At a meeting at Blackie’s Restaurant on May 4, around 20 Tea Partiers gathered to organize, socialize and talk about the issues. Most Tea Party members describe themselves as normal, everyday citizens who have become increasingly worried with the direction the country has taken. Almost all call themselves conservative.

“Liberals are activists. Conservatives are busy raising families and running businesses. We’re out here, though, and that shows how angry we are,” said Margaret Lindsay, 58, a former economics professor who lives in Chicago.

Group members took turns voicing their disgust with Obama’s agenda. They say they want to show that even in the president’s hometown, not everyone agrees with his policies.

Surprisingly, the Tea Party movement has its roots in Chicago. Last February, CNBC’s Rick Santelli gave his now-infamous rant on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange against the Obama Administration’s plan to help homeowners facing foreclosure.

“Do we really want to subsidize the losers’ mortgages?” he said. “This is America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can’t pay their bills?”

He suggested that he would organize a Chicago Tea Party in July, where capitalists would dump “some derivative securities into Lake Michigan.” The video was a huge hit on YouTube, and the Tea Party movement was born.

There has been extensive media coverage of this grassroots organization as it has quickly gained momentum over the past year. Many Tea Party members feel that this coverage has not been fair or accurate.

“They think we’re a bunch of stupid, racist, hillbilly extremists,” said Steve Stevlic, coordinator of the Chicago Tea Party Patriots. He joked at the recent meeting that the members had forgotten to bring their swastikas and pitchforks.

Not all of their media coverage has been negative. Many Fox News commentators have been supporters of the Tea Party, none more so than Glenn Beck. Beck is the host of his own show on Fox, in addition to a nationally syndicated radio show. A large number of Chicago Tea Party members get their information from Fox News and Beck, who is a self-proclaimed conservative.

“He’s an educator. He’s brilliant regarding history and the founding fathers,” said Jeremy Segal, a realtor and member of Chicago’s Tea Party since June. “The mainstream media isn’t reporting what’s going on,” he said, referring to CBS, NBC, ABC and CNN.

“I’ve learned so much from Glenn Beck. Stuff about General Mao, stuff he teaches on the founding fathers that they don’t teach you in school. [The Democrats], they don’t want you to know this stuff,” said Kristen Dawson, an oral hygienist who runs a 9/12 Liberty group in Wilmington, Ohio. The 9/12 Project was started by Glen Beck, and has nearly identical ideals as the Tea Party.

According to multiple Tea Party activists, being conservative and Republican is not the same thing.

“I’m a conservative,” Lindsay said. “We call the Republicans the stupid party. They have the right instincts, but no will power to fight. The left doesn’t bargain.”

Others don’t find it to be a partisan issue. “It’s not about the left or the right. It’s about saving this country!” one man said at the meeting. He declined to be named for this story.

Although the Tea Party doesn’t officially associate itself with the Republican Party, the two share many of the same principles and ideas. They both believe the free market shouldn’t be controlled or regulated.

“We should have done nothing,” said CJ Ford, 33, referring to the bailout. “If you fail, you go bankrupt. That might lead to a depression, but I’d rather have that than government tyranny.” Ford is a former investment analyst and Tea Party activist.

Republicans and Tea Partiers both think taxes should be lower. Many Tea Party groups support Republican candidates. They believe in spending for strong national defense, and not for environmental or social programs. The thing they have most in common is their opposition to President Obama.

“I knew he was a Marxist,” Ford said of the president. “Listen to his policies, his ideas. He said he wants to fundamentally change America. What? The greatest part of the American dream is that you can be rich.”

Other Tea Party activists agreed. “There is a Marxist in the White House.  The leftist media, they don’t understand him,” Lindsay said. “We are not a political party; we’re a pressure group. [Obama] is governing without our consent, without the will of the people.”

Most of these self-proclaimed patriots say Ronald Reagan was the best president this century and that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the worst. They say he started the path to socialism that this country is on with his New Deal and other social programs, including Social Security.

