Let's Have a Tea Party

Like modern Paul Reveres, the "patriots" of the Tea Party group are storming the country and warning all who will listen about the unsustainable nature of the government's deficit spending and unparalleled debt. Their rejection of politics is largely based on the feeling that both parties are captive of their respective special interests of big business and big government. These people have often stated they need no leader for their grass roots movement.

Yet, the biggest challenge facing the movement is how to organize hundreds of local groups, and dozens of Tea Party leaders nationwide with different interests, into a force that can influence elections. That takes work from a strong, respected, grass roots leader. And then, of course, how does the party fund that effort once such a leader is chosen?

The group has been developing a unified platform in recent months. For example, in Dallas the Tea Party patriot group (www.teapartypatriots.org, January 13, 2010) holds 5 principles as their battle cry:

1.  Limited Government

2.  Fiscal Responsibility 

3.  Personal Responsibility 

4.  The Rule of Law 

5.  National Sovereignty

According to John Avlon, CNN contributor ("Where Does the Tea Party Go From Here? February 8, 2010), "this group embraced the tactics of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals and applied them to the conservative cause, with angry confrontation and street theater protests. They ascribed to Obama every sinister characteristic imaginable -- often a secret plot to undermine our constitutional republic and put in a socialist, one-world government in its place.

Here Are Some Scenes From Tea Party Land:

1. A crowd carrying signs comparing President Obama to Hitler and Communists,
 
2. Former congressman Tom Tancredo accusing the President of being a "committed socialist ideologue" and proposing a civic literacy test for voting,
 
3. WorldNet Daily founder Joseph Fahar using his C-Span-covered post-dinner speech to repeat "Birther" claims (false allegations that President Barack Obama was born in another country),
 
4. Alabama gubernatorial candidate and former state Supreme Court chief justice Roy Moore saying Obama had "ignored our history and our heritage, arrogantly declaring to the world that we are no longer a Christian nation." He also compared Obama to King George III by quoting the Declaration of Independence: "A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people." (John Avlon, "Where Does the Tea Party Go From Here? February 8, 2010)
 
5. Sarah Palin saying simply "America is ready for another revolution."

Better Concerns From My View For the Tea Party

1. Is Sarah Palin the best and most respected grass roots Tea Party presidential candidate you have?

2. With the latest cost of becoming president estimated at half a billion dollars, how is your grass roots movement going to fund their candidate?

3. Since the principles of the party are generally accepted tenets of both Democrats and Republicans, how is your Tea Party going to do a better job with concerns already plaguing the nation without huge Congressional support?

4. Why do many of you Tea Party members choose to rally around tactics such as "name calling" and "hate mongering"?

5. Are many of you Republicans seeking to exploit a populist movement with the Tea Party? Ronald Reagan is gone, forever. To call up ghosts of presidents and conservative views of times past are just attempts to strengthen through imaginary association.

6. How can Palin, as mavericky and rogue as she likes to paint herself, the Vice-Presidential nominee of the Republican Party in 2008, logically distance herself from her own honored beliefs to become one of your great spokespeople? She ran with John McCain and defended the Bush legacy for gosh sakes.