Just like the first one, it starts small:
Still glowing in the success of the Providence Tea Party, in which somewhere between 2,500 and 3,000 people turned out last Wednesday to protest what they consider high taxes at all levels of government, Colleen Conley, the event’s primary organizer, pledged to keep the movement alive during a telephone interview yesterday.
Conley said she plans to create a non-partisan political action committee that will eventually endorse political candidates who sign anti-tax pledges and show a penchant for transparency. Conley also said she plans on organizing similar rallies in the future in order to harness the energy shown at last week’s event.
Skeptics say the audience at the rally, while large, consisted of frustrated people who wouldn’t get along with one another if a platform was created.
Conley disagrees.
“I think those people are misjudging the sentiment of the hardworking taxpayer. I think we’ve reached a tipping point due to this excessive taxation. The straw that broke the camel’s back has arrived,” said Conley.
First off, let’s take a look at some issues which can neatly dovetail into the Tea Party movement’s fiscal responsibility ethic:
Gun rights, border security, property rights, strict constructionist judges, War on Terrorism, Social Security reform
Now, what can’t be grafted on without destroying the movement:
Abortion (pro or con), gay marriage (pro or con), global warming/environmentalism, socialized medicine.
As you can see, while conservatives (like me) who feel that Life Issues are the actual central issue of our time must be wary of trying to force our agenda on the movement, there are far more vital elements of leftwing ideology which are impossible to mesh with this bedrock, American popular movement. In other words, while we’d be stupid to try and take over the Tea Party movement, we can ride along with it and assist it in breaking down Big Government – and by so doing we can clear the field to allow us to educate about and agitate for issues such as the Culture of Life, defense of marriage, etc.
You see, the left is largely taxpayer funded – either directly through government grants, or indirectly through tax deductible contributions. If we back a movement which is designed to reign in government spending and lower taxation, the fundamental thing we’ll be doing is starving the liberal beast of it’s funding. Once liberals are forced out of their taxpayer funded positions, they’ll be easily swept aside – as they always were in America until the New Deal put them on the government payroll. This Tea Party movement can very well be the spark of a new American Revolution, even if the participants don’t see it completely at the moment – fixated, with great justification, on the twin burdens of taxes and spending as they are.
The basic program of liberals from Obama on down is to get 50% plus one of the population on the government teat and 50% plus one relieved from all income taxes. This would build a permanent coalition in favor of higher government spending and indifferent to higher taxation. This is Europe’s deadly problem at the moment – with more than half the population dependent in one way or another upon government spending, proposals to curb said spending are met with hostility. That this is literally killing Europe is unimportant – liberals pretend its not killing Europe and, at any rate, only care that their vision of social justice prevail, come what may. Our job – and its a difficult one – is to get as few people as possible dependent upon government spending and ensure that everyone pays at least some of the burden of government, so that everyone feels the pinch when Uncle Sam puts his hand in the national wallet. The Tea Party movement may break the log jam.
Time will tell, of course, but I’m more highly encouraged than at any time since the disastrous day we elected Obama President.
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