Dear Tea Partier,<\/p>\n
These are indeed exciting times.\u00a0 Not much more than two-and-a-half years ago, the movement to which you have given life was nonexistent.\u00a0 Since its birth, you have succeeded in arresting the attention of the entire country while acquiring a well deserved reputation for being the most formidable grassroots entity in contemporary politics.\u00a0 At this juncture, at any rate, everyone\u2014<\/em>Republicans and Democrats; conservatives, libertarians, and \u201cliberals\u201d; \u201cindependents\u201d and \u201cmoderates\u201d; rightists and leftists\u2014knows that you are a force with which they will have to reckon.<\/p>\n In the summer of 2009, you bombarded the establishment with shock and awe with your \u201ctown hall meetings\u201d and massive demonstrations.\u00a0 Considering the ecstatic reception with which Barack Obama\u2019s substantial victory over John McCain was greeted by over half ofAmerica, no one, least of all the president and his fellow partisans in congress, could have had any inkling that they would have to contend with such relentless opposition to his gargantuan socialistic schemes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Unfortunately, there simply were not enough office holders in congress to block the passage of Obamacare and other pieces of the Democrats\u2019 redistributive plans.\u00a0 Yet refusing to be disheartened, you availed yourselves of the momentum accumulated by your earlier efforts to resist the Leviathan that your elected representatives sought to impose upon you: on Election Day 2010, in exchange for their pledge to repeal Obamacare and revoke much of the Democrats\u2019 agenda, you succeeded in affecting a historically unprecedented<\/em> victory for Republicans.<\/p>\n Many Americans have loudly and passionately articulated their concern for the well being of their country.\u00a0 To your eternal credit, you distinguish yourself from them inasmuch as you have seen to it that your passion does not degenerate into zealotry. To this end, you have insured that the greatness of your love for country be matched only by the greatness of your civility toward your opponents.\u00a0 In so doing, you have supplied an emblem of fine citizenship for all to witness.<\/p>\n However, your virtues promise to bring out the worst of vices in your foes.\u00a0 Of this, I am sure, you are well aware.\u00a0 But you may not always be so well aware of who these foes are.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Democrats, clearly, are your adversaries.\u00a0 They despise you and everything for which you stand.\u00a0 Given the many attempts on the life of your character that they have been making for as long as you have existed, you know that this isn\u2019t mere hyperbole on my part.\u00a0 They have charged you with being an \u201cextremist,\u201d an \u201canarchist,\u201d and even a \u201cterrorist\u201d\u2014a description that they refuse to apply to Islamic fundamentalists who routinely murder innocent men, women, and children (including Americans<\/em>).\u00a0 Yet as bad as it is to be accused of \u201cterrorism,\u201d even this epithet doesn\u2019t compare with the charge of \u201cracism\u201d that they have made against you.\u00a0 This is the most dangerous of contemporary slurs, the nuclear bomb of all ad hominem attacks.<\/p>\n I would like to make a suggestion as to how you might consider going about meeting this accusation in the future\u2014for you know<\/em> that it will be made ever more as we enter into the next election cycle.\u00a0 Point out the obvious: if the Tea Party movement is \u201cracist\u201d because it consists mostly of whites, then the \u201cmovement\u201d that brought about the composition of the Declaration of Independence and the ratification of the Constitution must also be \u201cracist\u201d because it<\/em> consisted exclusively <\/em>of whites.\u00a0 Granted, academic leftists\u2014or, what amounts to the same thing, academic Democrats\u2014already believe that the founding of America was incorrigibly \u201cracist\u201d; but mainstream Democrats in Washington and the media are too fearful of saying such things aloud.\u00a0 Push them on this.\u00a0 While I can\u2019t see them forgoing their weapon of choice, the \u201cr\u201d word, altogether, they just might be more reluctant to use it if they know that it will lead to the exposure of their real views ofAmerica\u2019s origins and its founders.<\/p>\n The real danger to you, though, doesn\u2019t come from the Democrats, for they are wolves for all to see. Much more perilous to your well being are those wolves wearing sheep\u2019s clothing.