This is Part III of my essay on why the Tea Party should remain small and localized to maintain its momentum, strength and impact.
Time for the Tea Party to walk the talk -- and limit its national scope and expand to more small towns to maintain effectiveness.
The root of our country’s problem is political apathy. There was decent turnout at the polls that got Obama elected. But it wasn’t huge or record-shattering. 57% of eligible voters turned out. Slightly above average. And most people in this country do not agree with his socialist-Marxist trend for our political system. But he got elected. If 70 or 80% of eligible voters turned out, I doubt there would ever be a Tea Party.
Let's look at the basic tenets that helped rally the Tea Party into existence. Note, all of these are inter-related and tie back to #1.
#1. The Founding Fathers Got It Right
The constitution is being unraveled slowly, thread by thread. The founding fathers knew it was a very big, strong rope, but they also knew if you take it thread by thread, eventually you can destroy it.
Let's stick to the constitution, as written. Plain and simple.
#2. Limited government.
This means reasonable control of law and commerce and people, for the general welfare of people, but being very conservative with it because it gets out of hand so easily. It also means saying "no" to bureaucratic solutions. Example: Are we safer now that we have the Dept. of Homeland Security? No. The FBI, CIA, NSA, TSA and Border Patrol was enough. Then 911 happened. But bureaucrats don't believe in fixing broke things. They believe in building bureaucracies. So their solution was the DHS, which is now another layer of bureaucracy between US citizens and their security.
#3. Personal Freedom and Responsibility is Best
The government is not our mother. For example: You can choose to drive safely or not. If you don't (because of texting, eating or talking) you can be ticketed for reckless driving. And you can die in a crash. Or hurt someone, in which case you should go to jail. We don't need laws that tell us we can't eat, play music, text, talk, think about the opposite sex, or other tasks that will distract us behind the wheel. Those are useless inflations of government power that do nothing except undermine personal freedoms and responsibilities of citizens to do the right thing. It runs both ways. If you screw up, you should pay the price. The solutions are there; they should be embraced and enforced.
#4. Free Markets Work
Again, within reason. Antitrust laws are necessary. Many laws are necessary to reign in unfettered greed which we've seen run amuck throughout history. But that doesn't mean you shut down -- or take over -- the system of commerce, enterprise and entrepreneurialism that made this country great. And will keep it strong, rich and powerful. By the way, being strong, rich and powerful are good things.
And that’s it. I was hoping to keep it to three, because #4 is a function of numbers 1, 2 and 3. But in the current climate, it seems like it should be mentioned on its own.
Time for the Tea Party to walk the talk -- and limit its national scope and expand to more small towns to maintain effectiveness.
The root of our country’s problem is political apathy. There was decent turnout at the polls that got Obama elected. But it wasn’t huge or record-shattering. 57% of eligible voters turned out. Slightly above average. And most people in this country do not agree with his socialist-Marxist trend for our political system. But he got elected. If 70 or 80% of eligible voters turned out, I doubt there would ever be a Tea Party.
Let's look at the basic tenets that helped rally the Tea Party into existence. Note, all of these are inter-related and tie back to #1.
#1. The Founding Fathers Got It Right
The constitution is being unraveled slowly, thread by thread. The founding fathers knew it was a very big, strong rope, but they also knew if you take it thread by thread, eventually you can destroy it.
Let's stick to the constitution, as written. Plain and simple.
#2. Limited government.
This means reasonable control of law and commerce and people, for the general welfare of people, but being very conservative with it because it gets out of hand so easily. It also means saying "no" to bureaucratic solutions. Example: Are we safer now that we have the Dept. of Homeland Security? No. The FBI, CIA, NSA, TSA and Border Patrol was enough. Then 911 happened. But bureaucrats don't believe in fixing broke things. They believe in building bureaucracies. So their solution was the DHS, which is now another layer of bureaucracy between US citizens and their security.
#3. Personal Freedom and Responsibility is Best
The government is not our mother. For example: You can choose to drive safely or not. If you don't (because of texting, eating or talking) you can be ticketed for reckless driving. And you can die in a crash. Or hurt someone, in which case you should go to jail. We don't need laws that tell us we can't eat, play music, text, talk, think about the opposite sex, or other tasks that will distract us behind the wheel. Those are useless inflations of government power that do nothing except undermine personal freedoms and responsibilities of citizens to do the right thing. It runs both ways. If you screw up, you should pay the price. The solutions are there; they should be embraced and enforced.
#4. Free Markets Work
Again, within reason. Antitrust laws are necessary. Many laws are necessary to reign in unfettered greed which we've seen run amuck throughout history. But that doesn't mean you shut down -- or take over -- the system of commerce, enterprise and entrepreneurialism that made this country great. And will keep it strong, rich and powerful. By the way, being strong, rich and powerful are good things.
And that’s it. I was hoping to keep it to three, because #4 is a function of numbers 1, 2 and 3. But in the current climate, it seems like it should be mentioned on its own.
Well said, and thank you!
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