It’s Your 5th Birthday Tea Party

Uniquely American character has been forged by overcoming adversity, strengthened by an honorable resolve, and continues to grow with the message of true freedom and liberty

It’s Your 5th Birthday Tea Party

The first five years of life form the heart, mind, and soul of each person and the same applies to popular movements that resist the imposition of tyranny.  Some are stunted by early adversity, some become perverted by power, and others thrive against all odds until victory is achieved.  February 27th will mark five years since the first Tea Party rallies sprang up in American cities and towns just one week after Rick Santelli expressed obvious truths long ignored in the public debate.



Wrapping up his soliloquy on another government bailout Santelli thundered, “We’re thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party.  All you capitalists that want to show up, I’m going to start organizing.”  Americans watching and listening across the country looked at their families and friends and said, “Let’s roll!”

The 30,000 people attending those first rallies on February 27, 2009 were concerned about government spending and the burdens placed on taxpayers.  They were worried by the growth of regulatory agencies and their interference in daily life.  And, they were alarmed at the blatant disregard for the restraints upon the federal government guaranteed in the Constitution.  The purpose behind the public rallies was simply to get their representatives to listen to them.

Adversity

Local newspaper accounts of the rallies that continued after February were generally fair and often times favorable.  Such was not the case with national television coverage that was marked by either dismissal of the Tea Party’s importance or comments that were pointedly hostile, derisive, and perverted.



Dan Harris of ABC News dutifully reported, “But critics on the left say this is not a real grassroots phenomenon at all, that it’s actually largely orchestrated by people fronting for corporate interests.”  Chuck Todd, the prophet of NBC News, opined that, “There’s been some grassroots conservatives who have organized so called ‘tea parties’ around the country.  But I tell you, the idea hasn’t really caught on.”

CNN reporter Susan Roesgen’s coverage of the Chicago tax day rally featured her repeatedly interrupting a man she was interviewing until the crowd shouted, “Let him speak!”  She concluded by describing the event as “anti-government, anti CNN, and not really family viewing.”  David Shuster on MSNBC featured in his comments a term for oral sex, until then unknown in the common lexicon, when he was the first to refer to patriotic Americans as “tea-baggers.”  However, his fellow traveler, Jeneane Garofalo, outdid him when she sneered, “This was about hating a black man in the White House.  This is racism, straight up.  That is nothing but a bunch of tea-bagging rednecks.”

Ignoring the misrepresentations, Tea Party organizers and participants continued to focus on lowering taxes, stopping over spending, and lifting oppressive regulations.  At the heart of the movement was the conviction and intention that no sitting politician, neither Democrat nor Republican, would be safe from censure if their actions failed to support these basic ideals.

Elijah Condellone, a father with young children and an organizer for the St. Louis tax day rally stated in 2009, “We don’t have a representative government now.  We have elitists disconnected from what average Americans have to go through who aren’t even bound by their own policies.”  He continued, “The government is pitting people against people.  They are rewarding doing nothing over being productive because the more you make the more they take.”

Tea Party rallies continued to grow in size and number becoming a familiar feature in the summer of 2009.  The grassroots activism spilled over into Town Hall meetings where citizens confronted their congressmen in opposition to the Obamacare takeover of health insurance, stimulus spending, and controls on energy.  These skirmishes into the realm of representative government were but prologues to the massive march on the U.S. Capitol scheduled for September 12th.  On that bright autumn day almost one million patriots gathered to demand of their senators and representatives, “Can you hear us now!”

Most assuredly the patriots were heard, and most assuredly the electeds didn’t like what they heard.  The old guard of both political parties had too much power and prestige to lose if they were to actually conform their actions to the Constitution.  The dedicated opposition from the biased press and entrenched politicians served to steel the resolve of the patriots to elect candidates that understood the threat of the regulatory juggernaut.

Power

The majority of the people attracted to the TEA Movement were either registered Republicans or voted Republican regularly, and naturally began to organize themselves within the GOP structure.

Bill O’Sullivan, with 40 years in the insurance business became the Treasurer of the Texas Patriots PAC.  “We started out as mainly educators and organizers of rallies and demonstrations. The massive September 12th rally in 2009 was a game changer.”  He elaborated, “We realized that no amount of street theater would affect the decisions of elected officials.  To get their undivided attention you had to demonstrate that you had the capacity to defeat them at the polls.”


Recruiting from within their ranks, local and statewide Tea Party groups began to field their own candidates for school board, city council, county supervisor, state legislatures, and the U.S. House and Senate races.  In 2010 conservative candidates surged and won over 700 local and state seats, ushered in a House majority for the Republican Party, and added new senators committed to fighting the leviathan.

Wresting power from the hands of the entrenched elite is not an easy task, but also not insurmountable for people with resolve.  Tea Party groups have been using the Republican Party apparatus to increase their influence regarding policy and strategy decisions.

Bill Gersey, a computer programmer, is a member of two groups, the Plainwell Patriots and the Allegan Tea Party in Michigan.  “Both groups work together educating the public and electing conservatives to office. The head of the Plainwell Patriots, Cindy Gamrat, is running for the State House. We also work to get conservatives in as GOP precinct delegates by election and appointment.”  He added, “I am a Republican. I am an elected Precinct Delegate. I have always considered myself a Republican.”

O’Sullivan offers an even more expansive view of the Tea Party, “In fact I would be happy to see a Democrat equivalent emerge based on fiscal responsibility and re-concentration of power in the states and away from Washington.”

Entering into the blood-sport arena that is the two chambers of congress, the new Tea Party backed representatives faced the cold reality of the powerful forces arrayed against them.  Some have disappointed, some have not been as strong in their convictions as hoped, and others have engaged the battle with courage, forthrightness, and vigor.  The TEA Movement, as a whole, is learning how to wield its power in more sophisticated ways, and is persistent in its message that all people have the right to be free.

Thriving

Marked by its non-centric organizational structure, the TEA Movement is populated by a wide range of independent groups working towards limited government and each deciding for themselves its area of interest, level of involvement, and arena for action.  National conservative groups amplify the voices of the patriots but do not direct them, and influential public figures lend their prestige to the cause but do not lead it.

“I see more and more people ascribing to conservative values,” observed Mary Ellen Arthur, the owner of a grooming and boarding kennel in South Carolina.  “They may not feel they are part of the Tea Party, but they are. The failure of liberalism and the impotence of the GOP are the reasons for the growth of the Tea Party.”  Asked about how it feels to be labeled a racist, she replied coolly, “I ignore ignorant comments like that.”

The Texan, O’Sullivan, simply states, “I return fire. I define a racist as one who first looks to race in any discussion.”

“The people I meet are very unhappy with the federal government,” shared Gersey.  “The short answer is they have their reasons for feeling the government is way too involved in their lives.”  He elaborated, “They are changing from not voting to wanting to get out and vote.  They’re gathering information from the Internet about what’s going on and that plays a big part in their change.”
Since 2009 the message of the TEA Movement remains consistent and unrelenting.  As a popular movement it has matured from frustration-fueled street rallies to challenging the old guard on its own turf.  Its establishment adversaries underestimate the strength of the TEA Movement, while desperately trying to prevent the patriot passion from toppling their Potemkin palace.

These first five years in the life of the Tea Party have informed the heart, mind, and soul of each person participating, and formed the movement at large.  Its uniquely American character has been forged by overcoming adversity, strengthened by an honorable resolve, and continues to grow with the message of true freedom and liberty.  Tea Party people thrive against all odds.  Victory will be achieved.