The TEA-Party started a few years ago

Beleive it or not the TEA has been brewing for some time.  In Fact, it began when the Bush Administration began spending money we did not have.  War or no War, the cronyism in the Bush Administration was the worst America has seen since Ulysses S. Grant my ancestor lead this nation.
The availability of information on the internet sure has not hurt either.  For the first time in 200 years citizens can read about government spending, legislation and more.  This enables Voters for the first time in history to evaluate Elected Officials based on the work they have done rather than the current campaign promises of the day.  The whistle stop tour has been replaced by the campaign mailer.  The images, myths, hype and promises of the campaign mailers have been the primary method for Voters to learn about their candidates for the last 60 years.  The conclusions drawn in negative TV ads work.  But now Voters do have the ability to do their own analysis and draw their own conclusions.


The TEA-Party is in many ways a response to the MoveOn success.  MoveOn has been very successful in drumming up donations with a series of email campaigns and street protest.  MoveOn re-directs those funds some 32 million each year to democratic Party candidates of their choice.  MoveOn members and donors are very much separated from the MoveOn spending and election campaign contributions.

The TEA-Party has had greater success, in 2010, because it is many regional organizations of people who take a very active roll and press for their agenda when looking to support a candidate.  At the core of GOP grass roots actions is the willingness to toss out RINO's.  In the short term it may seem like a disaster, but in the long run I would not say it adds strength, but it creates an advantage over the Democratic Party.  The Democratic Party is plagued with DINO's, Do nothing Congress Members, and Blue Dogs (or Leeches) in their party.  The forgiving nature of the Democratic Voters aids in masking the already deceptive campaign promise methods.  The ability to purge truly ineffective elected officials is key to success.

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They STILL Don’t Get It

Posted on 16 September 2010. Tags: christine o'donnell, delaware, gop, mike castle, Obama, tea party

I wrote in my last column (“The GOP Establishment’s Tea-ness Envy”, Political Vanguard, Sept, 7) that the GOP establishment was in full hysteria meltdown about the successes of the Tea Party and the Great Voter Revolt (GVR) of ’10.  Turns out what appeared to be a full meltdown and hair pulling hysteria was just a warm up for reaction to this week’s primaries, most specifically in Delaware.
Republican voters in the “first state” nominated a Tea Party/Sarah Palin-endorsed candidate, Christine O’Donnell, for the U.S. Senate, in the process defeating veteran GOP Congressman Mike Castle. The reaction of the establishment – both GOP and mass media versions – has been a full mouth-foaming, spittle-spewing, shrieking nervous breakdown.  The media and GOP elders are doing the political equivalent of the Three Stooges Curley’s laying on the floor and spinning on his shoulder.
It is generally accepted that the GVR was ignited by CNBC’s Rick Santelli’s “I’m mad as hell and not going to take it anymore” commentary in February, 2009. The establishment has had 19 months to figure out the GVR and they still have no clue. The blindness of the GOP establishment in particular has been egregious. As I wrote on 9/7, the GOP elders are “facing one of the largest political waves in American history, but instead of realizing its goals are basically those of the Republican Party, their fear of the great unwashed and of losing some exclusivity drives them to make enemies of people who are by nature their allies.”
The folks who make up the GVR are truly “common folks” in the best sense of that word.  Most of them have not been active politically in the past, and are motivated by a deep concern about the kind of country they will leave their children. They want to make American once again Ronald Reagan’s “shining city on the hill,” not the swampland of collectivism toward which Barry O’s crew has us hurtling.
But the establishment seems genetically incapable of recognizing a genuine grass roots citizen revolt. It appears that the Republican Party’s leaders in D.C., who should be the tribunes for the middle class, can’t relate to anyone not wearing tasseled loafers beneath a $2,500 suit.  Hence the GVR must be demonized, marginalized and driven from polite public discourse.
GOP Congressman Mike Castle, the establishment candidate defeated by the GVR for the Senate nomination in Delaware, was a one-man embodiment of everything the GVR means to overturn.  He was first elected to public office in 1966, so has been gumming the public teat for a mere 44 years.  He had survived all those decades by being the perfect political chameleon, able to change colors and positions at a moment’s notice.
Castle was the personification of Groucho Marx’s character in “Duck Soup” – Rufus T. Firefly, the President of Freedonia. Making his case as to why he’d be a good President, Groucho says, “Gentlemen, these are my principles.  And if you don’t like those, well, I have others”.
The Republican voters of Delaware joined their confreres in Florida, Nevada, Alaska, Utah and elsewhere in showing they will not be led by feeble leaders. They do not want leaders whose principles are room temperature jello. They demand a GOP banner this year that matches Ronald Reagan’s of “bright bold colors, with no pale pastels”.
Moderately conservative political commentator Rich Galen recently described the GVR this way, “This is about electing people who are going to get the federal government to stop pressing the handle that has been flushing America’s wealth, ingenuity, and capacity for hard work down the toilet bowl of history by promising more and more to people who have produced less and less until no one has anything.”
This has been the message of successful Republican campaigns for decades.  That the GOP establishment recoils in fear from it today says all that needs to be said about the drastic need for a house cleaning in D.C.
I was in D.C. last weekend for the 50^th anniversary celebration of the founding of Young Americans for Freedom – YAF, the organization that formed me politically.  The keynote speaker was former Senator Jim Buckley, brother of William F.  Senator Buckley summed up the challenge facing America this year thus: “The critical question facing us today is one of national character: Do sufficient numbers of Americans still prize their independence enough to resist the statists’ seductive offers of a phantom cradle-to-grave security?”
The GVR’s answer to Buckley’s question is a resounding, shouted at full throat “YES!”  Thus speaks America, and the Republican establishment will either listen or be  deservedly tossed on the ashheap of history.