto tea party at its peak and 2,000 crowded the lot of the Save Mart Center in Fresno, making the event one of the largest in the U.S., according to organizers.

UC Merced police hadn't provided an estimate of the size of the crowd late Wednesday. People came and went during the five-hour event.

Mercedian Sean Nickerson, 40, attended the event at UC Merced. A truck driver and registered Democrat, he said he thought government taxation policies should return to the "classic trickle-down," an economic strategy that calls for tax cuts to business owners and the wealthy, which then supposedly create wealth for less affluent earners.

"I believe that Congress is out of control with their spending," Nickerson said. "I think they are trying to spend their way out of the recession. The math on that doesn't add up."

Nickerson said government ownership and meddling in private businesses, especially recent involvement with General Motors, was "not anywhere in the job description of the president."

Nickerson said he didn't care if the sentiments of tea partygoers reached or even influenced the president.

"I'm hoping it will get the attention of Congress -- the people we will be voting up or down in two years," he said.

The first round of government bailouts, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, was issued by President George W. Bush in December 2008. To date, the government has thrown more than $3 trillion dollars at struggling business and public works projects.

Ken Wagner, a farm machinist from Catheys Valley, said it was only a matter of time before politicians had to take notice of the tea parties.

"This is just a start," the 63-year-old said. "There's gonna be hundreds of thousands of these parties and millions of people standing up."

Wagner said he was fed up with government spending on both sides of the aisle. He even encouraged a conservative revolution.

"It's time for people here in this country to stand up. We've been a great country and we are a great country," he said. "I just don't think we are going to be a great country for much longer if these policies keep up."

Neil Stonum from Mariposa said the citizenry should work to "re-establish the founding principles of this country," including hard work, lower taxation, smaller government and federalism.

Stonum, 57, was laid off from a real estate job in October. His chief concern is "the direction that the government is heading away from free enterprise toward the concept that we need to rescue businesses," he said. "My business didn't get rescued. It's not the job of the government."