What has happened to the Tea Party?

Last Friday was the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.  American colonists, fed up with egregious taxes and little say in their own governing, dumped 3 boatloads of tea into Boston Harbor, an open act of protest against the tyrannical British government.  23

More recently, Americans concerned with the direction of government got together and started a movement to get America back on the right track.  Sentiments like "no taxation without representation" found voice in large rallies and angry tweets around the country.  Heroes like Sarah Palin and Jim Demint stood before angry mobs and directed peoples focus to the 2010 midterm elections. The Tea Party Patriots website describes their focus and purpose in the "about" section of their website:

"The Tea Party movement spontaneously formed in 2009 from the reaction of the American people to fiscally irresponsible actions of the federal government, misguided “stimulus” spending, bailouts and takeovers of private industry. Within the first few weeks of the movement, Tea Party Patriots formed to support the millions of Americans seeking to improve our great nation through renewed support for fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government, and free market economic policies."


To reiterate those 3 important mission points (also on the left): free marks, fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government.  Remember those three important things, they'll come up again.

I moved to Washington DC last fall and happened to ride into the district on the same airport shuttle as a group of "tea party patriots" that were in town for an event the next day.  I didn't know what the event was but my skullcandy headphones weren't strong enough to drown out the loud and boisterous debate between one patriot passenger and our Nigerian shuttle-driver.  That yelling served as a foreshadow of what was to come.  The next day I woke up and a few friends and I decided to explore the area near our foggy-bottom apartments.  We came up from behind the lincoln memorial, along the potomac, too fresh in DC to think anything of the crowds moving towards the front of that majestic monument.  We had heard that there was a rally, and we knew that Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin had something to do with it.  We did not expect to get around the front and find ourselves facing half a million people on the monument and all around the reflecting pool. Many were dressed in colonial attire holding flags and signs and matching t-shirts from their various local tea party organizations.  They were organized.  I watched and listened as Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Tony Larussa, Martin Luther King Jr's niece Alveda, and a host of other guests spoke about restoring honor in America, which then took the form of restoring honor in our government.

You know what happened next: the republicans took back the house and gained seats back in the senate.  Look at this map.  OVERWHELMINGLY red.  That was a message to the white house- American's weren't happy.  They weren't happy that the President and his majority in congress contributed to a much greater deficit and higher unemployment numbers. They weren't happy with the costly new socialized healthcare plan, and a large laundry list of other things.  The tea-party was largely responsible for the changing of the tide.  My favorite thing about the tea party was the efficiency of their message.  They weren't worried about religion, social issues, rhetoric or partisan politics.  They were the (pardon my french) "cut the crap" movement.  Their focus on those THREE THINGS (free market, fiscal responsibility, limited government) is what made them both appealing and effective.

238 years after the original tea party, and 2 years after the inception of the modern-day tea party, Nikki Haley, Governor of South Carolina, endorsed Mitt Romney for President. (WHOA)  Her fellows in the tea party showed immediate displeasure, calling her a RINO, a traitor to the tea party movement, and a sell out.  How dare she? Well she defined EXACTLY how she dared.  Tom Thomson and Christine O'Donnell, also tea party favorites have endorsed Romney as well, but not many others. Clearly, the tea party has changed.  In this election the tea party has become it's own electorate, without unified support for any candidate, but plenty of negatives to say about Mitt Romney.  Recently in a "Tea Party Patriot" straw pull, Newt Gingrich won handily. REALLY?  Is this what the tea party has come to?  NEWT GINGRICH?!  I've already written pretty extensively about why Newt is a disaster of a candidate, so I'll just mention three important things: he personally profited from the "stimulus spending" because he recieved 1.6 million dollars from Freddie Mac.  Freddie Mac received MAJOR money during the bailout frenzy.  He says it wasn't lobbying, but his former employer says something different.

"Former Freddie Mac officials familiar with the consulting work Gingrich was hired to perform for the company in 2006 tell a different story. They say the former House speaker was asked to build bridges to Capitol Hill Republicans and develop an argument on behalf of the company’s public-private structure that would resonate with conservatives seeking to dismantle it." (read full article here) 

Does this matter to anyone?! It should.  Newt has railed against Freddie Mac in debates, and it turns out he recieved 1.6 MILLION DOLLARS worth of bailout money!  THEORETICALLY that should be strike 1 with the tea party, and a HUGE strike.  I don't need to go on about Gingrich's big government record or his record on environment. The Newt vs. Obama polls say everything that needs to be said about Newts viability as a Presidential candidate.

The case that I want to make is that according to the principles that the tea party was founded on, there is one candidate that should appeal to the tea party overwhelmingly.  A candidate that stands as the poster boy of free market economics, the hero of shrinking the government, the tax code, and regulation, and the man with the most comprehensive, feasible and detailed plan to responsibly save the economy. (I dare you to say something about individual mandates creating bigger government-- 1) he made that deal with an 85% democratic legislature to address a problem afflicting 8 percent of a population, it's a 10th amendment issue, the heritage foundation, holy grail of conservative ideology was all for it, it DIDN'T INCREASE TAXES, for further explanation see my LONG explanation)

His ENTIRE campaign and message is about fixing the economy and creating jobs.  Isn't that what the tea party was supposed to be all about?  You can call him a RINO, you can go after his history on abortion, but in the end, his platform and ideas accomplish exactly what the tea party was created for.  


1) CUTTING GOVERNMENT SPENDING AND DEBT
2) FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY
3) CREATING AN ENVIRONMENT THAT ALLOWS THE FREE MARKET ECONOMY TO GROW.


We have a MORAL RESPONSIBILITY.

In conclusion, the tea party's best way to accomplish their purpose is to beat President Obama, who is guilty of the three tea party sins.  He has spent us into greater debt and economic ruin, he has pushed for and passed legislation that hurts our future and our ability to grow, and he has held onto and added stifling regulations that keep our economy from growing and hurt our economic competitiveness.  People love to talk about Gingrich and Obama in a debate, but polls show that doesn't matter.  If the tea party wants to maintain any relevance in the political arena, it will stick to it's original principles, not it's self serving current ideological mess.  Those principles and ideals point to Mitt Romney. There are other candidates that stand for these three things too, like Michelle Bachmann. But she does not have the expertise in these three things that Mitt Romney does.  


The tea party core is the Mitt Romney specialty.  The sooner they realize that, the better our chance will be to take back the White House.  If you want a figurehead for your 3-cornered hat movement, pick someone else.  If you want to accomplish your goals, support Mitt.