Most people don’t believe this, but I wasn’t involved in politics until February 15, 2009. No kidding. TRUE STORY.
I mean, I was absolutely MORTIFIED when Obama got elected. I actually came home from work early to make sure I had a scotch, neat, ready and waiting for the inaugural speech. I really did. And it wasn’t because he’s half-black. It was because, what little attention I WAS paying to the election, it was so very clear to me that this man was a socialist. He spoke openly of redistribution of wealth thru socialized medicine and schemes like Cap & Trade, or as I like to call it, CAP & TAX-THE-CRAP-OUT-OF-US.
He had these radical associations that really were quite scary. And that whole business with not agreeing with a preacher who’s church he attended for more than 20 years, who married him, who baptized his kids……..Please. It doesn’t take a genius.
I accepted that we had enough people asleep at the wheel to get this guy elected. But I had faith in the American people that this would eventually be rectified. THANK GOD WE HAVE TERM LIMITS ON PRESIDENTS!
But when the gears started moving after Obama took office, and quite quickly at that, I got inspired to take action. When the stimulus bill was being jammed thru, with threats of martial law, utter chaos that would result in a complete breakdown of America………the scare tactics went TOO FAR. I’m too smart.
During the campaign I watched Obama’s carefully controlled media CIRCUS. And it WAS a circus: a circus of slobbering, love-at-all-costs media PETS following him around, eating up his every word & edict like he was the Dahli Lhama. Which he CLEARLY is not. And at the same time the man absolutely REFUSED to engage in any debate whatsoever.
Don’t get me wrong. John McCain was NO PRIZE. He’s as liberal as a “conservative” can get. Crap! He even CALLS HIMSELF A PROGRESSIVE. But he would have wiped the floor with Obama in a true debate. And what I saw in the three required televised “debates” was NOT DEBATE. It was a back & forth of “yes” then “NO”, then a “maybe” ……and a few eyes rolls, giggles……….AND EVERYONE WALKED AWAY DUMBER THAN WHEN THEY GOT THERE. That is NOT debate.
Debate is when you say something, and then the other side gets to CALL YOU ON THE LIES & EXAGGERATIONS & “MISTATEMENTS OF FACTS.” Those of us included in the unwashed masses call them LIES, but politicians call them “mis-statements.” …..uh HUH……..
When it became clear to me that Obama was using his campaign rhetoric to scare the American people into getting on board with a “bailout” scheme the likes of which this country could not have FATHOMED, I knew we were in trouble.
When it became clear that Obama wasn’t going to take responsibility for his VERY LARGE ROLE in the housing failure, I knew we were in trouble.
When it became clear that Democrats were going to use the “blame Bush” game as long as it would hold out to ignorant Americans that didn’t have the time to check their facts, I knew we were in trouble.
Then I saw an email from a friend. It said that we were under assault by our federal gov’t; that they were forcing taxation without representation; that we needed to stand up & remind our elected officials what they were elected to do: REPRESENT THE PEOPLE! It told me to send a tea bag in an envelope to Obama at his new address on Pennsylvania Avenue. It told me that we needed to remind Obama that revolution in this country was started by far less than crippling debt, lies & stealing our money.
I LOVED THE IDEA! So I filled out a bunch of envelopes & went around my office making everyone put their name on a tea bag, and sent them off.
THE TEA PARTY WAS BORN. And I didn’t even know it! …….but I knew I was excited.
I started hearing about online “tea party” organizations. I started hearing about dates being floated on the internet where folks would be meeting locally & nationally to protest the SURGE in gov’t growth & the impending skyrocketing taxes that would be required to pay for it. It was SO EXCITING!
The August recess came & went with a lot of fanfare. The Tea Party Rally in Washington came & went with even MORE fanfare. Folks were incensed that their gov’t was pushing thru massive legislation that would affect their lives in very personal ways. These gov’t elites were trying to control our lights, our heaters, our cars, our DOCTOR VISITS! They wanted to cut off our talk radio: they said it wasn’t fair. They wanted to raise our taxes to give money to Africa: they said we were heating up the earth & Africa was suffering. We should pay. They said that we were spending too much on insurance & that we didn’t DESERVE IT: it wasn’t fair. We should pay less in premiums, MORE IN TAXES & OUT OF POCKET FEES, & then pay for someone else’s healthcare to boot. Then they told us that we should pay for illegal aliens to have health insurance: enter Joe Wilson. “OBAMA, YOU LIE!” That was a good one!
People were mad, and rightly so.
Then the media attacks on the “tea party movement” really got going. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the rest of them started calling us Nazi’s, astro-turf, & the time tested RACIST. Joe Biden said it was our patriotic duty to pay higher taxes. Nancy Pelosi said it was a mandate from GOD that we pay for young girls to get abortions. And Obama said “HUH? There were protesters here this weekend?” Yup. HE REALLY DID.
But as the tea party movement grew, the lame-stream media (NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, et al.) started covering it more. They had a clear recognition that something was underfoot, things were changing, and this group of disgruntled Americans was gaining power to affect the “fundamental changing of America” that Obama & Washington Democrats were trying to shove thru. They were scared. They still are.
The lame-stream media immediately did everything they could to discredit the tea partiers. They started pointing out that the tea party was in “complete disarray”; that it was “unorganized.” They highlighted the in-fighting between the primary, prominent “leadership”……what leadership was identifiable.
What they didn’t realize is that they were pinpointing the very reason that the tea party movement has been, and will continue to be, VERY, VERY SUCCESSFUL: Conservatives.
Conservatives come in many shapes, colors, sizes & party affiliations. But they have a common theme among them: personal responsibility. And what is the personality trait that most commonly comes in conjunction with a strong belief of personal responsibility?? INDEPENDENCE & STRONG WILL.
And what happens when you get INDEPENDENT, STRONG WILLED people together who all have a strong belief in their own PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY to act? A VERY LARGE ROOM FULL OF LEADERS.
The reason the tea party is succeeding by failing is due to the very type of individuals that it draws: LEADERS.
Groups like ACORN work because one person can get several minions to do their bidding, no questions asked, no thoughts of their own, NO LEADERS, just followers.
The chaos of the tea party movement simply shows that this is a group of highly intelligent, incensed, critical thinking LEADERS. And this is the SCARIEST part of what these liberals in Washington are watching right now.
A leader doesn’t give up. A leader doesn’t compromise. A leader gives his all for the good of the responsibility he feels he has been charged with. And in this case, that responsibility is to his country & his countrymen.
The tea party movement is succeeding by failing because it has awoken the quiet majority of LEADERS in this country who will not stop until they feel that their responsibility to bring their country back ‘round to what made her great is complete. That’s just not a movement that the likes of SEIU or ACORN can generate. And they know it.