The tea-party movement encompasses not only the three or four national groups that use that name and attempt to organize and coordinate rallies. The movement includes the 9-12 Project and a dozen similar state-based groups that participate in the rallies and have a broad agenda derived from patriotic values. In many ways, the 9-12 Project has provided the guiding principle of the movement in its emphasis on following the Constitution – the Constitution of the founders, not the “evolving document” of liberal judges.
First, let’s recognize that the ambitious goals of the tea-party movement cannot be achieved in one election cycle, no matter how favorable the celestial winds. Liberal progressives did not capture the levers of power in American government in one election, and it will take at least a full generation to reverse the damage done to constitutional government over the past 50 years.
Tea-party activists do not “hate government”; do not want to form a 3rd party; they hate the misuse of government to steal from Peter to benefit Paul and only want reform. The founders understood that government and political parties are necessary evils, a necessary tool to preserve our lives and liberties in a dangerous world. When government becomes the master by abandoning all restraint and limits, as “progressives” and “radicals” desire, the people must compel government to limit it’s role again, and restore constitutional rule.
Get the definitive account describing the rebirth of appreciation for liberty across the nation, Whistleblower magazine’s “THE GREAT AWAKENING: How tea partiers are setting a new course for America”
The entire federal court system is stacked with activist judges. Will a future Republican president appoint conservative jurists like Roberts and Alito or liberals like the Ford-appointed John Paul Stevens and the Bush-appointed David Souter?
To the tea-party activists, the appointments battles are not over who gets to make the appointment, they’re over what kind of person gets appointed. The tea-party movement is absolutely dead-on right to insist that having an “R” beside your name is not a sufficient qualification for earning their vote or stewardship of the Constitution.
So, the important question in evaluating the tea-party movement is not the size of the crowd at the Tea Party rallies but whether the many organizations that make up the tea-party movement are laying the solid foundation needed for long-term impact and success.
The answer is a qualified yes, but there are some land mines that have not yet been cleared. Some of those land mines are obvious, like avoiding capture by the Republican Party, but others are not.
Without doubt, winning control of the U.S. House of Representatives in November of 2010 is critical. And I want to see Ken Buck replace Michael Bennett in the U.S. Senate. But that will not be enough if the tea-party movement then fragments and dissolves into warring factions that cannot work together.
The last thing the tea-party movement needs is a lobbyist-dominated politburo in Washington trying to set the agenda. One national tea-party group is already trying to do that through a phony “Contract from America” that few activists have participated in. Any self-appointed tea-party leader who thinks citizen patriots do not care about Islamic radicalism, homegrown terrorists and border security is an impostor.
Activists are right to look for political candidates who are committed to constitutional limits on government power, and they are right to wage primary battles on behalf of those candidates. But after the primary battles are over, they would make a huge mistake to invest energy and support behind third-party candidates who have no chance of winning. That can only split conservative votes and elect liberals.
The tea-party movement must adhere to its principles while avoiding kamikaze behavior that dissipates its energies and its can-do optimism. The Republican Party can be the vehicle for this restoration, but only if it welcomes and embraces the patriotism and constitutional pillars of the tea-party movement.
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