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The future of the Tea Party

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PGA and politicians take note! And everyone else, consider taking out some insurance.

Many are speculating about the future of the Tea Party. Had these people really understood the true nature of the Tea Party, they wouldn’t call for leaders to emerge, or try to form a political party like the Republicans or the Democrats.

What is the Tea Party?

The Tea Party is a grassroots movement. It has sprouted up all across the nation like blades of grass growing on somebody’s lawn. Every blade of grass is a citizen that rejects career politicians and the messes, fiscal and constitutional, that they made. These citizens want to rein in out-of-control government and restore the principles this country was founded upon. They value life, freedom, and the right to pursue happiness as they see fit.

The future of the Tea Party can never be in jeopardy as long as any citizens are willing to stand up and reclaim what our government has corrupted. The future of the Tea Party does not lie in the hands of any one person or leader. Its members are all fiercely independent – just as Americans have always been a fiercely independent people. The Tea Parties throughout the nation are as diverse as the citizenship of this nation. They are me. They are you. They are your neighbor living down the street. They are the shop owner struggling to make ends meet. They are citizens from every walk of life and every national origin.

What does that special election really tell us?

Some predicted the demise of the Tea Party based on one election. In New York’s 26th District, a Democrat won a seat that Republicans held since 1970. But this speaks to the future of the Tea Party in terms that politicos seldom understand. The Republican that lost the election was a career politician. If there is anything or anyone that the Tea Party detests, it’s career politicians. Party affiliation does not let anyone off the hook. In fact, the Tea Party has coined the name RINO (Republicans In Name Only). Anyone who earns this label can find themselves in the sights of the Tea Party as public enemy number one. (And by the way, Mark Thiessen of The Washington Post reminds us that the Democrats, in 2009, won a special election in New York and got over-confident. And we all know what happened in the next year.)

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What is the future of the Tea Party?

As long as there are American citizens who value the Constitution and its principles of limited government, there will be Americans who will be willing to stand up and be part of the future of the Tea Party, whether it be next week, next year, or 200 years from now. The future of the Tea Party is secure as long as America is secure. As long as America continues to be the land the of the free and the home of the brave, the future of the Tea Party will continue. The same spirit that lived in those Americans in Boston over 200 years ago when they dressed as Indians and threw over-taxed Tea overboard, lives in every member of the Tea Party today.

May God continue to bless America and may God preserve the future of the Tea Party.

Featured image: the Gadsden Rattlesnake Flag, unofficial banner of the Tea Party. Photo: User Vikrum/Wikimedia Commons

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RoseAnn Salanitri is a published author and Acquisition Editor for the New Jersey Family Policy Council. She is a community activist who has founded the Sussex County Tea Party in her home state and launched a recall movement against Senator Robert Menendez. RoseAnn is also the founder of Veritas Christian Academy, as well as co-founder of Creation Science Alive, and a national creation science speaker.

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John

I’m left with more questions than answers after reading this article, largely because you don’t back up your assertions with any evidence, and some of your assertions are dissonant with other assertions you make.

From what you’ve said, the Tea party is about a return to constitutional government and a hatred of career politicians. I’m with you on both of these issues. I hate career politicians, and I agree that our government has strayed from the constitution on a number of issues (although I disagree on what issues).

You seem to make the case (somewhat loosely) that the Tea party is not affiliated with the Republican party, and that it is a grassroots movement. I’m not sure I can buy into this.

The Tea Party is only concerned with electing Republican candidates, and seems to appeal to the most conservative Republicans (hence the term RINO being used extensively by the Tea Party). There’s no denying this.

I think the reason that people do not want the Tea Party becoming a legitimate political party, is not because it is a grassroots movement, but because that would split the Republican vote.

The Tea Party is not a grassroots movement largely because it receives an uncomfortable amount of corporate sponsorship (Koch Industries as one example), as well as a lot of funding from establishment Republicans like Dick Armey (a career politician). It is difficult to believe that the Tea Party is made up of a bunch of concerned citizens from all walks of life when that isn’t where the money is coming from.

The term “____ In Name Only” is probably one of the most self-destructive terms to ever come about. It is meant to rally people to a cause, but instead it just drives people away by creating a false Us Vs. Them dichotomy. In addition, this “If you don’t agree with us all of the time, you’re not one of us” is a serious threat to critical thinking. Furthermore, when the candidates that arise from this are people like Christine O’Donnell, it is demonstrably self-defeating to the objective at hand.

