With the
General Election on the horizon, the Tea Party movement is still
misunderstood, maligned and mischaracterized by the media, the
establishment politicians, and the societal elite. Tea Party supporters
are still branded as Extremists, Radicals, Ultra-conservatives and that
special Liberal hate epithet - Christians.
Thomas Paine, Sam
Adams, Patrick Henry, and most other Founders were all extremists by any
standard, Indeed, the Declaration of Independence was a radical
document, and the concept of God-given - not government granted - rights
was an extreme view.
Barry Goldwater was a modern day extremist: “I
would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice!
And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is
no virtue!” Of course, he was defeated in 1964 by a non-extremist,
Lyndon Johnson ... who cost the lives of 58,000 Americans in Vietnam.
Johnson’s non-extremist “War on Poverty” has cost Americans $8 trillion
in big government social programs over the past 50 years as well – and
we still have a record number of poor people (1 in 7 according to a
recent survey).
Among the more extreme ideas of these modern day extremists are these:
1.
Repeal the 16th Amendment (the Income Tax) and abolish the IRS – the
most egregious violation of citizen’s rights and the most onerous
enforcement agency ever devised by man. Oh yes, that is extreme.
2.
Reduce the size and scope of the federal government by enforcing the
United States Constitution’s mandate that the federal role be limited to
enumerated powers, and that all others are reserved to the states and
the citizens.
3. Redesign and replace the giant “Ponzi Schemes”
known as Social Security and Medicare with state level systems that are
reasonable, necessary, and properly funded to ensure benefits promised
are benefits received.
4. Implement the three efforts that will
truly assist the private sector in creating jobs and getting the economy
going: reduce regulations, reduce taxes, and get the hell out of the
way.
5. Stop trying to be “mom” to all citizens and insist on them taking personal responsibility for their lives.
6.
Stop fueling the costs of higher education by insisting that all
students should go to college, paid for by the public – they shouldn’t.
Many should get a job... and get a life.
7. Get “Big Brother” out of
our bedrooms – and our kitchens, family rooms, backyards, and garages.
If we want to buy solar panels or a hybrid Prius, we will.
8. Stop
the flow of money from big business AND big labor that fuels the royal
luxury lives of politicians who pretend to serve the public.
These
aren’t new extreme ideas by the way – they have been around for 60
years. Neither Democrats nor Republicans have supported them. It’s time
to elect true representatives of the people who do. Republicans are best
inclined ideologically to support these ideals, but they need to scrap
their party institutions or get run over by “We, the people.”
The
political experts and even their own Party organizations failed to
support Republicans Sharron Angle (NV), Rand Paul (KY), Christine
O’Donnell (DE), Joe Miller (AK) or Marco Rubio (FL). These “extremists”
WERE supported by the Tea Party movement – and they won.
Yes,
the Tea Party movement is about taxes, but it’s much more. Destroying
the Constitution a little at a time does not make it ok. Ignoring
duties, inventing rights, and restructuring the traditions upon which
our government and society are based is not ok. Democrats have morphed
into Progressive Socialists and Republicans have responded by becoming
Democrats. The Tea Party is filling the void created by this political
shift to the left by occupying the intellectual area in which most
Americans find comfort and agreement. Americans want a Constitutional
government - and much less of it. Democrats are destroying it;
Republicans haven’t got the guts to return to it; and Americans are
tired of failures by BOTH Parties.
Americans are tired of a tax
system that is a wreck and being made worse. They are tired of tax
policies being used for credits and penalties in social engineering; to
reward and punish as if we were laboratory rats. They want political
courage to repeal the Income Tax and replace it with a single, uniform,
unobtrusive sales tax applied to all goods and services, and limited in
the amount the government can take.
Americans are tired of
politicians being bought and sold as they cater to their own personal
desires and the special wants of large corporations, unions, and single-
interest advocates such as Environmentalist. They are tired of the
obscene amounts of money assuring perpetual re-election of politicians
and insulation from serious challenge (until now).
Americans are
tired of the never-ending barrage of laws and regulations designed not
to foster liberty and happiness, but to control and destroy it. They
are tired of 3,000 page laws and the games played with laws like
attaching earmarks or the illegal alien amnesty (DREAM Act) currently
being pushed by Harry Reid as part of a defense appropriations bill.
What a disgusting insult both to our citizens, and to our military.
Americans
are tired of a national government making things worse by expanding its
reach where it has no Constitutional authority such as education and
energy, while doing poorly those things in which it’s primary duty lies,
like immigration, border security, and international treaties and
trade. They are tired of seeing special benefits such as health and
pensions for public employees and politicians, while they are forced
into public boondoggles like Social Security and Medicare.
Americans
are tired of being told that we are not a Christian nation, but the
largest Muslim nation in the world. They are tired of being berated for a
nativity scene at City Hall, but forced to accept a mosque at “Ground
Zero,” and then using taxpayer dollars to fund Islamic mosque
construction around the world.
Americans are tired of Americans
living in poverty with bridges and roads falling apart, while spending
hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars in foreign countries without
Constitutional authority to do so.
Americans are tired of
political arrogance, aristocracy and condescension They are tired of the
view that only the Harvard/Yale elite can deal with the complexity of
government, while their idiotic programs cause financial crisis, housing
meltdown, and throw $trillions at social welfare and phony job creation
schemes.
Americans are tired of equating time in office with
experience and such “experience” as a substitute for character; they are
tired of the lack of honesty and true public service. Washington was an
amateur of the highest accomplishment: modest, reverent, and revered.
He was a military man deserving of the title “Commander-in-Chief.” Obama
is well educated yet lacking in accomplishment, arrogant, slavish to
Muslim values, and tolerated, at best. He lacks the credentials to serve
as a Private, much less Commander-in-Chief.
Americans are tired
of spoiled, selfish amateurs running the country. The Founders
generally were men of industry, science, achievement, and unselfish
giving. The modern political class couldn’t carry their boots – and is
destroying their brilliant gift to humanity. Americans are tired of
“politics as usual. Status quo has to go.
Americans are tired of
catering to the demands of illegal aliens, Muslims, gays,
environmentalists, and other special interests, while the general
welfare, interests, and values are trampled.
Americans are tired
of apologizing to losers, whiners, and criminals for their choices,
while punishing achievers, hard workers, and simple, decent citizens for
theirs.
Americans are tired of courts deciding against the
public will and the public good, and even in contravention of the
Constitution itself, to push an agenda of invented rights, arcane
thinking, and twisted logic.
The political analysts continue to
underestimate the power of the Tea Party and the anger of the American
citizens. They continue to counsel compromise and sacrifice of principle
as the road to victory, but Tea party supporters know the failure of
that logic: it is the impregnation from which Arlen Specters and Olympia
Snowes are born. A Republican Party that supports a Democrat agenda is
no victory except for the analyst’s egos.
The Tea Party is not
some temporary phenomenon; it is not an unstable fringe of radicals and
extremists. It is, in fact, the best hope for America’s return to
greatness, short of another American Revolution. Alas, many feel that
failure to remove the elites and career politicians will leave no choice
but that latter course of action.
They can’t say we didn’t try.
