One of the greatest things about Barack Obama’s victory in the 2008 election was the unprecedented “grass-roots” nature of his campaign. Thousands of citizens involved themselves for the first time, knocking on doors and making phone calls to their neighbors.

Last week, another grass-roots effort took place. Roughly 360,000 people attended the “tax day tea parties” nationwide at about 300 separate events.

Many citizens found themselves demonstrating for the first time. No matter how much I may disagree with the reasons that brought them out, our government can’t function well without an actively engaged citizenry.

One thing I observed while watching the news coverage was the lack of a coherent message. Protesters seemed to be holding signs of all different kinds, some complaining about taxes, spending, debt or stolen liberties. What exactly made the protesters show up?

For one, Fox News certainly helped. The right-wing TV network ran ad promos for the tea parties, and four of its biggest shows broadcasted live from different protest locations throughout the country. Fox encouraged its viewers to take part in the protests and even provided the locations and times of different tea parties on the air.

The fact that Fox and right-wing talk radio played such a prominent role in promoting and spreading awareness about the protests definitely undermined efforts to describe them as “nonpartisan” and “spontaneous.”

As far as issues are concerned, protesters and speakers brought up many different topics. The first was taxes.

One sign I saw pop up frequently while watching the coverage read “T.E.A. — Taxed Enough Already!” Many conservatives have a fear that President Obama, backed by the Democratic Congress, will raise taxes in order to pay for his agenda. While I understand the sentiment, those fears are unfounded and ignore everything the president has done while in office and everything he said throughout his campaign.

Obama actually passed a middle-class tax cut through Congress that will benefit 95 percent of Americans. Most families are saving $800 this year, thanks to his tax decrease. Certainly, it makes little sense to protest higher taxes at a time when they are actually getting lower.

Others attending the tea parties were concerned with debt and high levels of spending. I would remind those conservatives that we are in extraordinary circumstances. Obama has had to spend a lot of money just to keep the economy afloat.

I would also ask them this simple question: Where have you been for the last eight years? The huge budget deficits and bailouts that are so unacceptable began under the Bush administration. I don’t recall any tea parties happening back then.

Other protesters were concerned about the president’s “socialist” or “fascist” tendencies. When Obama says he’ll cut taxes on most and raise taxes on a few, it feeds into their deep distrust of government.

Again, this fear simply ignores everything the president has said and done. He’s said that he wants to raise the tax rate for the top-income earners to the same rate it was back in the 1990s, when the wealthy were doing just fine. If that is socialism, then we’ve been a socialist country for a long time. The United States has had a progressive income-tax system for almost a century.

Certainly, there are some conservative commentators out there that have been stoking fears and advancing the “Obama is a fascist” story line.

Fox news anchor Glenn Beck recently lashed out at the administration while he sat in front of a large screen showing images of marching Nazi soldiers behind him.

Beck was the star attraction of the San Antonio tea party where the crowd cheered wildly when asked if Texas should secede from the union.

This kind of radicalism only serves to isolate the tea partiers even more, regardless of how genuinely concerned they may be for the future of the country.

Reach columnist Chris Jordan at opinion@dailyuw.com.