As for limited government, this seems to be a desire that people shouldn’t pay taxes even when we’re in debt, and healthcare reform is a bad thing, even when the current healthcare system is bankrupting millions of American families. Most of the policies the tea party espouses work against the interests of the middle class, and only serve the interests of the upper class.

Why doesn’t the Tea Party take a stance on corporate interests taking control of our government? Why doesn’t the Tea Party ever talk about the giant wealth disparity between the middle class and the richest few percent? Why doesn’t the Tea Party seem to care about the completely unconstitutional and disastrous War on Drugs? Why isn’t the Tea Party concerned with how the War on Drugs and the War on Terror have been used to justify gross violations of American civil rights, and internationally, human rights?

From what I’ve seen of the Tea Party, it is nothing but career politicians and corporate interests strumming up incoherent rage expressed through misspelled, grammatically incorrect hyperbole in a cynical attempt to get the American middle class to actively participate in its own destruction.

“The future of the Tea Party is secure as long as America is secure.” is dissonant with the idea that the Tea Party is some sort of grassroots attempt to save the American government. If America were secure, there wouldn’t be any need for this movement to exist.

And on a historical note, the tea thrown into the bay during the Boston Tea Party was not overtaxed. In fact, it was cheaper than black market tea at the time. It was the principle of being taxed without having any say in the matter that was the problem, not being overtaxed. Most of the people throwing the tea were not dressed up as Native Americans. Not all of the Founding Fathers agreed expressing this rage against taxation without representation was best done by destroying a bunch of tea since it didn’t belong to the British Crown, but a private company.

And lastly, yes, God Bless America.

Danny Curtis

John, I’m sorry but you either, “just don’t get it”, or you are a lemming liberal who attacks the messenger while ignoring the message. Roseann is correct. It is grass roots and each member does what they feel is best. Tea Party members don’t care if you are a Republican or a Democrat. If you are wrong you are wrong. If you are right we will support you regardless of party. We don’t get “talking points”. We are united not by hack leaders but by a common cause and the common cause is “WE THE PEOPLE” and NOT I the government. See “Too Big to Fail”. This was caused by the Bush administration along with Big Business and the Democrats that ran congress. They are all to blame. Along came your great Hope and Change and he sold out immediately. He exacerbated the problem. We are worse off now: 31,500 more troops sent to Afghanistan; An unprovoked war declared in Libya; Gasoline prices, Food prices, Inflation, Inflation, Inflation. Unemployment, Unemployment, Unemployment. His promises of closing GITMO gone with the Washington wind. Bush ended up as a terrible president by allowing the financial collapse to occur. Obama is worse then Bush and Carter combined. He has “failed our country.” When we all start putting Country above Party we will succeed in saving WE THE PEOPLE.

John

Danny, you’re either ignorant of the facts or just making things up. Maybe both. Just because you say something does not make it true.

The Tea Party is not a grassroots organization because it does not receive the majority of its funding through grassroots efforts. Instead the Tea Party is largely funded by corporate interests and establishment Republicans. You can look this up for yourself if you’d bother to take the time, instead of just making stuff up and being wrong.

Name one Democrat candidate who has been backed by the Tea Party. Name one non-Republican candidate backed by the Tea Party on the national level. You can’t because the Tea Party is made up almost exclusively by Republicans. It is, perhaps not explicitly, a branch of the Republican party.

I’ve never made any endorsement of Obama, and I think he’s a pretty terrible president. He’s not done being president yet, but thus far, I wouldn’t say he’s worse than Carter or Bush. Carter just ignored the problems of the economy, and Bush Jr. was one of the worst presidents this nation has ever seen for a dozen reasons. Obama has screwed up (ObamaCare is a joke no matter how you look at it), but he’s not nearly as bad as people claim. He’s a moderate if he’s anything, and you can come from any sort of political background and be either a great or a terrible president. I disagreed with Clinton more often than not, but he was a hell of a lot better president than either Bush, and I agreed with the Bushes on more issues. Obama’s a bad president because he’s ineffective, not because of any singular policy of his.

And right there, in that last paragraph, that’s why I can’t join the Tea Party. I have this terrible habit of thinking for myself.

I agree with you that the political parties are a large part of the problem. That’s why I have such disdain for the Tea Party. To say political parties are the problem and then endorse the Tea *Party* makes you a hypocrite.

Sovereign

The Tea Party “movement” if you will, began as a disparate series of gatherings of people who shared a common sense that the systems in power in the country were taking us all in the wrong direction.

The Tea Party ‘philosophy’ if you can correctly label it as such and make the label stick, is to develop an independent and non-partisan approach to resolving the issues among voters that can then translate into a significant and effective instrument of change to be applied to the systems in power.

