Sometimes it requires a focused, local eye to get the big picture. 
In this telling scenario, the big picture has come into clear focus in the small town of Danville, Virginia, where the local Tea Party movement has become the scorn of the politics-as-usual liberal leadership—specifically freshman Representative Tom Perriello, a Democrat “representing” the 5th District of his state.
As chronicled extensively by the ALG News Bureau, the Tea Party movement is a nationwide, patriotic grassroots effort aiming to beat back the tide of liberal policies that seek to grow government and simultaneously squelch individual freedom. Nigel Coleman of Danville is one of those patriots spearheading the movement.
Eager to participate in the American right of public discourse, Mr. Coleman and other concerned Tea-Partiers attended a local town-hall forum on environmental issues hosted by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, and Representative Perriello. Rather than having their questions answered, Mr. Perriello ignored Mr. Coleman’s group and called upon big business owners, familiar faces, and those in “reserved seats”. Some of those questioned even admitted to having been contacted earlier and informed that they would be called upon to ask their so-called “real questions.”
Clearly upset at being ignored, the patriotic crew retrieved some signs from their cars and began to protest outside of the farcical town-hall meeting. Mr. Coleman and his group were immediacy confronted by law enforcement and ordered to leave the public meeting—to which they politely complied.
After leaving, the group met up at a nearby restaurant to discuss the situation and decide how they should proceed. As they soon noticed, an unmarked police car was spotted in the parking lot and an officer was recording and calling in Mr. Coleman’s and the others’ license plate numbers.
Shifting from merely upset to outright livid at what was intimidation tactics plain and simple, the Danville Tea Party issued a press release voicing their disgust. And they have a right to be disgusted.
Not only has Representative Perriello displayed his disdain for free speech and opposing voices, he has gone a step further and aggressively sought to punish it. It is a tried-and-true despotic practice that has no place in America.
Not surprisingly, Mr. Perriello already has quite a track record of opposing free speech and public dissent. As ALG News Bureau has previously reported, Mr. Perriello came under fire in a National Republican Congressional Committee ad criticizing the Representative for voting in favor of a Cap-and-Trade system that would make electricity rates “skyrocket.”
Angered by the ad, Mr. Perriello contacted local television stations and demanded that the ad be removed from television circulation or drastically altered. And that, of course, is what is known as censorship.
Simply put, Tom Perriello is one small—but very telling—example as to why the hard left in America cannot be trusted. All too often, they show nothing short of contempt for open and honest discourse and routinely trounce the rights of the American people in favor of advancing their Big Government agendas. Hopefully others around the nation will follow Mr. Coleman’s examples, pick up their signs and start voicing that public dissent that those on the left so voraciously despise.
Former House Speaker Tip O’Neill once famously said, “All politics is local.” In the ease of one Thomas Parriello of Danville, Virginia, that might be better read, “All dirty politics is local.”
