In the David Vickers column I linked to below, Vickers says:
What must happen for the American tea party movement to harness all its force, aggression, and overall good intentions for America’s future, and be taken seriously by the power brokers in Washington, D.C., by the mainstream media, and by Main Street?
And how will the movement grow its numbers and influence?
I think it’s past time to start asking, and answering, these questions. Otherwise, I fear the American Tea Party movement’s sweetness — that is to say its genuinely American qualities — will quietly dilute in a tide of bitter change that many Americans simply cannot swallow.
Let me lay the groundwork for answering this question.
First, the Tea Party movement came into being as a massive “whistleblowing” organization. What do whistleblowers do, when the company or government agency they work for has become corrupt? Well, they tell other people…people they assume and trust will do something beneficial with the information the whisteblower is giving them.
As whistleblowers, what Tea Partiers are doing is saying, “There’s something very wrong here and you need to pay attention to that.” Most whistleblowers never do more than draw attention to the problem; it is not their expectation that they should solve it, just that they should draw attention to it.
Second, that leads to the question, “Who do Tea Partiers expect to solve the problem to which we are drawing attention?”
I can’t answer that question for anyone else, so I’ll answer it for myself: I believe that entirely new leaders will have to develop out of this movement. This new generation of leaders will include humble people you’ve never heard of before who five years from now will point back to how they got started in politics as the time they organized a Tea Party in their city.
As a Tea Partier, I am protesting the disastrous, dangerous, extreme and divisive Special Interest Budget & Bailout of the Barack Obama administration and his enablers in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
But at the same time I can’t help but notice that our movement came from nowhere. And what that means is that the “leaders” of the conservative movement or the Republican party…any group we might have expected to take the lead in protesting the Obama Disaster were pretty much missing-in-action.
They were collectively missing-in-action around the time that the February 27 Tea Parties were organized. I mean, come on…the first Tea Party was organized in Seattle, Washington by a 29-year-old blogger no one ever heard of before.
But more to the point, one main reason why the Obama administration has a chokehold on American governance and the economy right now is because most of the people who currently run the Republican party and the conservative movement failed to provide attractive compelling leadership. Why would we imagine that those same people are now going to provide the leadership we need?
Leaders and leadership will emerge out of the Tea Party movement when enough of its humble, local organizers come to the sad but necessary conclusion that they are the leaders who will provide the leadership that the entire fiscal conservative movement in the country is missing.
If you’re one of those people and you’re thinking, “You have to be kidding. I have no leadership qualities or experience”, my response is: “Who do you think does? The people that got us here?”
I decided to take a day off from work and march in Jacksonville on tax day, about an hour and a half ride from my home, because as a fed-up American, that is the very LEAST I can do to demonstrate my very great and GROWING displeasure. I am not seeking 15 minutes of fame. I hope to, perhaps, meet some nice, intelligent, like-minded folks who might be willing to take this grassroots protest to the next level, as I am prepared to take a stand for what we all know is high time to put back in order. I am willing to sit and talk with these people and educate myself (and others back in my own neighborhood) on the processes needed to effect a difference in the way government operates and how it SHOULD operate as an agency of, by, and FOR the PEOPLE! I don’t know what that will come to mean for me in the future, but I am more than willing to find out!
First, What is at the root of the problem??? Mr. Obama and the Socialist tendencies? Isnt anyone interested in the fact that there is a subversion of the Constitution going on??? Art II Sec 5 requires the President to be a “natural born citizen”. Senate Resolution 511 passed 4-30-08 provides the definition as being, “born to American citizens”. Mr. Obama is by his own admission born to a Kenyan citizen father. He is Constitutionally ineligible-and shouldnt be signing any laws or bailouts at all-but our legislators and government officials, as a result of political pressure, correctness, fear, malfeasance and in some cases just negligence allowed the ballot process to proceed and here we are-now caused to fight an uphill battle against a sitting President and his policies and laws which, if the proper legal challenges were initiated, would be void or voidable. So, do we cure the symptom or the disease?? Hmmmmmmm you decide.
Please, let us remember to treat each other with respect. If we don’t we end up angry, sounding ugly and becoming ineffective in our purpose. Let us agree to disagree. If you don’t agree with the tea party, then fine. But don’t keep stirring up trouble after you have said your piece. And let us not let emotions take precidence over our cognition. When I feel that coming on, I step away and cool down.
NotForYou: You must be the dumbest moron I have ever seen write on a forum. Do you really think we are getting together to “buy tea and dump it out” ????? Who the hell has said anything about actually dumping tea? This isn’t the 1700’s and obviously tea has no freaking meaning to us Americans the way it did back then you idiot! We’re getting together to tell OBAMA That we ARENT GOING TO TAKE THIS CRAP ANYMORE. It’s a PROTEST, NOT A TEA-DUMPING PARTY YOu dumbass. Did you also think we were planning on dressing up as indians with feathers in our hair, and putting brown shoepolish on our faces??? DUUUUHHHHHHHHH Go watch “Family Guy” and pick your wedgie you moron!!!
Tea Parties have a wonderful effect, that of getting to know our neighbors, as we build relationships that we may have to depend on. We are not covenant breakers as those who don’t pay their bills, but folks who honor our word and reputation. While keeping our eye on the goal of repealing pork and taxes, we use no unlawful means to acheive it…we don’t have to stoop to the illegal practices of dishonorable, but rely on integrity and truth. To God be the glory!
Inform our poll conscious Prez daily of your thoughts.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
Why should we stop paying our Bills?
I mean when there’s not enough money to keep paying SSI, SSP, (AFDC)CalWORKS, TANF, IHSS, MediCAL, MediCAID, HUD-Section 8, and all the rest for the non-taxpayers that “take”, it’s ALL OVER!
