Young Man on a Bicycle

My sign at the Albuquerque Tea Party read "BASTA!" because I wanted to make a unique one for New Mexico, so I figured the simple Spanish word for "enough!" would be good. It was funny when I was drawing it out at the sign-making party. I drew B-A-S-T, and my daughter started asking, "What are you writing? Don't you know this is a family friendly thing?"

Well, it looks like not as many people knew Spanish as I expected. Several people asked what it meant. My daughter enjoyed waving the sign for awhile. With her body-modification -- tattoos, piercings, and brandings -- she figured people would take her as an "infiltrator." And if they didn't know what the word "basta" meant, then they might really take her as an infiltrator.

But there came a time when I had the sign.

A young man on a bicycle was passing behind us (we stood right on the edge of the curb to get the drivers' attention) and he stopped suddenly and asked me, "What does your sign say?"

"Basta. It means 'enough.'"

He nodded and started on his way, but turned back. "Enough . . . what?" He was taller than I and had to lean his head down to hear me with all the yelling and cheering going on.

"Enough spending. You know, the budget, stimulus, all that." I was yelling over the noise.

"So the spending from the previous eight years wasn't enough to justify protesting?"

"Oh, we didn't like it. We were pissed about that, starting with the prescription drug thing. My husband even changed parties over that."

"But you didn't protest."

"No," I agreed. "But Obama's spending was just SO much and SO fast, we had to do something more."

"If it hadn't been Obama, would you have protested?"

I tried to answer him honestly. I mean this young man was listening to my answers and asking good questions -- something I crave to get from liberals around me. So I said, "I think whoever it was, if he went more slowly, we might not have protested. We would still think we could do something about it. But this happened so fast."

"So if Obama had spent more slowly, you might not have protested?"

"Possibly. If he'd spent more slowly and not so much at once."

He nodded and thanked me, mounted his bike and rode on.

But now I have more to say. You know how it is. Only hours, if not days, after the event, you think of what you should have said.

I would have said, had I had my wits about me at that point, that we conservatives don't protest. That's the domain of liberals. They'll protest and demonstrate at the drop of a hat. I bet they all have a protest kit made up and sitting next to the door just in case they decide to protest and get the call. We conservatives, on the other hand, call our representatives, write letters to them and to the editor of local papers, send emails, voice our opinions on talk radio, and try to make changes through the voting process. We don't even think of protesting. That's almost as foreign to us as suing someone for offending us, as foreign as using the courts to make social and legal change.

When Heather Wilson supported the SCHIPS bill and was on Jim Villanucci's show, people blasted her. I blasted her in an email.

I can't tell you how pissed I was that Bush went ahead and signed the TARP bill, in spite of the "no" vote of Congress. This was stomping on the constitution, as far as I was concerned. But he was on his way out. No use "firing" him! I had to focus my energy on what was happening after that.

The fact that there were . . . it seemed like 5,000 conservatives (pretty much all fiscal conservatives -- some Republicans, some Libertarians, some Independents, even some Democrats) there doing something they don't usually do should say we're really, really mad. And we're serious. And when our usual methods seemed to have no effect on the conduct of Congress and the White House, we were driven to protesting.

Not that I regret it. It was a blast. But I wonder if our politicians heard us, or if they're covering their ears with their hands and going, "La, la, la, la, la!"