The following is a response from Rep. Glen Bradley on the article Time to Go on the Offensive.
You are exactly right, and unless we join, we will die. There is exactly one, and only one thing that can bring together every disparate faction of the loose conglomeration known as the Tea Party today: Restoring the Constitutional order.
If we do not, our nation is finished. Even if we survive on in name, we will no longer be the nation founded in 1776. We can solve one economic mess, but with other areas of Constitutional integrity quickly being eroded then even with QE3 stopped we will continue our descent into dissolution.
The one thing which all the different Tea Parties will be able to unite around — all those except for the few establishment astroturf incursions we have suffered — is to restore the Constitutional order in full. But to do this means compromise, just as the 13 colonies compromised with each other to form a nation, and compromised again to adopt our Constitution. The did not compromise with England, and we must not compromise with the establishment powers, but they did compromise with each other, and if we do not do likewise today then all is truly lost.
Restoring the Constitutional order means restoring the WHOLE Constitution, and not merely those parts we like. We like the controls on spending, we like the limitations on Federal power. We do not like the requirement to declare war or issue letters of marque and reprisal before committing to military action. We do not like how the Constitution does not authorize Federal prohibition, the Department of Homeland Security, and the USA PATRIOT Act.
But you can’t compromise on the Constitution, after all, that’s what got us into this mess in the first place.
We are so far gone now that there is only one way back. We fix the economy alone, and security and liberties continue to drag us into the police state. We fix spending alone and our debt and unfunded liabilities still grow unchecked. The only way to truly unite together in a large enough movement to have a serious impact on reversing the collapse of the United States, is to join together around restoring the WHOLE Constitution, and every faction involved with the understanding that all of us ALL OF US will have to compromise with each other, and to compromise many of our own beliefs in favor of a strict and holistic restoration of the Constitutional order.
It will not be easy. It CAN not be easy, but this is our only light at the end of the tunnel. All of the real Tea Parties can unite around a total restoration of the Constitution even if it means that some of our favored policies end up in jeopardy. And if we can demonstrate ourselves serious enough to do it, and numerous enough to make it happen, then we will start picking up all kinds of new people you can not now imagine.
You are right, we must join or die. And the one thing that we can all join around, is restoring the Constitutional order. Indeed, it is the only thing that will save the United States.
Glen Bradley
