Tax protesters celebrate with Atlanta Tea Party

Tax protesters kept with the Independence Day theme Saturday to declare their independence from federal policies.

“It’s time that we take the country back,” event organizer Bob Frady said to a crowd of more than 200 seated across Washington Street from the state capitol.

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Kent D. Johnson/kjohnson@ajc.com

Georgia Insurance commissioner and Republican candidate for Governor, John Oxendine, speaks to a crowd of about 200 gathered for the Atlanta Freedom Rally and Tea Party at the State Capitol Saturday.

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“We weren’t going to let Atlanta go without a Tea Party on July 4th.”

The rally, highlighted by patriotic musical performers and speeches from two candidates for governor, was part of the Campaign for Liberty, which hosted similar Tea Parties across the country Saturday.

Attendees touted opposition to federal taxing as a remedy for pollution — as in the “cap and trade” provision to the energy and global-warming bill the U.S. House of Representatives passed recently.

“The way the government makes you dependent on them is through taxes,” sad Rebecca Stopper of Suwanee.

Others feared the results of what they called a federal spending spree to prop up failing banks and auto companies.

“I’m scared to death we’re being spent into oblivion,” Lilburn’s Marshall Myers said. “We’re losing control of our government. I don’t want to be a socialist.”

Myers’ son, 19-year-old Zach, said more needed to be done, however.

“This movement is way too gradual,” he said. “There needs to be more of a set agenda.”

When they weren’t sniping at one another from the “soap box” in front of the capitol, Republican gubernatorial candidates Ray McBerry and John Oxendine added to the anti-government fervor of the event.

“This is your country,” said Oxendine, the state insurance commissioner. “Not the politicians in Washington or in this building behind me.”

“The federal tyranny hasn’t stopped,” McBerry said.

At Miller Park in Marietta, the Cobb Independence Day Tea Party continued into a second day with reportedly more than 2,000 people in attendance.