Electorate may revere Sager's protester past

Every American fifth-grader knows the tale: In the middle of December 1773, a small army of civilians, some inexpertly disguised as Mohawk Indians, boarded three British ships anchored in Boston Harbor and dumped their contents - crates of tea, taxed by Parliament - overboard.

This celebrated episode is much on our minds as we are summoned, once again, to evaluate the endlessly fascinating rise of Jason Sager, unemployed home theater technician, self-educated patriot and Republican candidate for Florida's 5th Congressional District, which includes most of Pasco east of Little Road.

A Protest Warrior

The latest twist even comes with a visual aid: Sager dressed as Che Guevara, the dogmatic Marxist executioner, holding a sign - "Communists for Kerry" - that begs elaboration. Here's some: In the summer of 2004, Sager, living in Brooklyn, was a leader of the New York chapter of Protest Warriors, a lively, if small, anti-anti-war group "arm(ing) the liberty-loving silent majority with ammo ... that strikes at the intellectual solar plexus of the Left" using satire and street theater.

Their aim was to infiltrate and discredit demonstrations opposed to President George W. Bush and the Iraq war during the Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden. As Sager told The Associated Press at the time, "We are the right-wing freedom fighters - we are out there and are just as animated as the protesters can be."

While Protest Warriors' signs and costumes seemed to echo the very messages they meant to spoof - "War Never Solved Anything" - closer inspection revealed their genuine intent: "Except for ending slavery, fascism, Nazism and communism."

Protest Warriors dissolved soon after Bush's re-election. However, much of its animating spirit, if not its gift for mockery, is evident in the tea party and 9/12 movements - a political uprising that political experts across the spectrum say have re-energized conservatism while helping boost post-Bush Republicans.

Some 'splainin' to do

Still, the head of the Hernando County GOP expressed wariness to Michael D. Bates of Hernando Today, our sister publication. Said Blaise Ingoglia, "I think Mr. Sager has some explaining to do to the electorate. ... Jason Sager claims this was supposed to be satirical (but) I can't see how dressing up as a communist revolutionary, who murdered hundreds of people, is funny in any way, shape or form."

Within the establishment Republican camp - not that there's anything wrong with that - the alarm/spin seems to be that if Sager prevailed in his primary showdown with Hernando Sheriff Richard Nugent, Democrats and their nominee, Land O' Lakes businessman Jim Piccillo, would reap a political windfall by wallpapering the district with the now-famous photo.

All of which, Ingoglia suggests, would achieve the unsupportable, needlessly converting a solid Republican district into a competitive race. This is nothing less than a leap of wild speculation that discounts the plain and direct ancestral links between the original Boston Tea Party and the Protest Warriors.

Each relied on unconventional tactics, stealth maneuvers and controversial disguises. Each earned the scorn of entrenched political muscle. Each was said only to have made conditions worse for themselves and their causes. (In the case of the 18th century patriots, history reports a starkly different conclusion.)

As for Sager himself, the parallels to his curriculum vitae - his life experiences - are at minimum interesting, and in many ways downright haunting.

Many among the Boston tea partiers were not well-educated. Some were not well-employed. Some belonged - by contemporary standards - to subversive political clubs. Some were provoked into action by having witnessed the violence that marked the point of no return: the Boston Massacre in 1770 (as Sager witnessed the 9/11 attacks on lower Manhattan).

To be sure, history has swallowed up the vast majority of the 116 known to have participated in the dumping of the tea. Similar anonymity almost certainly awaits most of the Patriot Warriors.

On the other hand, history well notes the subsequent achievements of one tea party participant. Paul Revere's risky, unorthodox activities earned scorn from the powerful, but were necessary and inspirational for the cause of American liberty.

Not that Jason Sager should be mistaken for some modern-day midnight rider. Anonymity may yet be his reward. But in this peculiar campaign season, a candidate with a record of 21st century activism inspired by 18th century sensibilities may be just what the electorate ordered.