An Open Letter to All Tea Party Activists.
(With a request to spread it far and wide.)
The Tea Party concept has caught fire and swept the country, culminating in the September 12th March on Washington. Yet where do we go from here? The GOP, using the convenient cutout of Dick Armey's organization is trying to bend this powerful popular movement and channel it into the same old losing political dynamic. Let's face it, the GOP is at least half of the reason we are in the fix that we are in.
Yet here they are, acting like the guy who figured he had the right to run the train forever, who found himself left at the platform by the passengers who got tired of waiting for him to get off his dead butt. He is now trying to parachute into the engineer's seat in the locomotive to take his "rightful" place as the train boss. As long as the GOP feels it can count on our votes for lack of a credible alternative they will continue to act with arrogance toward us and with the same cravenly stupidity toward the Dems.
For their part, the Democrat Party tries to delegitimize us by calling us "GOP astroturf" and pawns of the RNC. There is a solution that will answer both these problems.
Vote with our feet. That's right. Withdraw from the GOP by marching down to the registrar's office and changing our party affiliation from Elephant to independent. The national GOP has presumed to act in our name on everything from amnesty for illegals to education bills written by Teddy Kennedy to growing government and the deficit. Well, why don't we publicly and loudly WITHDRAW OUR PERMISSION?
The GOP will not change until we give them good reason to. Let us give them that reason. Go down tomorrow and withdraw your previous permission to them to act in your name. If they want our permission back in time for the next election, they will have to earn it. Again, they will not change until we give them a darn good reason to do so by voting with our feet.
So, let us get their attention.
Let us refuse to cooperate in our own oppression.
Let us withdraw our permission.
Pro Bono Publico, A Member of the Alabama Tea Party.
23 comments:
Who ever wrote that essay is committed to the same line of thinking that got us into trouble in the first place, A two party system. Neither of the current parties repersent labor. Niether party repersents small businesses.
Cross posted to my blog
Bummer. I'm already registered as unaffiliated and have been for a while. :-)
The day we start leaving the GOP, is the day we lose. You can bitch and moan all day about how the GOP is 50% responsible for our problems, when in reality you know that they are not. You can leave the GOP if you want, however, real folks who realize the importance of the GOP in American politics, will never....ever leave the GOP.
Sadly, I suspect it is too late for voting at the ballot box.
Pickdog
III
AMEN! Easy for me as I live in a state where I don't have to declare a party with the county to vote in the primaries.
Gonna be tougher for those that must do so. Seems it would be beneficial for conservatives in those states to work at changing the law...
bobcat
While the thought of registering as an Independent has its attractions, the painful reality for those of us living in states with closed Primary Elections is that being an official Independent voter means being disenfranchised for the Primary elections. (For those who aren't familiar with them, in closed Primaries, a voter can choose only from candidates within the party in which he or she is registered.)
As far fewer people vote in Primaries than in General Elections, your vote counts for more, and you have a greater voice in choosing the best candidate -- or the least bad, as the case may be.
I went that route once, some years ago, and arrived at the polling place to find that all I was allowed to vote on were the local ballot questions about things like floating new bonds.
I immediately held my nose and registered in a party.
You're just now figuring this out? Hell, I did that 16 years ago...
i did, 4 years ago.
Posted at the AK files an Frugal Squirels
You know, up until quite recently, I thought it was possible to escape the worst of the disarmers simply by choosing a different state to call home. Then I realized there was an active anti-liberty contingent in all of them.
I chose the Red Team because, at the time I registered, they appeared to be all about restoring a republic. They're not, of course, but I'm not leaving. I will continue to vote against the idiots in primaries and elections until they run out of idiots.
The voters are the imporant part. It's often possible to penetrate the protective layer of party-line pablum that surrounds the brain of a typical Red Team voter, and then have a discussion where both parties are thinking. (Sometimes it takes a few months' work.)
I've tried the same thing with Blue Team voters, but they have already decided where I belong in society and how my money should be spent. Anyway, things shouldn't talk back to people, so when I try to engage them, I'm treated as if I'm a talking end table lamp. The responses are mostly slogans spoken as statements, and if I attempt to force justification of those statements, the supporting argument always turns out to be the original statement. I am wasting my time arguing with a hamster wheel mind.
By the way, I received a call from a Senate Red Fossils. They're entirely unprepared to deal with someone who wants to see a decent candidate before the wallet opens. Looks like we'll have force our own choice on the party dinosaurs. So be it.
Also:
None of the candidates looking to grab Dodd's seat in Connecticut have conspicuously revealed party affiliation, nor have they listed where they stand on any issue on their websites. Both parties, mind you.
There is no difference--we're supposed to just choose a personality.
If you hate Dodd, wait until you see who replaces him.
