e or no trouble and few if any arrests at the hundreds of sites. That is not always the case when you have a lot of people gathered to protest something.
The best measure of success will be if the demonstrations generate some sort of follow-up activity. Maybe they will produce a response from government, or perhaps they might generate a substantial increase in the number of people who take up the cause.
The tens of thousands of people attending the tea parties believe that it is time to stand up and say “Enough!” to the unprecedented level of encroachment by their government into the lives and business of the people from whom it derives its power. Like their predecessors in 1773 and the other protests throughout history, they’re objecting to the actions of their government, which has become an increasingly out of control, distant, and arrogant federal monstrosity.
And they won’t be shouted down by either a liberal media or intolerant left-wing fanatics.