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MEMBER DIARY
We Are Yet To See Our Finest Hour
The Obama years will be remembered by historians not for the change he will have tried to inflict on the American people, but for their reaction to that attempt. What will come about is a time of American renewal.
Great civilizations sometimes go through periods of growth, apathy, decay, and rebirth. The Egyptians, Chinese, and Israelites underwent these multi-generational swings. As the descendants of the founders of these cultures lost sight of the ideals and core principles that gave them societal strength, they had to return to their roots, reinvent themselves for new conditions, or die.
We want our nation to survive, and believe its best way to do that is to return to its roots in the free market, individual and civic virtue, and personal liberty.
Following the success of the Left Stream Media ™ and Democrat cabal at turning the public against the war in Iraq, Democrats thought the public mind had permanently shifted away from conservatism. Their decades-long effort to boil the American frog in the foul broth of Marxism had finally worked, and we were all socialists now — or so it seemed. They mistook disillusionment over Republican failure as the party of small government and liberty with rejection of small government and liberty itself.
But the disillusionment had allowed an inexperienced demagogue to gain power, intent on tranforming the country into something its citizenry — let alone its founders — would neither recognize nor accept.
But while our political leaders were cowed into accepting a massive, unprecedented and unconstitutional expansion of government with TARP, bailouts, government-controlled health insurance, and attempts to stimulate the economy, the people were not cowed, but awakened. This sudden rapid change was enough to get people who had never before been interested in politics to understand how grave was the danger into which their indifference had placed the republic.
That’s a lesson they won’t soon forget. Barack Obama will be transformational, all right. He has driven America to rediscover its soul. The experience taught the vast, slumbering conservative majority the need to engage, and that they could never again afford the luxury of ignorance.
Another lesson the members of the movement will not forget is the frustration they felt during the runup to the 2010 elections. They went to rallies, called talk radio stations, and spoke to their friends and neighbors. But what was there really to do?
They’ve now discovered what to do. Thanks in no small part to the unflinching effort of Redstate’s own ColdWarrior, a movement within the movement started, called the Neighborhood Precinct Committeeman Project. The process of completely filling Republican precinct committeeman slots just began in 2010, and will continue in the next two years. Our efforts at getting our voters to the polls were just beginning in 2010. Now we know how to do it.
And still the wider movement is not stopping. The election of a Republican House of Representatives relieved some of the pressure, resulting in some good news for retailers at Christmastime. People know that for two years there will be no massive tax and spending increases, at least, even if government is not cut back. But while the LSM fluffs for Obama and Democrats, we continue to hear about actions from the FCC, FDA, EPA (and even more), and other TLA agencies that continue to hone our resolve.
Much is made of Barack Obama’s coming move to the center, and if he transforms back into even an imitation centrist, he may do well with a certain segment of still-inattentive voters. But his disastrous policies will not change, because he is a leftist in his core. He will continue to:
- Push for green energy by punishing oil development
- Punish business generally for making a profit
- Weaken our defense against external foes
- Abuse us in the name of homeland security, as a shared sacrifice
- Insist on ObamaCare
Any of these things separately could keep the Tea Parties together and growing. But taken together they will at once power the growth of the movement and shatter the facade of Obama as a centrist.
Obama means to restore America to its rightful place. Unfortunately he thinks that place is last.
His vision is not shared by the bulk of the citizens, however. We want to be free to succeed or fail without being attacked should we succeed or expecting a bailout should we fail.
There remains an open question: will the Tea Parties — the vast network of independent, autonomous local groups — become a formal political Tea Party, complete with candidates on the ballot and a national infrastructure? I doubt that a single party will form, because of the autonomous nature of the groups.
But these groups do communicate and coordinate their efforts. We have our sights set on the Republican party right now, but will also find constitutional conservatives to retake the Democratic Party, as well as the Libertarian, Green and Communist parties. In the same slow, methodical, unstoppable way we will also take over or neutralize the statist involvement in labor unions, schools, universities, media outlets, and every other public institution.
It may take decades, and liberty being what it is, we may never fully eradicate the un-American folly that is Marxism. But should we succeed, and we believe we will, the Obama years will be known as the time when Americans found again the fierce hunger for liberty that defines us.
P.S.: We said we wanted our country back, and we meant it.
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