And, who’s fault will it be?
Not ours!
You talk like you expect O’Boom-Boom’s PLANs to work out! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,
ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!
As if!
What that Neo-Marxist has going on in Washington & what he’s doing to honest people in America WILL NOT WORK out for him.
There’s plenty of tougher people among us that are just waiting for the REAL Revolution, the kind like in the book, Civil War 2: The Breakup of America.
Not everyone’s Mamby-Pamby as your trying desparately to make us think of ourselves.
But, nobody here is stupid enough to start a brag fest about that either.
You have to remember, you have not even SEEN what will happen when Million’s of Pro-Gun Rights Activists get involved.
What WILL HAPPEN is there will be a Multi-Gathering of “Units” of different “Movements” that Merge together into ONE BIG GIANT MOVEMENT. That my friend will OPEN some EYEs.
So, for now, it seems insignificent to you.
We don’t really care if that’s what you think either.
Like I said, nobody’s stupid enough to go bragging around about specifics!
BTW I love your blog!
Why should we stop paying our Bills?
I mean when there’s not enough money to keep paying SSI, SSP, (AFDC)CalWORKS, TANF, IHSS, MediCAL, MediCAID, HUD-Section 8, and all the rest for the non-taxpayers that “take”, it’s ALL OVER!
And, who’s fault will it be?
Not ours!
You talk like you expect O’Boom-Boom’s PLANs to work out! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,
ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!
As if!
What that Neo-Marxist has going on in Washington & what he’s doing to honest people in America WILL NOT WORK out for him.
There’s plenty of tougher people among us that are just waiting for the REAL Revolution, the kind like in the book, Civil War 2: The Breakup of America.
Not everyone’s Mamby-Pamby as your trying desparately to make us think of ourselves.
But, nobody here is stupid enough to start a brag fest about that either.
You have to remember, you have not even SEEN what will happen when Million’s of Pro-Gun Rights Activists get involved.
What WILL HAPPEN is there will be a Multi-Gathering of “Units” of different “Movements” that Merge together into ONE BIG GIANT MOVEMENT. That my friend will OPEN some EYEs.
So, for now, it seems insignificent to you.
We don’t really care if that’s what you think either.
Like I said, nobody’s stupid enough to go bragging around about specifics!
Unfortunately I must be that crass. Self-indulgence is the beleif that bumper stickers and yelling at republicans matter. Or worse I’m sure you’re getting some ad dollars on this blog piggybacking the reset of the media misusing people’s real sentiment. Some words mean nothing anymore because they have been shamefully worn down by our misguided activist class.
We are all Fairweather Johnsons. No one cares about global warming on a cold day and people who still have jobs are all NIMBY about this situation.
I want to articulate a point that has received deathening silence. Populisim is all the rage and I hope (I really do) that dumping tea in front of all the cameras of the world works. But I know it won’t.
I am not advocating for a position that I wish to lead. A debt boycott is a self starter. Yes it’s difficult but so was the original tea party. The revolutionaries knew the Brits would come and clean their clocks over it but they risked it anyways for what they thought was right.
If people are truly upset about this whole thing then put your money where your mouth is. Yes it is buying tea (better if they stole it) and throwing it into bodies of surface water is not effective if our quandry (unlike 18th century British trade) really had anything to do with TEA.
How am I misrepresenting anything? What “they” are doing is what neocon theory calls being “vulgar conventionalists” it is stupid and it is wrong!
Somehow there is this misconception that the American revolution.
So poor us! We’re not lifting one finger compared to what the revolutionaries did. The founding fathers were not borne in a mager. We can’t risk a late fee, interest hike, or even a 30 day late on our credit files to make a point. Perhaps we’re turning French?
If just some of us under organization stop paying trust me they will pay attention. The government is trying to squeeze blood from a rock (us) and they are doing so because we have completely rolled over.
Thank you for at least creating this space. Any discourse I beleive is good!
To whoever wrote the response to the David Vickers piece: That was about as well written as I ever read. You should be on the panel discussion “Special Report with Brett Baier.”
Please ID yourself.
While I appreciate the energy behind your sentiments, you won’t succeed at influencing people if you start out by misrepresenting what they’re doing (”buying tea and throwing it away”) and then insulting them with colorful and emotionally-laden terms like “whores”. You seem to care what happens to the country, but you don’t seem to care enough to find a way to present your ideas that doesn’t repel people. That’s self-indulgent.
Anyone who is seriously considering this Tea Party business should check his or her premise. All you are doing is buying tea and throwing it away. Perhaps I should buy stock in Unilever since you are all so inclined to throw the rest of the money you have away.
The original tea party was half-drunken stooper and half incredibly effective boycott. To this day Americans do not consume tea in quantities typical of other English speaking countries.
All this is is camera whoring by people hoping to get their 15 minutes of fame. Want a real boycott? STOP paying your mortgages and credit cards! What we need is a good old fashion bra burning (I mean mortgage, loan, and credit card statement burning).
Don’t pay your bills. You are not your creditor or even your country’s bitch! This tea party business is embarrassing and however sympathetic of the motives behind the movement I am I find myself nauseous considering expressing myself with the rest of you.
You want the balls of the founding mothers and fathers, MLK, or even Gandhi? Boycott for real, do not pay your bills and just sit back and watch Washington and the banks squirm like the pussies they are.
Unless someone is willing to step up for real just shut up and go home. They (banks, gov’t, or authority in general) will not take you seriously if you are playing around with tea instead of hitting them where it hurts.
God bless the Red, White, and Blue. These colors don’t run but they can fade.
Very well said. Maybe you’ll be one of those leaders that will emerge from all of this
I totally agree with you. I’m hoping on going to the one in Boston. I have health issues so it all depends on how I feel that day but I will try my hardest! Do we bring tea?