The protests have died down for now, perhaps because the participants have run out of steam, or they're just preparing for the next round. The last big protest in DC - some 60-70,000 strong was a mixed bag of causes, with signs ranging from the simple to the poorly spelled to the disgustingly offensive. Who are these people and what are the protesting against (and/or what are they for?). They are most often split into one of three camps: The Teabaggers, the Tenthers, and/or The Birthers.

The Teabaggers (or as they normally call themselves: the Tea Party "Patriots") are protesting against government spending. More honestly, they are protesting against their taxes. This could be admirable if they had been protesting during the Bush administration. Perhaps they weren't able to do the math and realize just how much deficit spending was really occurring because Bush wasn't including the wars in the Middle East as part of the budget (like Obama did, greatly increasing the declared budget deficit). Perhaps they don't understand that their share of the tax burden went up during the Bush administration and is going down during the Obama administration (we can assume that the vast majority of the protesters are not in the top 5% of wage earners).

It seems that the bank/Wall Street bailout was the trigger that sent most of these people into the streets. That's understandable. Unfortunately, most of that was done while Bush was still in power, yet they want to blame Obama for it.

Actually, there is a contingent within the Tea Party movement that has been protesting taxes for years. They are the so-called "Fair Tax" supporters. This is another one of those deceptively named programs from the Bush era (like the "Clear Skies Initiative" or the "Healthy Forests Initiative") that replaces the income tax with a national sales tax. What's interesting about this is that implementing this would increase deficit spending, something they purport to be against. The only hedge against that would be to increase the percentage rate, causing the taxes of the people supporting this to pay more in taxes than they are now. The other kicker? It would apply to all goods and services, including health care expenses. Yet these are the same people campaigning against health care reform, and spreading myths that the reform will result in health care benefits being taxed.

The Tenthers are the folks at the protests most likely to be carrying the "racially insensitive" (or outright offensive) signs. They are the "states rights" folks, and we all know what "states rights" is code for: It started with slavery and the Civil War. They want the big hand of Big Government out of their lives. Presumably they are also NRA members and carry their guns to town hall meetings. Are they the same people that carry signs saying "Government stay out of my Medicare"? One can only assume...

Finally, the Birthers are the wackiest of the bunch. They are the ones that - despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary - still believe that Obama is not a U.S. citizen. You would think this to be a tiny minority at this point, but sadly that is not the case. The Birther crown currently worn by attorney Orly Taitz is being usurped by a "Christian" organization which just released an infomercial pushing the Birther meme. It's being shown in red states, and the "born-again Christian" (cum convicted Wall Street insider trader) is asking for money, so he may not really be a True Believer when it comes to the Birther movement.

Sadly though, 42% of Republicans believe that Obama was not born a U.S. citizen. Considering that a lot of the Birthers, Tenthers, and Teabaggers consider themselves to be "Independent" or "Libertarian", this is a HUGE chunk of Republicans falling for this absurd fallacy. It's a pretty sad statement on what was once a respectable party.

What will be interesting is to see which of these movements fades away, which gather steam, and whether new subgroups will emerge. Regardless, we can safely assume they will be based on the same prejudices, selfishness, and inability to face the reality that they are the powerless minority that defines the members of these groups.