You got it! What a fabulous idea. I was always an Independent in the past and only changed over to vote in a local election. As long as there was a glimmer of hope that the GOP might fly right I didn't change it. That hope is gone. Tomorrow I got INDEPENDENT!!!
And I will spread the word. This is GREAT!
No Pain, No Gain
The "R"epublican representatives and senators have been treasonous in their actions. To vote for the same bunch of incumbents only guarantees that a bloody revolution will come in time. If we, the Constitution protecting patriots, continue voting for the same scum and are expecting different results, then we, as Einstein would say, are insane.
Some say "vote out all of incumbents during the primaries"(my favorite)
or like Mr. Pro Bono Publico says "Withdraw from the GOP by marching down to the registrar's office and changing our party affiliation from Elephant to independent."
Who knows which is best. Whatever the case, I'm sure that we all can agree that Einstein was right.
III
Many states provide voter registration services online, so you don't even have to go anywhere.
Sweet Home Alabama - Spot on.
And to those of you here who have chimed in in support of the GOP, why don't you wake the hell up?
Morons.
To the folks who claim that without the Republican party, we will lose:
We have already lost the political contest.
The governments (Fed, state, local) are bankrupt (i.e., their current and future liabilities far exceed the sum of their assets and future revenue streams).
The Constitution as a meaningful check on government power is dead. Garet Garrett pointed that out 71 years ago, as did Napolitano much more recently.
Most importantly, don't you see that the write-your-representatives Republican-Democrat business-as-usual pas de deux is exactly and precisely how we got to this very point?
Who nominated John Freaking McCain to run against Hopey-Changey?
The Stupid Party.
Who has not put forth viable candidates to contest open races in 2010, with those elections barely twelve months away?
The Stupid Party -- see, e.g., the New York 23rd Congressional District fiasco here.
If what you have been doing has achieved results that you do not like, calling "do over" and repeating the same behaviors, only harder, will NOT yield different results.
Good luck to those who think differently.
I understand the sentiment but I disagree with the strategy. It is akin to, "There's no one worth voting for, so I'm staying home in protest." Examples: 2006 and 2008. How did that work out? It gave us Obama and a radical Democrat-controlled Congress. It is not smart political strategy; it is an emotional response borne of rage and frustration. It won't help and it might hurt. GOPers think if they lose voters, it's because they aren't enough like Democrats so they "moderate" to court the "Independent vote." Third party won't work, either, as it splits the GOP vote and ensures a Democrat win. We have to replace them all and retake the GOP party. It's OUR party, it's been hijacked and we need it back.
Personally, I plan to vote against any incumbent that ends up on my primary and general ballots, or for the best conservative candidates of any party. Goal: make sure no incumbents from Arizona return to DC. Getting rid of Grijalva will be the hardest.
Pay attention to your state races too. The real power of the Constitution rests in your state legislature. I actually get personal responses from my state legislators. They are probably the only power that can successfully fight the beast in the political or judicial arenas, and we will need their help if it goes downhill.
Realistically, the chances of solving this peacefully are probably gone. The problem is deeper than politics; it is, as Mike says, two nations occupying the same borders. "The graveyard of history" offers only one solution. But we still have to follow the process, until we can't anymore. The alternative is grim and if there is any way to avoid it, we have to try.
PS-Primary elections should NOT be open. Party members should elect their best candidate to run against the other candidates. Open primaries allow legalized skewing of candidate selection, and is a major reason we ended up with McCain.
azcIII
The only problem with withdrawing party affiliation, especially in states like Colorado, is that then we have LESS say in caniddates and party direction. Instead, we should FLOOD party ranks, FLOOD caucuses, and RUN FOR PARTY ELECTION. In doing so we change the platform and direction of local, state, and eventually federal parties... Going Rogue seems counter productive to driving actual change... We need to man up, and get our hands dirty WITHIN the party that most closely aligns with our beliefs. Once we swell party ranks, we will see actual change.
Hey the best place to change your candidate it to start at the local party meeting. Bring just a few friends and you can take over the local party operation. Now you do have to be a member of the party to do this usually. But the work starts here now you must put in your candidate.
This has been done here in Utah quite successfully. Your home state will have similar opportunities. Get your local Libertarian or Constitution party to join you. Become the Libertarian or Constitution faction of the Dem or GOP. Now you can throw big gov candidates out big time.
And don't vote for incumbents this year at all!
I'll be leaving the GOP shortly. Was just waiting for a good excuse.
Will the folks defending the current Rs please give examples from actual enacted legislation that prove that the Republican party's actions are consistent with the belief set of this readership?
Not being gratuitously snarky -- I really want to know.
Considering that the people who agree with the general purposes of this blog are a very small minority, I don't see that flooding the primaries with voters is even an option much less a winning strategy. The writer of the piece quoted here is pointing out that your support is taken for granted.
LOL at Mr. K for having a GWB avatar and thinking he's part of the solution. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you, buddy.
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