Thanks All 'Round

First of all, here's a big thanks from me to everyone at the three Tea Party events I attended yesterday:

Thx!!

Everyone was friendly, enthusiastic and effusive, which is the best outcome I'd hoped for. And when I'd finally managed to stumble through an explanation of my project, the vast majority of folks told me they thought it was a really good idea. Again, thanks. (Only two people were less than friendly, and they weren't mean about it. Fine with me.)

As I mentioned above, there were actually three Tax Day Tea Party events -- the two I mentioned yesterday and a 5:30 p.m. rally on the south steps of the Capitol, organized by TAG -- Texans for Accountable Government. Here's the info:

TAG LiberTEA Party – April 15, 2010

“Putting the Freedom Back in the Tea Party”

Texans for Accountable Government is hosting a TAG LiberTEA Party on the South Steps of the Texas State Capitol on Tax Day – Thursday, April 15, 2010 from 5:45-7:45PM.

We will be gathering in unity to voice our discontent with our current tax structure and out-of-control Big Government spending. Bring your friends, family, and neighbors for an inspiring evening with solutions where you can make a difference! This will be a TRANS-PARTISAN TEA PARTY!

Master of Ceremonies: John Bush, Executive Director of TAG (http://tagtexas.org)

Speakers:

• Jack Blood, radio talk show host (http://deadlinelive.info)
• Devvy Kidd - lecturer, author, and founder and director of POWER, the Project On Winning Economic Reform (www.devvy.com)
• Sean Rima, BIG Talker 98.9 radio host (http://www.989bigtalker.com/shows/rima.php)
• Debra Medina, Texas business owner and former Republican candidate for governor (http://medinafortexas.com)

Aside from that, I should jot down a few notes before I forget. First, it's apparent that the third event has a more libertarian bent (small-"l"), and a libertarian guy mentioned to me that it might be a good idea to separate those survey results out from the whole, in the final analysis. I don't see why I can't do it both ways -- separate out all three events and present them averaged together. Thanks for the idea!

Also, the driving rain at the TAG event kept turnout low and made it hard to fill out surveys. Pencil on wet paper, one hand busy holding an umbrella, etc., etc.

Last, there were few complaints about the survey, but the few I got were quite helpful. The first is a clear oversight on my part: I should've included a checkbox marked "libertarian" in the portion of the survey that asks about political orientation. This might not be that big a deal in other Tea Party events across the nation, but in Austin, there's clearly a strong libertarian bent to the movement. And it's true that "libertarian" isn't neatly categorized in a conservative-moderate-liberal axis.

Additionally, the most common complaint is that the survey was too long. I agree. But basically everyone stuck it out for the haul through that questionnaire, and for that I'm grateful. I'll work on a shorter one next time.

One guy said it was poorly constructed, but didn't offer anything specific, while another guy said it was redundant in parts, but he wasn't a native speaker of English and might've lost the distinction between certain shades of meaning. Nevertheless, I'm looking for ways to shorten the survey, and his suggestion--that I might not ask about "government spending" in the general sense, then follow it up with specific questions about spending under different administrations--sounds like a pretty good one. I'll take a look.