MARIETTA - The national Tea Party movement is celebrating its birthday on Saturday, with a local Cobb County chapter scheduling an event at East Cobb Park off Roswell Road.

The celebration kicks off at 4 p.m. Saturday at the park, with a reading of the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, interspersed with live music. Event organizer Tom Maloy of Powder Springs encourages attendees to bring lawn chairs.

Maloy, 67, a grandfather of two who previously owned an investor relations firm in Marietta, never paid much attention to politics in the past. But Maloy said he is troubled with the direction the country is headed, particularly the "out-of-control" government spending he fears will bankrupt the nation. Last year, he joined the newly formed Georgia Tea Party, Inc., which as far as he knows is the only tea party group in Cobb County.

"When you read the Constitution, this is such a short little document," Maloy said, holding up a copy.

"When you read it, and you see how it's being abused - I had no choice but to join this organization or some organization and get involved, 'cause if you don't get involved with government, the government is going to get involved with you,'" he said.

Georgia Tea Party, Inc. is one of a number of Tea Party groups in the Peach State. It is governed by a nine-person board, of which Maloy is a member. The group holds weekly volunteer meetings at the Cobb library on Roswell Road by Marietta Square, drawing an audience of around 100 people, communicating through an e-mail list of some 2,000 names, he said.

The group's chairman, J.D. Van Brink, 52, of Acworth, a technical analyst for Total Systems Services, Inc., said, "Our mission statement is to impact public policy by teaching all who seek to learn the principles and spirit of individual liberty and Constitutionally limited self-government."

"I'm sure there are Democrats who look at that mission statement and find things they agree with. There will be Republicans who do the same and Libertarians who will see things they agree with and have in common," Brink said.

The group hosted a Tea Party on July 3, 2009, at Jim Miller Park that Maloy said drew a crowd of some 6,000 to 7,000 with radio talk show host Herman Cain. The party does not accept sponsorships or donations from elected officials or candidates, nor does it allow them to speak at the party's events.

"They're welcome to come, they're welcome to work the crowd, shake hands, kiss babies, whatever, but they are not running the show. The people are running the show," Brink said.

Tea Party groups are independent from one another and don't all agree on the same issues.

"This is a very decentralized, grassroots movement," Brink said.

But the groups are united in their devotion to the Constitution.

"We all agree that the Constitution is the law of the land and our objective is to return the governance of our country to constitutional principles. We're all free-market people who believe in smaller government and lower taxes," Maloy said.

The group tries to make a difference through education.

"What we're trying to do is educate people to the issues so that when they see that a particular candidate is not taking the same position on the issues than they would take, then they're going to vote for the other person," he said.

Maloy believes the movement is directly responsible for the election of a Republican to the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by Democratic lion Ted Kennedy.

"In a way, it is democracy at its best - citizens taking action, getting involved in a way that represents their interests," said Kennesaw State University's Dr. Kerwin Swint, a political scientist specializing in elections, on the movement.

"On one level, it shows a hunger for representation and demands for certain kinds of action. And on another level, I believe it represents a certain fear of big government under Barack Obama and anxiety over the direction he and other Democratic Party leaders want to take the country," Swint said.

Swint said most Tea Party members are united in believing that what Obama wants to do is socialism. A healthy proportion of them also believe Obama was not born in this country, and surveys continue to show that a certain number also believe him to be a Muslim, he said.

For his part, Maloy said as long as he has been attending the Tea Party meetings, he's never heard any mention of Obama's birth certificate or his religion.

"The Tea Party movement is really not about Obama at all," Maloy said.

"It's about the government, and that includes the president and the Congress and goes back to the former administration ignoring the tenets of the Constitution," Maloy said. "Obama comes into the mix at the point where his administration has accelerated the movement away from the Constitution, but the Tea Party is not involved in whether or not he is a citizen of this country. As far as we know, he is. It has nothing to do with his religion."

Swint said the question for many is what does all the Tea Party organizing and activity lead to.

"Is it mainly about opposition to health care? Opposition to Obama? Will it be a short-term movement or will it lead to something more permanent and institutional? Republican political candidates can take advantage of the activism and energy of the Tea Party movement, but that same activism may turn off moderates and independents - of course, if they are in strong Republican districts, then who cares?" Swint said.

Another aspect that makes the movement interesting for a political scientist like Swint is that Americans are used to seeing this kind of activism and demonstrating from the political left, except for the Pro Life movement.

"If the Republican Party or individual candidates can harness the energy and loyalty of the Tea Party groups, it could be a potent political force. Or it could all fall apart over the next year or so with different agendas, leadership struggles, and political setbacks," Swint said.

For now, Brink believes officials are taking note.

"I would say that Congress did listen to us last year, because otherwise health care would be passed. Are they listening as much as they should? No. Are they listening? I think enough are that we are making an impact and I think we will continue to make an impact," he said.

For more information on the Georgia Tea Party, contact Maloy at 770-422-3199 or visit http://www.thegeorgiateaparty.org/.