Brandon Wood says enough is enough.

He used to enjoy riding off-road motor vehicles with his kids — until Hesperia passed an ordinance prohibiting it. He’s also been caught on one of Victorville’s unpopular red light cameras, facing a hefty $450 fine.

“Who wanted it?” Wood asked about such government regulations. “No one around me. The government is now working for itself, not for us.”

Wood recently learned about the High Desert Tea Party, a local Tea Party chapter, through a friend and attended a meeting at the Legendary Cocky Bull restaurant on Highway 395 and Palmdale Road. There he discovered a group where hundreds of residents boo and hiss at the mention of tax hikes and “Obamacare,” and then chant “hear, hear” in support of Arizona immigration law and easing regulations on small businesses.

Wood said he left the meeting feeling “fired up.”

The Tea Party phenomenon isn’t exactly a fledging political party, but a loosely united movement of grassroots efforts across the nation. Frustrated by a government they say doesn’t listen to its citizens anymore, Tea Partiers are driven by a mission to “take back the country” and reclaim the vision and principles of the founding fathers.

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