AN OPEN LETTER TO THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT

So keep your auditions for somebody
Who hasn't got so much to lose
'Cause you can tell by the lines I'm reciting
That I've seen that movie too

- Elton John

The full-court press to absorb the Tea Party into the Republican party has accelerated, in advance of the coming 2010 mid-terms.  Resistance is futile; you will be assimilated.

http://www.thenationalteapartyfederation.com/

"A broad coalition of national and regional Tea Party groups have announced the formation of the National Tea Party Federation (NTPF). The NTPF is established to create a unified message and media response amongst key leadership and their affiliates.  At the same time, the NTPF will fund this capability to act as a clearinghouse and to prepare leadership to promote the Tea Party movement's objectives of:

• Fiscal Responsibility
• Constitutionally Limited Government
• Free Markets

The federation includes key organizations and leadership and is committed to changing the dynamics of communicating clearly to its membership while supporting the aforementioned principles.  The approach will allow for clarity of message, rapid response to media misinformation while continuing to build the brand equity of the Tea Party movement. The NTPF will act in unison without a central leadership or overhead yet collaborate through a common set of principles."

Fox news is reporting that Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin have had a meeting of the minds:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/08/honey-tea-partiers-bask-glow-conservative-women-palin-bachmann/

"Palin and Bachmann have emerged as leading figures within the Tea Party movement. In fact, many loyalists say they see the two as one and the same.

According to Ms. Bachmann, the Republican Party is merging with the Tea Party:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/08/michelle-bachmann-tea-par_n_530800.html

"Do the Republicans become tea partiers, do tea partiers become Republicans? How does this evolve?" CNN's Ali Velshi asked Bachmann on CNN's Newsroom Thursday.

"It's really merging into one single, solitary unit," Bachmann replied. "They have unified. A number of Tea Party groups from around the country are coming together, unifying under the umbrella of economic, fiscal conservatism because Americans, quite simply, feel like they're taxed enough already."

This writer believes the Republicans are so excited about the prospects of their coming election victory that they have neglected to develop a plan for just that outcome.  Such being the case, they risk placing a republican stamp on the crash when it occurs.  Should I be angry at my local Tea Party for trying to merge me, or at Michele Bachmann for pretending I'm merging with her?

Given the current state of affairs, there is little doubt in my mind that the Republicans will win a majority of house seats in 2010.  And in at least one respect that will be something of an improvement; divided government is less "vigorous", to paraphrase Madison, and therefore less of a direct threat to our purses and liberties.  But there is a lot missing; principally, the republicans seem to lack understanding, and thus lack a plan.

What plan?  A plan for dealing with the outrageous economic conditions left to them by their predecessors, republican and democratic, both in the service of Wall Street and the welfare/warfare state.  I have been unable to have a sustained conversation with anyone, including republicans, democrats, or Tea Party members (with remarkably few but notable exceptions) about the true fiscal condition of our state and our nation. 

This fact is undeniable: the success or failure of the economy will dictate political activity.  This point is either ignored, or lost.  CD would argue that it is ignored, and that is probably correct.  But my time spent reading and commenting here at ZH, and before that reading, writing and commenting elsewhere, have focused my attention completely on economic conditions.  At this point, nothing else matters.  While the republicans salivate over their coming mid term victories, and while Sarah Palin tries to prove that smugness is a successful policy, no one on the national political stage is telling the truth about the economy.  "Hope for the future" has been reduced to "elect republicans and everything will get better."

It's been amply documented here at ZH that sovereign governments are broke, and that the only thing standing between us and that reality is the passage of some brief but as yet undetermined amount of time. Yet, unsurprisingly, both major parties have totally failed to come forward with an actual plan for dealing with it.  They remain completely focused on winning the hearts and minds of the voters so that they can win the next election, never more than 2 years away.  It seems this virtually guarantees that the fiscal condition of the nation will not be dealt with until the collapse actually happens.  It also virtually guarantees, then, that the solution that will be implemented will also be aimed at the short term. 

What is the most easily implemented short term solution?  More government authority.  What could possibly be more obvious?

It's like I'm watching a movie and I know how it ends.  Many of you have heard "Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it."  Well, the fact is, that even those who HAVE studied history are doomed to repeat it when they are surrounded by people who haven't.

State governments are, in many cases, in worse condition than the national government.  This fact has also been amply documented on these pages by many who are smarter than me.  The local Tea Party movements should continue to focus on politics in their home states.  Why?  Because most states rely on federal money, and the sources of federal money are going to dry up, perhaps suddenly.  Local Tea Party organizers must concentrate on aggressively reforming their home states' budgets and preparing for the end of federal money, not on forming national coalitions to broker power. 

How can a movement whose stated purpose is to pursue tenth amendment issues become a national movement?  I perceive the quandary: how to lend your weight to those whom you perceive to be helping your cause while neither openly supporting them nor alienating your other supporters?  It's something I struggle with also, except the "other supporters" part.  How do I lend my support to the pro-liberty Tea Party movement while not embracing its other elements?

The republicans' tenure as a majority under W Bush demonstrated that when they say "strong national defense" they mean "preemptive wars of aggression," and when they say "sound fiscal policy" they mean "bailouts for Wall Street, and stimulating the economy through preemptive wars of aggression."  Why are we to believe that this next time will be any different? 

We need a third party, one that functions primarily at the state and local level.  A lot of us who joined the Tea Party were hoping for one, and it's still not too late.  A new conservative party without a history that can so easily be pointed to and distrusted, without a cadre of national-level power brokers, pundits and lobbyists that prevent it from actually being a party of the people's interests.  A party not already married to the MIC and Wall Street.