Tuesday, October 12, 2010

WHAT I HAVE NOTICED ABOUT THE TEA PARTY

They have been cajoled, ridiculed and aspersed.

They have been called "radical," wingnuts and racist.

They are the people of the Tea Party.

I've not said a lot about the Tea Party (except to show a few pictures and videos). I've done a lot of research about the Tea Party, though, and what follows is what I have found.

1. They are, for the most part, citizens of the United States (I qualify that because one can't tell just by looking.)

2. They are of every stripe: white, black. Latino, Asian and many others.

3. They are from every walk of life: doctors, farmers, the debonair and "hicks" (in the real sense of the word), old and young.

4. They are of all education levels: college educated, high school drop-outs, high school graduates, self-educated and uneducated.

5. They are sometimes articulate, sometimes not.

6. They have people who lead, but no specific leaders.

7. They are, for the most part, local people from locations not too far from where they are meeting, with almost nobody bussed in except by buses individual groups charter on their own for national events.

8. They are extremely polite to one another and to "outsiders..." far more polite than those who attend liberal/progressive gatherings.

9. They are clean. The grounds are cleaned by the participants themselves, leaving more than a few city/county crews with only sprucing up to do. (At the meeting I went to here in Ft. Myers, the garbage cans were filled and Centenial Park was almost pristine.)

10. They have an absolute right, indeed a responsibility, to be involved in local, state and national politics.

The Tea Party movement is a true grass roots movement because it is most often locally formed, locally organized and locally engaged.

The Tea Party is autonomous. Nobody tells them what to do, what to say, where to go, how to perform, or when to meet. They are not guided by Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, Palin or any other talk-show host or political leader.

In fact, it more often works the other way around. The Tea Party members express themselves and those in conservative talk media and conservative politicians take their cues from them.

The Tea Party members are dyed-in-the-wool, hard-core, main-stream Americans with a message to Washington DC:

We've had enough of your antics, indiscretions, and unethical behavior.

We've had enough of your lack of integrity and dishonesty.

We've had enough of you calling right wrong and wrong right.

We've had enough of your trying to redefine America.

We've had enough of your usurping of our freedoms and we've had enough of your pork.

Plus, we've had enough of your confiscating our money in the form of high taxes and your unending demonstration that you do not know how to spend it either frugaly or wisely.

Whether you like that message or not, that IS the message of the Tea Party movement.

In the current political and economic climate, it would do any politician, incumbent, newcomer or hopeful to pay attention and act accordingly.

If you are a politician just entering the Washington DC fray, you had beter get up there and do what you said you were going to do, or you will be a one termer.

If you are a fake conservative (also known as a RINO), you might or not be gone this November, but you will not last...we will weed you out if you don't change your ways.

This is your last chance; make the best of it...for the people, not for yourself.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

The recent dispute between the the NAACP and the Tea Partiers over charges of “racism” appears to be yet one more stupid instance of blacks accusing whites of insensitivity, real or imagined, usually 100 percent of the time imagined.
This disagreement is really about liberalism not racism. The two groups have an unbridgeable conflict of visions. The Tea Party’s agenda stripped of any racial BS, is smaller government, lower taxes, less spending by the government, and more freedom for all. The NAACP agenda is about larger government, higher taxes-mostly on the rich and the not so rich white people, more spending by the government on minorities, and less freedom for everybody except minorities. So when you hear the NAACP complain about insensitivity, it is just saying, “We want more hand-outs!

Z said...

Even a Republican said to me the other night "What do YOU think of the tea partiers?" She honestly believed the charges in the media of racism, etc.
I told her there were too many black Americans in the TP and she shouldn't believe the media. grrrr
good post, Joe

Joe said...

GZ: "This disagreement is really about liberalism not racism."

You got that right! In fact, a black person who disagrees with the liberal/progressive line is told he/she isn't really black!

How insulting!

Z: The Tea Party I went to had a fair representation of blacks...about the same as the population in general, although I didn't count them.

Lisa said...

The TP isn't the joke it's the media and the liberals who are.

Chris M. said...

It's fun to watch a talking head accuse a candidate with whom he disagrees of being part of the Tea Parties. They seem to feel as though they have scored debate points when in fact they might have just helped assure their opponent's election.

Joe said...

Lisa: Yeah, but they don't get the joke.

Chris M: Most of them could not debate their way out of a wet paper sack.

ablur said...

You sung the same notes I been singing.

The Tea Party is about "We The People" having enough and taking action. They are starting to try and duck and hide, thinking that we will be gone soon. I know many who are planning on staying put on the issues. We are here and we are staying here.

The Tea Party movement mirrors the movement and ideas that formed this nation. The growth that is occurring in the movement gives great hope to those of us looking to restore America.

Lone Ranger said...

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." - Mahatma Ghandi

Susannah said...

EXCELLENT post here, big guy! I LOVE how you 'itemized' the Tea Party folks, and you're right.

For the record, people, I AM A MEMBER of the TEA PARTY movement. I did not have the privilege to go to DC on 8-28, but have been to local Tea Party events (see pics. on my blog) & LOVE what they/we stand for...

Thanks again, Joe.

Joe said...

ablur: The point, of course, is we ARE the people. The liberal/progressives keep talking about us like we are aliens (as in other-planetoid), but we're good old American people.

LR: Let's hope she's right this time!

Susannah: I love what we stand for, too.

Lisa said...

New poll out says more people think there is more extemism in the democrat party than the Tea Party

Lisa said...

http://thehill.com/house-polls/thehill-poll-week-2/124177-the-hill-poll-swing-district-voters-more-likely-to-see-dems-as-dominated-by-extremists-

Joe said...

Lisa: Good poll!

David Wyatt said...

Great post bro. Joe. No wonder this is called the TEA party movement since it has so many marks of the original tea party in 1773. They swept the ships after they'd demonstrated & though they certainly made their point, they were not rowdy or nasty, they were polite & mannerly, though firm in their resolve. As far as I know, neither then nor now did anyone wake up & say, "Hey! Let's start a tea party!" It just arose from the people. You hit that nail so dead-on in the center, that you slammed it clean through the wood!

Susannah said...

Bravo, Lisa.

And double Bravo DWyatt!