Approximately ten thousand Kansas residents swarmed to yesterday’s Kansas City tea party donning red, white and blue and holding signs protesting big government, ObamaCare, the stimulus package and the current tax system.

The event was hosted at Community America Ballpark in Kansas City, Kansas and one was of the thousands of tea parties organized nationwide on April 15, which is commonly known as “tax day.”

“We are sick of the federal government controlling us through taxes,” said Bob Holliger, Fair Tax KC volunteer, who greeted attendees at the entrance of the protest.

Holliger and other Fair Tax KC representatives handed out flyers promoting the repeal of the current income tax system and replacing it with the FairTax. This initiative would replace the current income-tax system with a system that is revenue-neutral and is based on taxing goods and services.

Currently the FairTax is being promoted in Congress through HR 25 and S 296.

“There should not be this social engineering,” Holliger told Kansas Liberty. “We are all Americans.”

Representatives from groups promoting freedom, liberty, the Second Amendment, and the repeal of ObamaCare handed out information and talked with tea party protesters about the importance of fighting for the Constitution.

Speeches from candidates for office, current elected officials and proponents of free-market principles were highlighted as the main event and the leaders spoke from a stage constructed on the baseball field.

“We have to get our economy back on track and the way to do that is by cutting spending,” said U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, the Republican representing Kansas’ Fourth District. Tiahrt is campaigning for the U.S. Senate seat against Rep. Jerry Moran. Moran was not present at the tea party as he was in Washington, D.C. attending the House proceedings.

A pioneer of the state’s tea party movement, Amanda Grosserode, also spoke at the event. Grosserode is now campaigning for a spot in the Kansas House.

Grosserode spoke about the current lack of conservative Republicans in the Kansas Legislature and said that if she was elected, conservatives could count on one additional “yes” vote for the Health Care Freedom Amendment, the State Sovereignty Resolution, and a yes vote for any legislation promoting individual liberties and decreasing taxes.

Derrick Sontag, state director of American’s for Prosperity-Kansas, reminded the crowd that when the Legislature reconvened for the wrap-up session on April 28, legislators would be working quickly to pass out legislation to balance the state’s budget.

During this critical period in the session many legislators will be pushing for increases on sales tax, income tax and other taxes as a way to patch budget holes, Sontag warned.

“The economic truth is the more you tax something, the less you are going to get,” Sontag said.

Dr. Milton Wolf, the Kansas resident known for being President Barack Obama’s cousin, spoke passionately against the nation’s new health-care reform law and reminded tea party protesters the importance of making informed decisions at the polls.

“Liberty is not a spectator sport,” Wolf said.

Candidate for Secretary of State and Constitutional Law Professor, Kris Kobach, warned that the current Obama administration was chipping away at the Constitution.

“The constitution is a cage around the beast and the beast is the government,” Kobach said. “What we are trying to do today is put the beast back in the cage.”

Other speakers chided the mainstream media’s tendency to downplay tea parties or to categorize protesters as an angry mob. Members of the crowd laughed as speakers read off some of the stereotypes assigned to tea party protesters such as the belief that the tea party movement consisted mostly of middle-aged men, or uneducated hicks.

“Let me make this easy on you,” said host of the KCMO talk radio Morning Show Chris Stigall. “We are Americans and we demand and deserve to be respected.”

While there was an abundance of males in attendance, there appeared to be an equal amount of females and there was a substantial amount of children and young adults in attendance as well.

One of the younger tea party protesters held up a sign which stated on one side “Gee thanks for the debt” and questioned on the other side “why isn’t generational theft a crime?”

An organizer of yesterday's tea party Alex Poulter, co-founder of Political Chips, told the media to take notes that unlike protests held by left-wing organizations, the Kansas City Tea party set aside time for prayers, the pledge of the alliance, and a patriotic tribute to veterans.

“There are some things you will see here tonight that you will never, never see at the other protests…such as American flags,” Poulter said.

Resources:

Political Chips

Fair Tax KC

Americans for Prosperity-Kansas

Kansans for Tiahrt

Moran for Kansas

Kobach for Secretary of State

Amanda Grosserode for State Representative

KCMO 710 Talk Radio

Read about other tea party events covered by Kansas Liberty:

Huge tea party day turnout in Kansas encourages supporters

NPR depiction of tea party movement alienates conservatives

‘Tea Party’ protest in Overland Park the latest in a wave of anti-stimulus demos

Kansas Liberty opinion column:

A refreshing spot of tea

The Week in Review