A diverse crowd of thousands of New Yorkers with little in common other than disgust for big government marked Tax Day yesterday at jampacked Tea Party protests against sky-high spending and elected officials they believe are out of touch.
With the grassroots, anti-government movement shifting from the fringe to the mainstream, scores of newly minted political activists — from Wall Street-types to truck drivers, retirees and yuppies — attended rallies around the state, including one at the James A. Farley Post Office in Manhattan, where tax returns were mailed right up to the midnight deadline.
An estimated 2,000 people swarmed around the Midtown site carrying signs and waving American flags.
To accommodate the crowd, cops cordoned off several blocks of Eighth Avenue south of 32nd Street.
Protester Richard Schad, 73, an Upper East side resident, said he was frustrated with Washington.
“It’s heartbreaking what I see in this country,” said the retired stockbroker.
“I decided I wanted to get involved.”
Schad said he was particularly motivated because of the health-care bill.
“This health care was a national disgrace. It was done in secret,” he said.
Also rallying was Russian immigrant Anna Rapoport, 37, a Baruch College MBA student who said, “I don’t like big government, I don’t like intrusive government. I actually had to fight it in Russia.”
On Long Island, Tea Party organizers orchestrated several Tax Day protests, the largest of which was at the Long Island Korean War Memorial in Hauppauge.
The crowd — estimated at 1,000 — ranged from elderly women in sundresses to college kids in khaki pants and polo shirts.
“I think the media is trying to push a certain image of this movement onto the public, that we’re some sort of uneducated, angry mob,” said history teacher Alex Conlon, 25, from East Northport.
“But I look around here and that’s not what I see.”
Shellfish farmer Jeremiah Relyea brought his infant son.
“I want to be heard,” he said.
And Jay Beatty, a Yale alum, said the crowd was a cross-section of taxpayers because “these are fundamental issues that everyone is going to have an interest in. It doesn’t matter what your origins are.”
In Washington, DC, thousands gathered at the National Mall and organizers released a list of Democratic senators they are focused on defeating in November’s midterm elections, including Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), Arlen Specter (Pa.), Barbara Boxer (Calif.) and Blanche Lincoln (Neb.).
In addition, Tea Party activists released a “Contract From America” outlining their push to restore and maintain free-market principles, limited government and individual liberty.
Additional reporting by Sally Goldenberg