“Since the ’30s, the socialist left realized they wouldn’t win, so they went through and infiltrated the colleges and universities. That way they could teach the next generation [their agenda],” Lindsay said.

Many of Chicago’s Tea Party members say they want to save their country from what they see as Obama’s socialist plan. Some say they got involved when they heard about the administration’s stimulus package, others the health care bill.

Their meeting wasn’t all business, however. The group planned a cookout event this July where any “freedom loving” Americans could come eat, talk and possibly get involved.

“The best part of the Tea Party is the people,” Stevlic said.

The organization has big plans for November. Through donations, they plan to fund robo-calls to districts whose congressman voted for the health care bill. Volunteers will also be going door-to-door and informing people of their message.

This isn’t only happening in Chicago. Around the nation, hundreds of local Tea Party groups are taking action. The effects can already be seen. Last week, Tea Party activists in Utah removed Sen. Bob Bennett’s name from the ballot at a Republican convention. The reason: he wasn’t conservative enough.

This is the usual scene at Studio Be’s weekly college night show, which features Columbia College’s Drop in $cience and DePaul University’s Cosby Sweaters improvisation groups. On this evening, April 22, the performance also featured an independent adult group, the Shock T’s.

The show runs from 10:30 to midnight every Thursday during the school year. The theater is BYOB and promotes itself on its Web site as “Chicago’s best BYOB venue.” Tickets are $5, and according to fans and actors alike, the show is a blast and is always packed.

“We’re the big money-maker for Studio Be,” bragged Ryan Barton, 20, of Chicago, who is an actor for Drop in $cience. “We almost always sell out the show.”

“It’s very hard to be this popular; we can’t even go to the grocery store without someone coming up to us and asking, ‘Would you like paper or plastic?’” joked Kenny Metroff, 27, of Chicago. Metroff is the head coach of Columbia’s Drop in $cience. He has been the head coach for two years, and has recently graduated from the Second City Conservatory.

Studio Be, located at 3110 N. Sheffield Ave, hosts many comedy events throughout the weekend. It is a small theater, seating less than 100 people on folding chairs, which are set up in three sections around the stage. The stage is on the same floor as the seats, only a few feet away, giving it a very personal feeling.

“I think it really works,” said Sachiko Yoshitsugu, 21, of Chicago. Yoshitsugu is a DePaul student and frequenter of college night. “You don’t expect it, walking behind those black curtains after you come in. I was surprised at how intimate the audience is with the stage. It really adds to the whole experience.”

The show’s setup changes from week to week. This time, the Shock T’s went first. This team was comprised of three actors improvising comical songs, with one playing guitar. They started off the show with a song called “Two Guys Tryin’ to Bang One Girl,” where the two males would trade off hitting on the female actress while singing.

Next was DePaul’s Cosby Sweaters. They performed a longer skit about a dysfunctional family’s Thanksgiving dinner.

“Now what does everyone want from Taco Bell?” the male actor playing the mother said in a mock feminine voice. “MOM! Why can’t you put the bottle down and just learn to cook!” said another actor playing the disgruntled son, who was obviously older and still living at home.

Drop in $cience went last, performing a series of skits where cast members were tagged in and out of the scenes. At the beginning, one of the actors asks for a topic. The audience shouted things ranging from “Madonna” to “breast implants,” but the topic chosen tonight was “waffles.”

The actor knelt down, put his jazz hands up in the air and said, “Blueberry!” The others join in one at a time, pretending to be a pile of waffles. “Chocolate chip!” said another. “Plain!” “Artichoke!” “Vodka!” All the while, one actor ran around the group saying “syrup” over and over again. All three groups were a hit with the audience.

After the show, many of the audience members and actors lingered in the theater, talking and laughing with each other. The energy in the room was strong, and almost everyone was finishing off their remaining liquor. Most of Columbia’s team went to a house party later, inviting members of the audience to come.

“They are a pretty tight group of friends now,” Metroff said. He added that working with such a large group of personalities can at times be difficult, but is extremely rewarding.

It took more than a half hour for the managers of Studio Be to get the last remaining actors and patrons to leave the theater.