Joy Fain carried a sign that read, "I'm Not Your ATM."
Adrienne Wallschleger had teabags dangling from her ears and held a sign that read "Taxed Enough Already."
Fain and Wallschleger said they are worried about the future of the United States.
"We see this country going toward socialism," Fain said. "It's idealistic."
Fain and Wallschleger, who live in Clemmons, were among the more than 1,000 people who crowded into Winston Square Park yesterday for the Winston-Salem Tea Party.
The Winston-Salem Tea Party -- one of 2,000 such parties held around the country -- was modeled after the 1773 Boston Tea Party, when angry settlers tossed tea into Boston Harbor to protest unfair taxation by the British.
During the Winston-Salem Tea Party -- held on the deadline for filing state and federal income taxes -- protesters toted signs protesting the federal bailout, President Obama and, of course, taxes.
Chants of "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" broke out throughout the rally.
Some people wore Revolutionary War costumes. Others waved yellow flags that read: "Don't Tread on Me."
The "tea party" movement was promoted by FreedomWorks, a conservative nonprofit advocacy group based in Washington and led by Republican Dick Armey of Texas, the former House majority leader.
"What's happening right now is just wrong," said Fred Benson, one of the organizers of the Winston-Salem Tea Party. "People's taxes are going up. Services are going down. People are out of work. Small business is getting hammered. And bailout stuff is happening left and right -- from everywhere, not just from the federal government…. People are just getting choked to death."
Benson and other fiscal conservatives organized the Winston-Salem rally. He stressed that organizers intended for the protest to be bipartisan, though none of the speakers was a Democrat. The Winston-Salem protest was paid for by local organizers, Benson said.
Debra Conrad, a Republican and the vice chairwoman of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, railed against higher local taxes and encouraged the crowd to attend a coming public hearing about county property-tax rates.
"Your voices count," she told the protestors, who answered with cheers. "We need to hear you."
Jeff Mixon, a legislative analyst for the Civitas Institute, a conservative policy group in Raleigh, quoted Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin and warned the crowd that the U.S. could be heading toward communism.
"I'm not saying that's where we're at. I'm saying that's where we could go," Mixon said.
Nathan Tabor, the newly elected chairman of the local Republican Party, used the tea party as an opportunity to talk about the changes that Republicans would need to make to win future elections.
"We learned a hard lesson this past election cycle," Tabor said. "It takes money to win. It takes technology to win. It takes youth to win."
He said that the local party is hoping to find someone to run against Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines, who is running for a third term this November.
But first, Tabor said, the local party needs to "rebuild, rebrand and reboot."
"We have an issue of who are we, what are we, and what do we stand for," he said. "Today, at the Tea Party, we want people -- Democrats, Republicans and Independents -- to focus on the issue of who is responsible for raising your taxes and then mismanaging them."
Fiscally conservative protesters were not the only ones who used tax-filing day as a chance to talk public policy. A small group of pro-tax protesters in Vermont rallied for more taxes to pay for social programs.
In a White House event, Obama spoke out about changes that he plans for the federal tax laws.
He said he is working toward "a simpler tax code that rewards work and the pursuit of the American dream."
"For too long, we've seen taxes used as a wedge to scare people into supporting policies that increased the burden on working people instead of helping them live their dreams," Obama said. "That has to change, and that's the work that we've begun."
■ Laura Graff can be reached at 727-7279 or at lgraff@wsjournal.com.
■ The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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