\u00a0 Of course, I refer to those Republicans who are as much obsessed with enlarging the federal government as are any Democrats, but who realize that lest they lose your support, they must conceal their true designs.<\/p>\n Guard yourself vigilantly against the manipulative machinations of Republicans who would have you think that they genuinely believe their own rhetoric of \u201climited government.\u201d\u00a0 Sadly, this means that you must guard yourself against most <\/em>Republicans, both career politicians as well as, I hate to say it, their supporters in the so-called \u201cconservative\u201d media.\u00a0 You have every reason to be skeptical regarding their sincerity.<\/p>\n For one, these Republicans are painfully cognizant of the fact that if you choose to erect a third party rather than seek your goals by revamping theirs, then you will all but guarantee that the GOP forever remains the minority in power.\u00a0 That is, you know that these Republicans need<\/em> you.\u00a0<\/p>\n Second, even as I write this, an opinion piece appears on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal <\/em>recounting George W. Bush\u2019s fiscal recklessness\u2014a phenomenon on which far too many of his supporters remain, to this day, <\/em>deafeningly silent.\u00a0 Our last Republican president did indeed contribute to an exponential expansion of the federal government by way of his foreign and domestic policies alike.\u00a0 And all along, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and their colleagues not only lent him their enthusiastic support; they were particularly friendly with his administration.<\/p>\n Today<\/em>, though, in spite of having singularly failed to specify any of their prior mistakes in these regards, these same Republicans claim to share your objectives.\u00a0 Maybe they really have, at long last, realized the need to reconcile their rhetoric of \u201climited government\u201d with the kinds of policies that they endorse. Or maybe, as I have already suggested, they just know that they need you if they are to prevent their party from disintegrating.<\/p>\n So that you may get a better idea as to their intentions, consider posing to them questions of the following sort:<\/p>\n Was George W. Bush a proponent of \u201climited government?\u201d\u00a0 If you believe that he was, please explain how this could be?\u00a0 If you acknowledge that he was not a real champion of \u201climited government\u201d or, in other words, conservatism, then why did you insist upon supporting him so staunchly?<\/p>\n How is the declaration of \u201cwar\u201d on an abstraction like \u201cterror,\u201d the democratization of the Islamic world of which this war consists, and the ever expanding military necessary to wage it compatible with \u201climited government?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n As even leftist television personality Jon Stewart recently observed, Congressman Ron Paul is the only \u201cideologically consistent\u201d GOP presidential candidate, the only politician in both national parties to consistently conduct himself in accordance with the Republican Party\u2019s stated theme of \u201climited government.\u201d\u00a0 Paul virtually tied Congresswoman Michele Bachmann for first place in the Iowa Ames Straw poll (the latter beat him by but 200 something votes), engages in fundraising with a prowess comparable to that of multi-millionaire Mitt Romney, invariably provokes explosive applause in the primary debates, and appeals to those much sought after voters, \u201cindependents\u201d and \u201cmoderates.\u201d\u00a0 Yet when he isn\u2019t being ridiculed by them, both \u201cmainstream\u201d and \u201cconservative\u201d media personalities ignore him.<\/p>\n Even if you do not think that Paul is electable for cosmetic reasons\u2014age, style, image, etc.\u2014why, you may want to ask Republicans, do you persist in treating this full throated champion of \u201climited government\u201d with such disrespect?\u00a0 Do you not really believe in \u201climited government\u201d yourself?<\/p>\n These questions are not intended to be exhaustive, obviously.\u00a0 But those Republicans who are now suddenly Tea Partiers need to have questions of this kind put to them.<\/p>\n Keep up the good work.\u00a0 Do not relent.<\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/p>\n Jack Kerwick\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Tea Partier, These are indeed exciting times.\u00a0 Not much more than two-and-a-half years ago, the movement to which you have given life was nonexistent.\u00a0 Since its birth, you have succeeded in arresting the attention of the entire country while acquiring a well deserved reputation for being the most formidable grassroots entity in contemporary politics.\u00a0…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n