There’s an incendiary headline for you.
The time for the Tea Party movement to die is now. Right now. It has served its purpose and now it’s time to kill it off, say goodbye and bury the movement forever.
Bury the MOVEMENT…Not the idea or the ideals but the MOVEMENT.
The Tea Party MOVEMENT is dead…LONG LIVE THE TEA PARTY!!!
That’s right…it’s now time to turn the movement into a full fledged PARTY before the next presidential election. Such things cannot happen overnight and time must be taken to do it the right way but do it we must.
If you are as tired as I am of being held hostage by the Republican Party establishment, WE have to make it clear to THEM that we’re just not gonna take it any more.
The Republican Party, the party of conservatism, REAGAN’S party has become the just barely right of center but leaning toward the center party and because of what we have been through for DECADES, that’s no longer good enough.
At face value, there are those who will say that moving further to the right will alienate independents and whichever party is going to win can do so only with the independent vote. To some extent, they would be correct, but I believe reality will paint a whole different picture.
If the movement becomes a PARTY, I believe independents will show up. If, as a true Party, we stand for smaller government, less government intrusion into our lives, lower taxes, less corruption and against government waste…
We can and will bring independents into the fold.
If, as a Party, we stand FOR our allies and AGAINST our enemies, lead from the front on the world’s stage, make our foreign policy stand ON political DIRECTNESS rather than on political correctness and cease the policies of appeasement…
We can bring independents into the fold.
IF, as a Party, we stand FOR American exceptionalism, AGAINST ceding our sovereignty to foreign bodies and FOR our Constitution…
We can bring independents into the fold.
If, as a party, WE hold those who WE elect accountable to the ideals of OUR party and let them know that THEY can be replaced as easily as they were placed to begin with…
WE can bring independents into the fold.
This time around, we must…WE MUST vote for the nominee to get socialism OUT of the White House. In doing so…we must…WE MUST put the Republican Party itself ON NOTICE…
We won’t do this again. Ever.
There will also be those who say a third party will split the vote and would be a losing proposition. True enough but I am not advocating a third party. My intent is for the Tea Party to replace the republican party.
Reagan advocated “Trust but Verify.”
I say, in voting for “the nominee” we will trust him only as far as we can VERIFY his actions and we WILL hold him accountable.
It may be his turn to be the President but it is OUR turn to act as his employer.
We should not wait 4 years to identify OUR candidate for 2016. That process should begin NOW and it should NOT be just a presidential candidate for whom we seek, it MUST be candidates for ALL elected positions.
It’s also time we start treating local and state elections like a Minor League ball club. Find leaders at THOSE levels who we can then move up to the majors.
That is the only way we can insure long-term goals are met. For DECADES we have looked no further than the next election and we have become complacent with those we have already elected. All that insures is career politicians.
It has been said that politicians, like diapers, need changing often and for the same reason.
True enough.
And I suggest that from time to time, the same can be said of political parties.
The Democrat Party has shifted from Democrats to Socialists and the Republican Party has been hedging toward the center. Let the liberal/socialists be whatever they want to be but if the Republican establishment’s answer is to be middle of the road…Then they are as full of crap as a 2-day-old diaper and it’s high time for changing!!!
Too much time and effort, I believe, has been wasted in the search for the next Ronald Reagan. We won’t find one as none exist. Reagan himself, I think, would be appreciative of the effort but, I believe, were he with us today, he would tell us we could do better.
Better than Ronald Reagan? Yes.
Would Reagan want us to go back to what we had when we had him or would he want us to move forward to something, someone, even better?
As we have searched and searched for the next Reagan, I believe we have lost sight of something extremely important.
Before there was a Reagan revolution, there was Reagan’s evolution.
Ronald Reagan evolved from a Democrat to a Republican to the voice and embodiment of conservatism. Are we to waste the natural evolution of conservatism as Obama has wasted the American taxpayer’s money by continuing to “invest” in failing causes which eventually wind up bankrupt?
Rather than look FOR the next Ronald Reagan, perhaps we should look TO the one we had and, as he did, evolve into something better.
The movement fired a direct hit into the broadside of the liberal/socialist party in the 2010 midterm elections. Obama called it a shellacking. I called it a shelling. It should have also served as a shot across the bow of the Republican establishment who are want to choose our candidates for us.
It didn’t.
Should the Tea movement become a Tea PARTY, will it so split the vote in the next election cycles that conservatives lose everything we have gained? Maybe. It all depends on US. I, for one, would walk from the Republican Party and into the Tea Party should that option be available. Would YOU? How many would follow us?
