On the GOP – from the Tennessean:
Tennessee tea party activists took to the halls of the state legislature Wednesday, warning Republican leaders not to misinterpret the results of the November election as a sign of implicit tea party support…
…Activists were on the Hill to let GOP lawmakers know the tea party’s next step in Tennessee is to influence legislation and to hold Republicans “accountable” on a variety of policy measures, including fighting federal health-care reform.
“That’s precisely why we are here, to hold our elected officials accountable,” tea party organizer Ben Cunningham said. “That’s what we’re all about.”…
This is the crucial Part II of this effort – once we get them in to office, we must keep intense pressure on them to make sure they do what they promised us in the campaign. We worked very hard to elect quite a lot of Republicans around the nation in 2010 and we want our payoff for the work – reduced budgets, lowered taxes, less government involvement in our lives. And if we don’t get it, we’ll make the GOP pay for it.
Contrast this to the supine nature of the Democrat rank-and-file. They do as they’re told and don’t dare set up grass roots efforts without leadership permission. The secret of American success is the engagement of regular, every day folks in the political process. For far too long we held our leaders in awe – as if they were some special class of people smarter than we are and deserving of power. I think we on the right have now learned our lesson – it remains to be seen if those on the left ever will.
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