POST FALLS - Pastor Stephen Broden, the keynote speaker at Sunday night's Tea Party Patriots of North Idaho rally, made one thing very clear: He believes the United States of America is headed in the wrong direction.

"Our liberty has been snatched away from us, and we must rescue this republic," Broden said, speaking to a crowd of several hundred at the Greyhound Park in Post Falls. "We are facing what is called soft tyranny."

Broden, a congressional candidate for Texas' District 30, railed against the U.S. government, particularly the Democrat-controlled Congress. He did not directly criticize the Obama administration - he spoke in more general terms - but he did predict that the United States, if not diverted from its present course, will soon become a Communist state.

"You need to be intense to stop this," Broden said. "What we've turned this nation over to is a bunch of Darwinists, socialists, Communists and relativists. They are all anti-God. Our country is being run today by a bunch of anti-God socialists."

His proclamations were met with cheering and applause.

"We just really support the Tea Party," said Jan Connor, 56, of Athol. "They're talking about getting back to the roots, to the Constitution. Everything is just real positive. This negativity we're hearing (about) the Tea Party, it's just not here. It's America's roots."

The Tea Party Patriots of North Idaho - aligned with the nationwide Tea Party Patriots, a grassroots conservative movement - believe in "the core American values of equality, fiscal responsibility, limited government, free markets, limited entitlements, individual responsibility, fair taxation and state and individual sovereignty," according to the organization's website.

Sunday's crowd was a mixed bag of old, young and middle-aged. There were young couples, teenagers and families with several children in tow. Folks came to the rally from Coeur d'Alene, Priest River, Athol, Post Falls and elsewhere.

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter was one of the emcees at the event.

"I think it was very good," 14 year-old Joshua Cole, of Coeur d'Alene, said. "(It) represents our values, the ones that I hold dear. I liked the (keynote) speaker. I liked what he had to say, 'Bring the nation back to God.'"

Hayden resident Judy Dahlman, 49, was also pleased with the Christian message of the event.

"We are concerned about what's going on with the government," Dahlman said. "The more we do study the Constitution, we can see more clearly how the (founding fathers) were based on Christian foundations. If you look at the Ten Commandments, everything in there basically says to be a moral person. Just think if we all did that. What would our nation be like?"