The media is reporting the demise of the TEA Party and the rise of the Occupation. The following report disputes this assertion but what is the premise? Is the TEA Party becoming a mouthpiece for the Republican party or are they influencing the candidates in the GOP elections? The reports out of Washington state that half of the TEA Party Congressmen have not lived up to expectations from the 2010 elections.
Is the TEA Party just about elections? Would our founding fathers have agreed that the problems faced by a fledgling republic could only be solved by a small group of politicians in Philadelphia? Our nation’s future is dependent on the people, their morality and their virtue. If you disagree, read the words of our forefathers concerning the viability of a republic without a moral people.
If anyone believes that the political process will save our nation, just look at the way the current batch of GOP primary candidates treat each other. Life, fortune and sacred honor were the building blocks of our nation, not political pandering in the government.
Samuel Adams said it best:
“The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy the gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people; then shall we both deserve and enjoy it. While on the other hand, if we are universally vicious and debauched in our manners, though the form of our Constitution carries the face of the most exalted freedom, we shall in reality be the most abject slaves.” (Samuel Adams, The Life and Public Service of Samuel Adams, 1:22-23.)
“If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.”
Let’s hope that this report below will have an impact on the next election cycle but understand this: elections will not prevent our ruin.
David DeGerolamo
Special Report: Tea Party grassroots army readies for battle
For insight into the conservative Tea Party movement’s battle plan in 2012, check out Joe Dugan’s Google spreadsheets.
Dugan, 66, a retired manufacturing executive and chairman of the Myrtle Beach Tea Party, is particularly proud of the scoring system he’s devised for South Carolina legislators. Every vote by a member of the state’s House or Senate is recorded, with points awarded for those that reflect the conservative position.
“Let’s say you get above a five, we’ll actively campaign for your reelection,” Dugan says. “Below a three, then – Republican or Democrat – we’ll come after you.”
In 2010 the Myrtle Beach Tea Party backed 10 Republican candidates for state and local offices – from school board to governor. All ten won, including sitting Governor Nikki Haley, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint and Myrtle Beach freshman Congressman Tim Scott.
This year, when South Carolina gained a seventh seat in the House of Representatives based on the 2010 U.S. Census, Dugan’s group successfully lobbied for the new district to be in their area and is now vetting candidates.
The group has also been actively courted by most of the Republican presidential candidates, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who appears with Dugan in a number of photos in the Tea Party activist’s study.
“The Tea Party movement is more organized, more focused and more potent,” said Rep. Scott, who talks regularly to Dugan. “What happened in 2010 was not the end. It was just the beginning.”
Tea Party supporters now hold fewer sign-waving rallies, a hallmark of their early opposition to bank bailouts and President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform in 2009. But the movement isn’t losing steam.
Interviews with activists across 20 U.S. states indicate that Tea Party groups, far from fading, have evolved into an increasingly sophisticated and effective network of activists. They are working to unseat establishment Republicans who they believe have betrayed the principles of lower taxes, limited government, and free markets.
“Those who think the Tea Party is on the wane are in for a gigantic surprise in 2012,” says Debbie Dooley, co-organizer of the Atlanta Tea Party. “We have built a grassroots army and we will be a fine-tuned machine next year.”
The goal of these loosely affiliated but fiercely independent groups nationwide is to hone their electoral skills and build a “farm team” of public officials who can ascend through the ranks of government. It’s a long-term strategy that looks past the 2012 election to a takeover of the Republican Party and the U.S. Congress.
