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"The issue to me is that our government on all levels is completely out of control, over-budget and irresponsible," explained Robert Zimmerman, a 57-year-old freelance writer from Beltsville, who attended the 9/12 march and some other gatherings that have drawn Tea Party-oriented contingents. "Ordinary Americans are fed up."
The movement they have gravitated to, he added, "defines the concept of grassroots better than anything since the anti-Vietnam protests" (some of which he had participated in).
A self-described secular Jew ("most secular Jews are knee-jerk liberals"), New York-native Zimmerman said, "I keep running into other Jews at these events."
Despite his views, however, Zimmerman like some other interviewees was hesitant to use the term tea partier in describing himself. Overly simplistic labels, he maintained, have been used by the media and others to stereotype and marginalize those who express basic American values that do not necessarily comport with liberal orthodoxy.
"They are used to demonize and make fun of these ordinary people who believe in freedom, liberty and limited government; the basic Constitution of our country," Zimmerman explained, adding, facetiously: "Yeah, that's a real radical and strange idea freedom of speech, anti-tyrannny, things like that."
A former Democrat (and now a registered Republican) who once taught filmmaking and currently writes mainly about science and the history of space exploration, Zimmerman said he learned long ago that in academia and the creative community, "if you are conservative, you generally keep your mouth shut and your head down."
Moshe Starkman, 32, a software developer and former Republican candidate for Congress from Rockville, is also an ardent conservative and an Orthodox Jew.
Although Starkman has spoken at two Tea Party rallies, he was conflicted over whether to describe himself as a tea partier, a term, he said, that is too particularistic.
"We are the American people," he said. "We're just ordinary mom-and-pop-type folks who want the government to take a step back and think about the repercussions of its actions." He added: "I guess you'd say I'm a tea partier who prefers the term American."
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"Some of it's silly," Brad Botwin, 52, an anti-illegal immigration activist from Rockville, said of some fringe activities attributed to tea partiers. "I don't understand the whole birther thing; I just ignore it. The fact is, the core of the Tea Party community is just ordinary taxpayers, black, white, whatever."
An industrial analyst who works for the federal government, Botwin is the founder of Help Save Maryland, which bills itself as a "multi-ethnic, grass roots citizens' organization" that opposes spending tax dollars on programs benefiting illegal aliens.
Botwin, who addressed the crowd at a Tea Party rally in Annapolis in January, said he has been called a "Nazi" for his views on immigration. "That's the N-word for me," he added, reporting that some members of his extended family perished in the Holocaust. "You have to be Jewish to appreciate how bad it was being called a Nazi. And some Jewish groups have said some unkind things about me. I guess I'm not Jewish enough for them, which I suppose means not being liberal enough."
Unlike Zimmerman, Botwin said he rarely encounters a fellow Jew at Tea Party events. "I don't know why," he added. "Maybe they're busy wasting their time supporting illegal immigration."
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