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May the Tea Party Die a Natural Death…

By: tomtflorida (Diary)  |  April 15th, 2010 at 08:10 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

In response to Erick Erickson’s Tea Party 2.0 post today, I penned the following article on
February 21, 2010.  Perhap’s great minds do think alike!  :)

I remember the very first tea party I attended, just under a year ago.  How incredibly exciting it was to see so many conservative citizens coming together to speak out on the issues that I saw as threatening to our country.  It was encouraging, even heart warming, as I looked around me and realized that were so many who felt the same way I did.  It was almost surreal to see conservative folks taking to the streets…’we never do that’, I thought!  Everyone seemed to agree on the principles of the battle that loomed, recognizing that the political process was broken on both sides of the isle, and that it was up to we, the people, to bring about the change so desperately needed to secure the future of this great nation.  From that moment on, I knew that I was in this fight to the end.

Now, after being intimately involved in the tea party movement for the better part of the past year, my thought is ‘what a difference a year makes’!  I’m not sure whether it’s the Marxist leaning regime currently in control of government that has me so dismayed, or if it’s the tea party movement itself.  Those who purport to represent this movement seem to have completely forgotten that is was love of country and concern for the future our children inherit that brought so many people to the battle.  The movement has evolved into a constant power struggle, no different from the very political parties that everyone loves to hate.  Everyone jockeying for position and tearing down those around them to ensure their rightful place at the top.  And, now that the media has begun to accept the movement, you see this ruthless struggle intensify.  In the eyes of many, the real enemy seems to be the person standing next to them, the one who poses a danger to the exposure that may be gained by being involved in the movement, not the radical ideologues that control government.
 
In light of this, it seems that the only logical course of action is to resign from the tea party movement.  I am reminded of the comment Ronald Reagan made about the Democratic party; ‘I didn’t leave the Democratic party.  The party left me’.  That is where I find myself today; I didn’t change the reasons I got involved, the movement has changed it’s priorities.  We need to realize that the movement has always been we, the people.  We don’t need a cute title, nor do we need others to define what is or is not acceptable.  All we need to do is to rely on our own values and moral compasses.  The same qualities that were evident when well over a million of us convened on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol, and left those grounds cleaner than we found them.
 
I contend that from this day forward, that I, and others who feel as I do, be know as ‘concerned citizens’.  As concerned citizens, we understand that we must educate ourselves on the issues.  We also understand that America is a two party system, and that third parties are nothing more than spoilers.  We recognize that this movement has always been about conservative values, and that there is but one viable party that best represents those values.  We also understand that this party is far from what we want it to be, however, we know it’s our responsibility to get involved to ensure that it does come to reflect our values.  We reject the cop out that it’s the politicians and parties that are at fault, seeing this as the easy way out that allows us to avoid owning up to our own failures.  We understand that our role does not end when we elect those who claim to represent our values, that our responsibility has only just begun, and we commit to holding our representatives accountable for their actions, even if they are from ‘our’ party.  We will no longer allow the fox to guard the hen house, as we know the outcome is predictable when we do.  We understand that our founding fathers always intended it to be we, the people, who guard our liberty. 
 
Let us all pray that the tea party movement dies a natural death, and in it’s wake, a new army of concerned citizens emerges, ready to take it’s rightful place in the governing of America.  It is only then that we can be sure that our children, and our children’s children inherit the country our forefathers envisioned so many years ago…
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  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    NOW is at you local Republican Party committee meeting to become a voting member of the Party — a “card carrying member” of the Party — so you can vote for the Party leadership (or run for an office yourself) and be in the BEST position to vet the candidates in the all-important, traditionally-very-low-turnout primary elections and then work to help get out the vote for the BEST conservative candidates in the primary elections.

    If you’d like to learn more, please see my blog below.

    Thank you.
    ColdWarrior
    Conservatives, UNITE! Become Republican precinct committeemen and CHANGE the Party and the World! NOW!

    • http://nationalchat.wordpress.com southeasttexas

      A comment, or a solicitation for something else? Whatever it may be, I fail to see any value in it.

  • Scope

    always manage to ruin a good thing in their quest for more power, more say, more influence. In any movement, the size of the Tea Parties, there will always be the rotten apples trying to spread their rot onto the whole. I think that the National Tea Party event this year was a part of the destruction. The cost was high for those attending, and, it was attended by the so-called leaders of various Tea Parties across the nation. Look back at who and what attended that event, it wasn’t the everyday people. That is not what the movement was all about. The movement was a spontaneous grassroots shout out to those in Washington who are moving the country in a very bad direction. It is about everyday people who are frustrated, and for many, it was the first time many had a chance to physically have a way of expressing that frustration.

    Another group that has done everything in their power to take over the movement has been the Ron Paul Campaign for Liberty people, in order to try to recruit more Paulites to their loony causes. Unfortunately they are very loud, and, accept nothing that doesn’t fit neatly into their box of screwy ideas.

    I do think there is still a need for as many people to assemble, as the masses have had an impact on those in Washington. It has energized and invigorated the few conservatives in Washington who are on our side. It has been enough of a threat to the Washington Progressives, that they now avoid townhalls, and fear their upcoming re-elections.