The Tea Party ‘challenge’ will always be to prevent the movement, it’s philosophy, and it’s power from being co-opted, divided, and weakened by those who have the most to lose from it’s ascendancy.

Sadly, America today, is not constituted of the hearty folks of our Colonial days and their awareness of the exigencies of their day — from which there arose the passion and fierce commitment to liberty and freedom that would be necessary to throw off the shackles of the Crown.

The truth is that the Colonists DID have leaders — And DARNED GOOD ONES at that. Today, we remember them as the Founders.

To expect the Tea Party ‘philosophy’ to carry the day without the vision and strength of vision of GREAT LEADERS of the highest integrity and love of our country who cannot be bought or co-opted by the established power brokers who control the levers of power in the country today, is to delude ourselves in a cruel fantasy.

Americans have been lulled into a state of political stupor over the past 50 years or so. We ceased to watch with vigilance over our government and their stewardship of our treasure, our prestige and goodwill in the world, and, indeed, our very legacy.

And now, out of this ignorance and neglect, our country is in mortal peril for her very existence. And, even still, only a very few Americans are really awake to and understand just how serious that peril is.

Those who identify with the Tea Party indeed, collectively constitute a powerful political force. But to transform that power into a meaningful instrument for the reclamation of our country from the moneychangers and the globalists fascists who will otherwise enslave us and our posterity, the Tea Party is going to need LEADERSHIP!

While this may not be 1776, the human condition has not changed and the stakes are no less grave.

Time is VERY SHORT!

Tea PrtyDem

John, how frequently do YOU participate in the Journo-List conference calls? I ask because you are touting the leftist, main stream media propaganda. Are there surrepticious GOP Tea Party groups? Yes. Are corporate entities trying to influence? Yes again. Are career politicians trying to co-opt the Tea Party Movement? Yes again. But….but…we know who the stinkers are and they are in a small majority. The Tea Party Movement on a whole, an overwhelming majority, are self funded citizen activists, period. You can ignore that or lie about it to suit your warped agenda if you like.
I am a Tea Party Democrat. Numerous Tea Parties assisted my short lived congressional campaign in ’10. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. A GOP led movement would not do that, only a Movement consisting of true American Patriots would.

jeanette borges

“The Tea Party ‘challenge’ will always be to prevent the movement, it’s philosophy, and it’s power from being co-opted, divided, and weakened by those who have the most to lose from it’s ascendancy”.

That is indeed the challenge and you must concede that it is exactly what has happened. The ones with the most to lose were the corrupt politicians that serve oligarchs and they have turned the Tea Party message into their message. I am sorry, but I was the Ron Paul movement before the Tea Party even was. That was a grassroots movement. Do the Tea Party masses really stand for corporate tax cuts and loopholes at the expense of Medicare and Social Security? Do they really stand for funding eternal wars at the expense of everything else? I submit that the masses do not. The corporate leaders and corrupt politicians that serve them, like Cantor, that have hijacked the movement do want eternal wars at the expense of everything else. The masses do not stand for corrupt tax cuts and serving the highest bidders. They do not stand for corrupt laws that serve the oligarchs that can buy laws. They did not stand for any of that but that is exactly what they are being blamed for. Corrupt politicians are blaming their corruption on what the “Tea Party” wants and the masses better stand up and say it is not true. I have written to over 200 journalists about this issue THE ILLUSION OF DEMOCRACY: THE SYSTEMIC PILLAGING OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
link to ourrighttoknow.blogspot.com
Our problems are not liberal, conservative or Tea Party. Those arguments are used to divide and distract us from teh real problem. As a people our problem is full blown blatant legalized bribery and corruption. By definition these United States is no longer a government of, by and for the people. Congress serves the highest bidders and they are using the Tea Party right now to do it. It is heartbreaking.

“The Tea Party Movement on a whole, an overwhelming majority, are self funded citizen activists”. That may be but their message is not one of the masses, unless the Tea Party masses support oligarchs which is exactly what Congress is doing in the name of the Tea Party. (Democrats and Republicans alike. The Tea Party masses do not support oligarchs yet that is exactly what Congress is using them to do. What we stand for and what the media and corrupt politicians say we stand for are two different things.

Since when is the Tea Party the big advocate for corporations that have hijacked a government of, by and for the people? (and I am not talking about small businesses) Since when is funding 6 wars and giving tax cuts to war profiteers the message of the Tea Party masses?

An oligarchy is repugnant to the Constitution and that is exactly what Congress is supporting in name of the Tea Party.

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