The Tea PartyMovement’s First Year:
ATime to Cheer and a Time to Mourn

by Tim Dake

Since late February of 2009, it has been one short year of elapsed time but one long year in the culmination of a lifetime of constitutional destruction. The fervor and focus of the tea party movement has expanded from taxation and spending to include the abuse and demolition of our Constitution. This act of domestic terrorism has been accomplished within the average lifetime of an American citizen.

The greatest crises of American history have come at a chronological spacing equivalent to that of a human lifetime. From the end of the American Revolution and the adoption of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to the Secession of the Confederate States, 69 years passed. From the end of the American Civil War to the beginning of the Great Depression, 64 years elapsed. The years between the end of the Second World War and the recent financial market crisis numbered a mere 63. Just long enough for those who lived through and remember the previous crisis to pass away and take their memories of that time with them. The lessons learned from those crises go with them.

The current, populist movement of the tea parties is not without precedent in our nation’s history but the extent of the impassioned, angry electorate’s level of frustration has not been seen in the lifetime of today’s citizens. While the movement has grown to massive proportions and reached far and wide across the nation, it is imperative to put the effect of the movement in perspective as we reflect on the first anniversary of the recognized start of the movement. The truth is more morose as we have little to celebrate and much to mourn.

We cannot point to a single piece of legislation which we oppose that has been stopped COMPLETELY – or one which we support that has been passed and signed into law. We have no great victories to trumpet and more losses than we can bear to recount. The administration continues to push its progressive agenda and to work to hideously reshape our once exceptional nation. We continue to suffer from a mainstream media that acts as a lapdog for the administration and seeks to deflect public attention and opinion with stories of the tea party movement hijacking the GOP or the Republican Party taking over the tea party movement all the while highlighting and decrying the alleged racism and hostility of the movement.

This movement started out protesting the government’s excessive fiscal irresponsibility but quickly moved to working to stop health care reform and climate change legislation, opposing the number of czars and the bailout of large corporations and the diminishment of contracts. These are assuredly important issues, but they are truly trivial in comparison to the more fundamental concerns that form the foundation of the nation’s problems. Those problems pale when considered against the true threat – the virtual shredding of our Constitution and our Bill of Rights.

For if we abandon our founding documents, willingly or not, we lose that most valuable of all of our national treasures – our Liberty. Most of us cannot define what we mean by Liberty. US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once wrote, regarding pornography, that although he could not define it, “I know it when I see it.” The analogy may be unusual, but we can say that while we may not be able to define Liberty, we know it when we see it. Do we see it when:

• Our right to free speech and thought is limited by hate crime laws and political correctness and a White House that expects us to inform on each other?

• Our right to peaceably assemble is criticized as evidence of racism and potential domestic terrorism?

• Our right to defend ourselves, our families, our property and our communities is threatened by a Congress that is, according to Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer and Chuck Schumer, just waiting for the time to be right to take our means to self-defense?

• Our right to be secure in our person and papers is replaced by a secret court sanctioned search of our homes and even our library records?

• Congress tries to force unconstitutional health care legislation on us despite our having made our opposition clear?

• The administration seizes private businesses through intimidation and coercion and then redistributes the assets to its friends and campaign donors?

• The administration tries to surrender our sovereignty through international treaties that impose massive taxes for schemes based on fraudulent science and redistributes our national wealth to third world nations?

We also know it when we do NOT see it and to see our Liberty again, we must not settle for protest and griping. We must do more than send each other e-mail messages and promote rumors. We must do more than wave signs with clever slogans and preach to the choir. We have to acknowledge who is at fault and take them to task. It is not the government, not the politicians, not the political parties nor the media – it is you and me. It is all of us that have been distracted by our lives and failed in our duties as citizens to be the watchdogs of a government working to insidiously take control of our lives.

We have sat in our Lazyboy recliners in front of our flat screen HD televisions eating our delivery pizza while the progressives worked late into the night to undermine and dismantle our Constitution and our Bill of Rights. They have labored hard and long to double and triple the size of government and to convince us that our Constitution is a “living document” that means whatever they need it to mean today and then entirely something else tomorrow. We have awakened from our slumber to find ourselves amidst an unspeakable constitutional horror.

Consider that our father is the government and our mother is Liberty. They have raised us up and nurtured us and now we are grown and on our own. We have gone to visit our parents and found that Father has been severely abusing Mother. We are appalled at the savagery and stunned at this apparently new development. In time, we reach the gut-wrenching realization that this behavior has gone on all throughout our lives and we have refused to acknowledge the situation. We are wallowing in complicity for we are culpable by our lack of action. Our reverence for our Father constrains our urge to act in defense of our Mother leaving us embarrassed by our willful blindness and sickened by our unwillingness to do what we know is right and must be done. We have raised our voices to our Father and we have lectured him – all to no avail.

It is time for all of that to end. It is time for all to step up and work for change. We can no longer rely on protest and public opinion to restore our Constitution and our Republic. It is time for all that care for and love our Constitution and the Republic to become engaged in the government and to use the system given to us by our Founders and Framers to affect real change to firmly restrict the federal government to its constitutional limits. The sickening truth is that probably less than one in 20 who attends a tea party rally will do anything beyond protest. Most will go home to return to their televisions and their frustration. Few, very few, will stand up and fight the battle joined.

What has a year of protest achieved? We have found our way to common ground and a common cause. We have created a common agenda that includes mutual support in events and in projects. We have devised a political agenda and a legislative agenda with pursuit of each well underway and measurable progress made. Communications systems are established and effective. Ideas are plentiful and shared.

Despite all the advances of the movement in the prior year, the setbacks and the new initiatives of the administration have pushed us farther back than where we started. Too much time and energy is spent responding to the administration’s actions and threats and not spent on preserving our liberties. Collaborative focus is necessary to accelerate the movement’s progress and harness the potential of new people.

To those few who are willing to take responsibility for work and projects, the progress is being made, although it is incomplete on all fronts. Legislation for fighting against socialized health care has moved forward. Lawsuits to fight climate change taxes are starting. Education on our Constitution has been widely carried out and continues with an eager reception from the public. The fight against the progressive and socialist infiltration of our churches is gaining ground. Some of us have proven willing to enter the fray of local and state-wide politics and are seeking office.

To those who are contemplating joining the tea party movement, we can pledge that we do indeed have a plan. There are over 60 Patriot groups in the state of Wisconsin working together, sharing ideas and resources. We are helping new groups form and come up to speed. We cannot do all of this alone – we need help and we have work for you to do. There is a role to play for everyone that seeks to save the Liberty of their children and grandchildren. It can be as simple as making phone calls, sending e-mail messages and mailing letters.

You do not have to join a group to act, but you do need to consciously decide to make a difference. You have had a full year now to think about what you will do – what are you waiting for? The next year in this movement can preserve a lifetime of Liberty for the next several generations. It is time to join us in the work to retake the nation, to restore the Republic and our Constitution, and to restore our future.