Protesters Vent Anger at Taxes, Politics

Several hundred people fed up with government spending and proposals to raise taxes gathered Thursday at the Embarcadero to vent their anger.

We The People, the grass-roots organization founded to fight government waste, continues to gain momentum in its drive to unseat any incumbent who votes for tax increases in the continuing federal budget battle, said Celeste Mergens, the group’s founder.

“Our message is simple: No new taxes and cut spending and waste,” Mergens said.

The demonstration featured entertainment--a magician, a bluegrass band, a barbershop quartet and patriotic songs--and brief talks by San Diegans weary of taxes and government spending.

The protest attracted an odd mixture of people--grandparents and toddlers, construction workers and businessmen, hippies and military men, housewives and punk-rockers, Paul Revere and George Washington look-alikes, and even a few bums.

It was the group’s third demonstration since being established earlier this summer, and the fervor of the crowd has grown in intensity.

“You have the power (to unseat spendthrift incumbents), only you!” shouted Roger Hedgecock, the ex-mayor turned populist radio talk show host.

Congress and the White House did not fare well among the crowd.

“Cut the fat!” shouted the magician.

“Throw the bums out!” yelled another man.

“It’s ridiculous. They’re all liars and cheaters,” said a grandmother.

Mergens said We The People has spawned chapters around California and similar grass-root tax revolts in 11 other states. She has pushed the cause on dozens of radio talk shows, primarily on KSDO with the help of Hedgecock, and hopes to get on the Oprah Winfrey TV show.

Scores of volunteers increasingly are organizing telephone and letter-writing campaigns to drive the message home in Washington, Mergens added.

“There is a lot of interest growing,” Mergens said. “It is really snowballing, but not fast enough to suit us. It’s only the beginning. We have to keep hammering.

“The country is bankrupt in money and leadership. Things have to change--now.”

Through donations, the group has raised $1,000 for a full-page newspaper advertisement to be taken out before the November election and $450 more to pay for telephone bills and the cost of printing flyers, Mergens said.

The waterfront was jammed with informational booths and people distributing flyers against government waste and tax hikes; symbolic pink slips and cut-the-waste postcards to be mailed to members of Congress; lists of statistics claiming government fraud and waste, and lists of politicians and their addresses and phone numbers.

Although the cry was for better government, not everyone was an anti-taxer. Plenty of folks used the night to hawk their own cause--from demands for tighter immigration laws to demands to reform the child welfare system.

One nervous little man handed out pamphlets saying the Holocaust was a sham. Others pushed political parties and candidates. Anti-abortion flyers showed the heads of aborted fetuses. Flyers urging passage or denial of ballot propositions were everywhere.

But mostly it was a tax revolt and symbolic re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party, with Mergens dumping a little bit of tea into the polluted bay.

Signs of protest ranged from the mild (“No New Taxes”) to the vulgar (“Hey, George: Read My Middle Finger!”). Another flyer showed the average taxpayer being impaled by a giant screw representing Congress.

Many signs had the acronym DRIP--Don’t Re-elect Incumbent Politicians.

“That’s our battle cry: If in doubt, vote them out,” Mergens said.