Yet a significant group came to the Common to protest Palin’s message.
“I came here to show my displeasure with the Tea Party movement, which is basically racist,” said Joan Quigley, a resident of Stoughton, Mass.
One anti-Palin group hosted near the entrance of Boston Common an alternative gathering called “the real Boston tea party,” at which tea and cookies were served.
“It started as a joke,” said Kathleen Toomey, who organized the gathering. “But then we thought what better way to show that the Tea Party movement doesn’t speak for every American than to have a nice, polite tea party?”
Yesterday’s rally was part of the “Tea Party Express,” a national bus tour that organizes “Tea Party” rallies. The tour started in Nevada in March and ends in Washington D.C. today.
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—Staff writer Sofia E. Groopman can be reached at segroopm@fas.harvard.edu.