Ok, so we had a series of rousing successes yesterday which have, I believe, made all of us feel more hopeful about our nation’s future than we have been for a while. It is astounding that so large and widespread a event could occur with no central organization – opposition to fascism (of whatever stripe) and the ardent desire for liberty were made manifest. We can’t fool ourselves into thinking we’ve captured an electoral majority – we’ve just started a movement. A movement, to be sure, which could bring peaceful yet revolutionary change to America, but just the start – we’ve got miles to go. So, what now?
Beats me, for the moment. What I clearly envision – and have envisioned for some time – is that the ultimate way to retake control of our government is for we, the people, to show up in extraordinarily large numbers in DC and thus drown out the siren songs of the corrupt special interests. While I’m a Republican it isn’t a matter of the GOP getting a million people to DC – this, actually, might be counter-productive to both conservatism in general and the GOP in particular. What is wanted is a mass, popular movement demanding change which the GOP can pledge itself to support.
Time after time in reports from yesterday’s events I heard that local party leaders – GOP and Democrats – who tried to latch on to the events were politely but firmly told to please sit quietly and listen; this is the American people telling you, the politicians, what we want. The Republican Party is what it is – the home of conservatism, the bastion of the Culture of Life, the defender of liberty; but what the Tea Party is about is, at bottom, a demand that government cease mortgaging our future in the pursuit of temporary, partisan advantage. In other words, the people want government to understand that it exists for the people, not the people for it.
Certainly the massive spending and prospective tax burden of the Obama Administration has been the spark plug of the movement – and this, in turn, has placed a fiscal conservative/economic libertarian coloration on the movement, but anyone who wants to merely put this out as a conservative movement is missing the point. In point of fact, the movement actually tends away from conservatism in a lot of ways and heads straight for what is called today “classical liberalism” – something I’m not too enamored of (to say the least), but which is something I can ally myself with in the service of a general curbing of federal government power. And that is what this is really about – not pro-conservative nor anti-liberal; it is anti-big government. Anti-Statism. Anti-Big Brother.
What I hope to see is literal millions of average Americans continuing to meet and discuss and issue demands – with the ultimate hope being that some time early next year, as we head towards the mid-term elections, that a very large number (5 million would be ideal) descending on Washington, DC to essentially present the peoples’ demands upon government. And then let those who will – Republican and Democrat – pledge their support for these demands. In the nature of things, most GOPers will pledge their support…but so will some Democrats, while some Republicans will be vocal in their opposition. And thus the battle lines will be drawn between the corrupt status quo and the insurgent people – with, perhaps, a coalition in the House in 2011 pledged to reform and ignoring the political barnacles, Democrat and Republican, who feed off the system as it is.
We can leave Barney Frank and Arlen Specter in a corner to discuss whatever business they wish – we, the people, will take back our government and enact long overdue reforms which will get us out of debt, get us off government dependence and restore the rights of the people, and the States, as opposed to Federal power.
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