As if to counter the frequent criticism that bailout and stimulus opponents only oppose things rather than support anything, speakers piped up for liberty, capitalism, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Founding Fathers, the troops and Sam Adams beer.
That last one may have been a way to link to the original Boston Tea Party that protested taxation without representation, and that yesterday's parties were meant to invoke. Still, it is hard to argue that we don't have representation at this point - maybe just not the representation many in the crowds Wednesday had voted for. Which gave the events the feeling of a continuation of last year's elections by those on the losing side.
"I voted straight Republican," said Charles Chapman, a salesman from Towson who attended the Annapolis event. "So I have no representation at this point."
Nick Eldredge, also from Towson, seemed an unlikely protester in that he sells renewable energy products, something he agrees will benefit from new tax breaks. It's the rest of what big government does that he was protesting Wednesday.
"The bailout has done nothing for the working person," he said. "There's not one thing that the government has run that runs well."
Kent Rayburn, an architect from Baltimore, didn't vote for Obama either, but he attended the rally for a reason that went further back than November.
"I've been concerned about taxes since I got my first paycheck. I was 16, and I was supposed to make $1.75 an hour," he said. "But when I looked at my paycheck, it didn't add up to that. I went to my father and he told me, 'The part you're missing went to the government.' "
While it might have taken him many years to take action on that concern, Rayburn said recent events made it time to speak out.
"Our country is in deep, deep trouble," he said. "The march toward socialism has been going on since the '60s. But it has gone into fifth gear, speeded up and rolled downhill recently."
