One of the greatest things to come out of 2009 was the Tea Party Movement. A complete organic uprising of citizens upset with the size and scope of government–I have been waiting my whole life for this movement to start. There is one problem with this movement though, politicians will stop taking it seriously if they don’t feel politically threatened.
Everyone loves their congressman while everyone hates congress. While that may not be 100% true today, I would almost bet that’s the case in a lot of areas. When the Tea Party movement kicked off, no one was spared the wrath of the Tea Party protesters. But here we are in December of 2009, watching the Health Care bill pass, which was the single largest issue for the Tea Party Movement. The TPM may have had success in delaying the bill, but it ultimately passed both chambers. What went wrong?
This is rather simple. In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s there was a lot of student protests at colleges. When I was young, my history teacher explained how they would take over the administration buildings and essentially take complete control of massive universities. Why don’t Tea Partiers protest like this? Are they afraid that they will seem to radical? Don’t they believe that their liberty is being stolen away? Wouldn’t they fight for it at any cost? Apparently they won’t–at least not yet.
Politicians have nothing to fear at this point. They will pass the largest government entitlement program we have ever seen and not worry about what happens at the polls. That’s because they are striking it rich off of Health Care whether they stay in congress or not.
The political class is the problem that the Tea Party Movement detests. They just haven’t fully realized it yet. It is the politicians that have created these problems we protest today. It will be the politicians that will create the problems that we will protest years from now. Regardless of who wins in the 2010 Midterm Elections, congress will still be as backwards as it is today.
The solution is to prove to the political class that you are willing to stand up for your beliefs. And I mean more so than how you cast your vote in 2010. We need to send a strong message, without being violent, that we are willing to defend our beliefs.
[...] See original here: Tea Parties Need Teeth | Liberty Movement HQ [...]
Politicians aren’t listening even when we protest. They know they have nothing to worry about. We need to make them understand how serious we are.