Attending the tea party protest in Dallas this summer reaffirmed my belief in one thing: the tea parties are pointless. Sure, it shows the Obama administration that a lot of crazy conservatives can gather in one location and drink beer and listen to country music, but did it achieve its goal? Absolutely not.

I showed up at Southfork Ranch on July 4 wearing red, white and blue, and ready to show my anti big-government spirit, but found myself giggling at the absurdity of it all and leaving early.

I expected there to be booths dedicated to the goal of the protest: stopping big government. How many of those were there? Not many. Instead, I found four booths dedicated to getting a copy of Obama’s birth certificate, two booths for the Texas Secession Party, and several booths selling everything from trailer hitches to bathtubs. The stereotype of the Republican Party had never shown so brightly. And I have to say, the strumming country music in the background and the lingering scent of cow manure only added to the effect.

After finding the booths disappointing, I decided to move out to the stage area to listen to the speakers. Unfortunately, this just made me doubly disappointed. There were several speakers, but they all gave almost identical 10-minute speeches and then turned it over to a different country band that played for 45 minutes. All the while, my fellow audience members were drinking their Bud Light and waving their “DOWN WITH PELOSI!” and “OBAMA ISN’T A CITIZEN!” signs around. There was even a shirtless man donning leather pants and a long pony tail waving around a guitar that had an American flag on the front and “VOTE PALIN!” on the back. Frankly, I was embarrassed to be there.

Maybe I just wasn’t told that when the Dallas Tea Party Organization said that they wouldn’t stand for “personal attacks” and “unfounded rumors” they were really just fibbing. And when they said that this was a “nonpartisan” event, they were just trying to get more people in the door. I understand that the organization couldn’t control what attendees said or displayed at their event, but even the speakers called names and threw around false statements for entertainment.

By the end of the night, I’m really not sure how anyone could have felt that they contributed to a movement. There was not a single petition in sight, there was no accurate head count taken and the most anyone could have done was buy a tea-shirt so that the Dallas Tea Party Organization could throw yet another tea party.

I stand by the ideals of limited government, but I simply could not take this event seriously. No wonder the news networks paid no attention to them and big-government supporters found no need to directly address them.

I can’t help but feel that the Tea Party entirely missed its own point. If they were there to protest big government, why didn’t anyone talk about the bailout given by the Bush administration? What about the Patriot Act? I fully believe that if anyone in that audience would have replaced their “DOWN WITH PELOSI” sign with a “DOWN WITH THE PATRIOT ACT” sign, they would have been promptly trampled to death by a bunch of bitter Republicans.

Call me an idealist, but if you are going to have a protest, its aim should be to enact change and use a united body of supporters to push towards a uniform goal. But everyone at this tea party was protesting something different. Some were protesting Obama, some were protesting Texas still being a part of the Union, some were protesting the Democratic Party, and others still were protesting the need to wear an appropriate amount of clothing. In any case, this “tea party” did not proactively seek change in any way. There were no petitions, no alternative suggestions to the status quo, and certainly no solutions.

I am truly disappointed in the way the tea parties were executed. The thousands of people that showed up to protest big government at tea parties all over the country could have been a fully united force, and a formidable one at that, given better organization and a more realized desire for change.

Jessica Huseman is a CCPA and political science double major. She can be reached for comment at [email protected].