More importantly, how much money would follow our lead? Money IS the lifeblood of ANY party after all, and if THE money, the big money, jumped from the Republican establishment ship onto a better, smoother, more adept ship, the old ship would be set adrift.
In a letter to Le Ray de Chaumont on November 16th, 1778, John Paul Jones wrote, “I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm’s way.”
And so too, do we if we are to declare OUR independence from the Republican establishment.
Reagan was thought to be, by the establishment, too conservative to win. In fact, he was SO conservative, Iran released the hostages the day of his inauguration. He was SO conservative he ended the cold war without firing a shot. He was SO conservative that he became the standard bearer. He did what he did by turning the ship of state starboard but, ever since, it has drifted back toward the center.
Now, our ship of state has set a course hard to port and there be the rocks of socialism. If those who would stand at center deck be thrown overboard by the centrifugal force of another hard turn to starboard, so be it. We’ll toss them a life preserver; but once aboard OUR ship, they had best grip the right side rail and hang on tight.
I WILL vote for the nominee in November, AND I will let it be known here and now that I do NOT want to find myself in this position again. By the midterms of 2014 and the next presidential election in 2016, I want the Republican establishment far, far off my stern.
If this ISN’T the time for the Movement which gave birth to this great nation to become the PARTY which will restore it…When IS it the right time?
Craig, I agree with all of your facts yet disagree with your conclusions. I have read your work for a while, and I share your motivation–that is, I do not feel you are acting out of any bad faith.
Yet the business in which we are engaged must remain that of building a majority, not of creating two minorities. We must be prepared to pivot off of setbacks and exploit weaknesses where we find them. We will not win every battle, and if our war plan cannot incorporate that fact, then we are doomed. This means that the power is still in our hands. We just need to plan.
I’m working on a blog post explaining my stance. I write to you now as an admirer. Thank you for your continuing hard work. I just think that no matter what we call it, a 3rd party is a mathematical failure. Against that, all the moral justification in the world will not make a dent.
Take care,
Haakon Dahl
Haakon…a 3rd party is not my intent…I would like to see the Tea Party REPLACE the GOP completely.
Craig
You are right on, Craig. Let’s do it!
All very good ideas Craig. But rather than start another competing party, we need to re-take posession of the Republican party by promoting candidates who are willing to step up to the plate with conservative ideas and votes in the congress. The disgusting amount of money being spent on primaries and general elections is rediculous. That must be stopped. We need term limits in the Congress, to do away with the career politicians. We need to do away with lobbying of elected representatives. You have great ideas but I think it can be done from within. Keep up the good work. I very much enjoy your commentaries.
Problem is, Republican Tea Party members like myself would welcome this with open arms. But Democrats will stick together and stand to their party line. Without much thought and organization here, we will be giving election after election to the liberals who know how to brilliantly work the system. We will be shooting ourselves in the foot. The writer of this article is spot-on because the Tea Party does not have the aptitude nor the ability nor the organization to get behind one candidate to win a presidential election. But the Democrats do and the Republicans do. A lot more careful planning and thought needs to go into this to make it work and to make it so a Tea Party candidate or whatever we want to call him or her will have a chance to win an election. And in this day and age, it is going to take $$$ whether we like it or not. $$$ that is already possessed by the GOP and Democrats.
Absurd. There is no Left vs. Right. It’s You vs. The State.
America is a Republic. A representative government. If a Massachusetts Liberal candidate represents you give him your vote. He doesn’t represent me and won’t get mine. My morals and beliefs are just that morals and beliefs. I certainly won’t violate them. Nobody should. They shouldn’t even be asked to. I agree about forming a new party. Please don’t use “anybody but Obama”. With that premise you would vote for Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Gore etc. The elitist establishment rinos might prove their sincerity to change by fighting Obama and his cronies in Congress. They cave in every time. They just might have to do it for a few more years.
The GOPe almost always gets its turn. It’s OUR turn now!
Forget parties. Washington admonished is to avoid them at all costs. How right he was.
By all means, vote your conscience in Nov. However, do it via write in ballot. Write in your candidates, even if they are printed on the ballot.
This will have the effect of denying the ‘party’ your vote but supporting ONLY YOUR candidate.
If this is to work then it has to be a conservative party, based on conservative principles! NOT a libertarian party, taken over by Ron Paul crazies. They have destroyed the tea party and made it a joke.
I love the TEA Party enough to take it one step forward… what an excellent idea!
Why a picture of Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor event? 9/12/2009 had more people and was more a TEA Party event then Beck’s. If you need pictures I have plenty, I was there.
We who were solid conservatives are now far right because the left is now communists and the RINOS are now socialists. Another Reagan quote ” If not now when, if not us who? If we don’t act soon the Republic will be lost.