Rhetoric matched Utah's blustery weather Tuesday as the Tea Party Express made stops in Provo and Salt Lake City, attracting about 400 activists in each location. Sprinkled among the plentiful U.S. flags were "Obama Care Kills" signs and "Don't tread on me" banners.
Entertainers and speakers, bused in from other states, rallied the crowd with messages about God and country, taking frequent jabs at President Barack Obama, Senate President Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Radio show host Mark Williams dubbed the trio of Democratic leaders "Marx, Stalin and Lenin lite."
"They are taking this country down a horrific path," Williams told the crowd gathered in front of the state Capitol. "Socialism, progressivism, whatever you want to call it, invariably results in hundreds of millions of dead, innocent bodies."
Some in the crowd shouted "traitor" when Williams mentioned their names. At the morning rally outside Utah County's courthouse, Williams told the hundreds gathered that "we are in a battle for the soul of America."
Andrea Shay King, a Florida radio host traveling with the Tea Party Express, said she might need to see proof of the president's college education and "your birthplace in Hawaii -- or wherever it is."
"We all have what it takes to win this battle," King said. "We have God on our side and we are righteous."
Provo resident Kimberly Moore felt strongly enough about the event that she pulled her son Zach Adams out of school to attend. The young man carried a sign that labeled the current administration an "Obamanation."
The Salt Lake City gathering drew folks from near and far.
Michael Paris held a Hawaiian flag -- the state where he lives part-time and owns a coffee farm. He also has a home in Las Vegas.
"I've been involved since Searchlight [Nev.]," Paris said, citing Saturday's starting point for Tea Party Express, which featured conservative firebrand Sarah Palin. The bus tour will hit 43 cities across the country with the goal of replacing congressional incumbents with conservatives.
"Our leaders aren't there anymore -- why not throw them all out And get term limits at the same time," Paris said.
Paul Campbell, a 60-year-old dairy farmer from Weston, Idaho, drove 100 miles to attend the Capitol show.
"Too many people have given too much for me not to be here," Campbell said, lamenting the fact that his seven children know more about Martin Luther King Jr. than they do about the Revolutionary War and Paul Revere.
G.W. Gordon, from Salt Lake County's Millcreek area, bemoaned the ballooning national debt.
"We borrow so much money and we print so much money that my children and grandchildren will never be free," Gordon said, voicing concern that America's soldiers are dying "for what we used to be."
Three challengers to U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett -- Republicans Tim Bridgewater, Cherilyn Eagar and Mike Lee -- fueled short stump speeches with anti-incumbent fever and the fervent belief that America's founding documents were divinely inspired.
Meanwhile, more moderate and left-leaning Utahns are responding to the Tea Partiers with Coffee Party USA gatherings -- part of a national grass-roots effort that Virginia documentary-maker Annabel Park launched on Facebook in late January.
Earlier this month, Park told CNN that "the public's disengagement from politics is the greatest threat to a democracy."
The Coffee Party now boasts 190,000 online followers who favor a public health care option, campaign finance reform and improved care and services for the military.
"We're just getting our feet under us," said Sandy resident Virginia Timmons. So far, the Coffee crew has met in Sugar House, Salt Lake City and Sandy, and has a new group forming in Orem
"People of all ages and from all income brackets are coming," Timmons added, noting that she kicked off her first gathering by having everyone read the preamble of the Constitution.
"Our main goal is to influence government with civil discourse," Timmons said. "The other [movement] is leading us into chaos."
To learn more about America's hot-topic, hot-beverage movements:
www.teapartyexpress.tv/
www.coffeepartyusa.com/
