Tea Party Protests A True Grassroots Effort

Gay Patriot brings up an interesting point about the Tea Party movement: It's a phenomenon based upon an idea and not a personality.

While Barack Obama’s presidential campaign did tap into a frustration with the-then incumbent Administration, that movement was built around an individual not an idea. Note how much the image of Obama was tied to the “ideas” of his campaign, “hope” and “change.” And those ideas were little more than bromides.

Obama's campaign was built upon a cult of personality, and not solid democratic ideals. While he made the appropriate noises during the campaign, they were merely empty promises made to cover his true agenda. The Tea Party movement however, is based upon the individual American's displeasure with the direction the President and his Congressional overlords are taking this country. They have a better understanding of the fallout from the socialist agenda of Obama Administration, both fiscally and constitutionally. It is a gut reaction from average American, a feeling that something has gone horribly wrong. This is their reaction.

Reactions from the nihilist Left seem to think this grassroots movement is nothing less than an effort to foment revolution.

Write that date down; people- it could very well mark the beginning of the end. With the notoriously conservative Tea Party movement gaining steam, is it time to take the ‘United’ out of ‘United States’?

The Tea (Taxed Enough Already) Party-people consider themselves a coherent and diverse network of Americans from every conceivable walk of life. They are cultural warriors fighting against the tax-happy, spend-happy ways of the evil Obama cabal, real American patriots, and staunch defenders against the creeping evils of Socialism.

In reality, their ‘movement’ is incredibly divisive, a mindset that stands in sharp contrast to Obama’s calls for bipartisanship in this time of great national need. Their arguments have the potential to divide the country along titanic lines not seen since the bloody days of the Civil War.

“ Obama’s calls for bipartisanship”? Really? I guess that's true if your definition of bipartisanship is telling the Republican members of Congress to “shut up and do what we tell you to do!” Obama, Pelosi, and Reid have locked out Republicans from debate and compromise on the budget, the stimulus bill, and a host of other budgetary and lawmaking efforts. If that's bipartisanship, I want nothing to do with it.

It is the present administration and Congressional leadership that has acted in a divisive manner, ignoring those that disagree with them as if they have nothing worth listening to. It's starting to sound a lot like what we saw happen in Venezuela after Hugo Chavez took over – all things democratic were shoved aside or minimalized and replaced with Chavez's vision of a socialist Venezuela. Never mind that his 'vision' has all but destroyed his country's economy, curtailed civil rights, and visited misery upon the very people he claims he wants to help.

All that aside, the Tea Party movement is a grassroots movement. There are no political party organizers or funding behind it, unlike organizations like ACORN and OFA (remember ACORN got a couple of billion dollars of our tax money to help support The One's agenda).

The sheer number of scheduled rallies already shows the success of this truly grassroots endeavor. Unlike the Obama campaign, which was built around an individual, we don’t have a central organization in Washington, New York, Los Angeles or Chicago.. Our energy comes primarily from the citizens organizing in the various cities, not from the candidate around whom his supporters rallied.

And it takes effort to plan such a gathering. That we see such effort from coast to coast is testament to the concern of citizens about the ever-increasing size of the federal government. Another sign of the rallies’ success is further is the eagerness of some on the left to sabotage and/or smear our protests. They can’t fathom that conservatives, libertarians and even moderates would engage in the type of activity in which they delight.

Of course if the positions were switched, the Left would be going ape over the tactics being used to 'silence' them. But because it is they trying to silence the rest of us, it's perfectly fine for them to do so. As one commenter the nihilist diatribe linked above put it:

2002: Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.

2009: Dissent is the highest form of treason.

Change we can believe in.

In other words, when we dissent against the leftist policies being implemented upon us against our will, somehow we have become traitors to our country. But what it really is is that our dissent is anathema to what all the socialist/progressive/cultist Left believe is the One True Faith, and that we must be marginalized or silenced because the One True Faith will brook no heresy. And that's what the Tea Party protests are – heresy against a long running, anti-human rights, impoverishing, murderous political ideology.

Therefore call me a heretic. I wear the title proudly.

Again from Gay Patriot:

To be sure, protest, to borrow an expression, is not really our cup of tea. We would really rather not rally; most of those upset by the proposed spending increases and certain tax hikes have real jobs. And we don’t have much nostalgia for the demonstrations of the 1960s–as do some on the left.

This is truly a grassroots effort if ever there was one. It shows that Americans’ love for freedom remains unabated, 236 years after our forebears protested British encroachments on our liberties.

And that's what we're protesting to protect: our lives, our liberty, our sacred 'fortunes'.