Not surprisingly, as usual, our protectors of truth (the mainstream media) are letting Obama and the vocal Left get away with it, most times with their direct assistance.
The Tea Party movement wasn’t a “response to unanimous GOP opposition”; it was a direct response to Congress’s refusal to listen to the many, and still to date unheeded hundreds of thousands of phone calls, letters and emails directed at Washington; demanding Washington stop the reckless and out of control spending. When even Blue Dog Democrats acquiesce to their majority and help spend America into oblivion, the average Americans stop being so average.
The most recent shot around the world wasn’t initiated by “response to unanimous GOP opposition”. It was initiated by the collective will of the American middle class; tired of watching Washington piss its money down bottomless wells for the sake of either their revolving door political friends or nearly four generations of America’s growing welfare state.
April 15, 2010 was the one year anniversary of the Tea Party movement. Technically, the anniversary was actually several weeks before that, but for many Americans April 15, 2009 was the date we stopped blindly accepting. We stopped blindly accepting congressional half-truths. We stopped blindly accepting White House half-truths. We stopped blindly accepting that Washington was filled with people smarter than us. Most importantly, we stopped blindly accepting that our place was to sit down and shut up.
We had several Tea Parties in our area and on April 15, 2009, I attended a Tea Party in Jacksonville, NC. Jacksonville is a small military town, filled with lots of folks just going about their business the best they can. Some are from families born and bred in the area while some are from families who came for a stint (or longer) on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune or one of its nearby Marine Corps base partners. The one thing you can easily count on is that area residents, especially around a military base, are not used to railing against their federal government. However, on that day, 15 April, 2009, several hundred of Jacksonville’s finest citizens came together to tell the federal government to “STOP SPENDING OUR MONEY!”
There in the crowd were home makers; ladies with ages ranging from their early 20’s to, well, let’s just say more mature groups of ladies. There were business men and women, laborers, plumbers, electricians, retirees and everything in between. None of these people were politically savvy power brokers. They were simply honest workers who knew federal spending had to stop.
The air was filled with a strange, almost pensive tension from these hard core rabble-rousers. You see, many of these people had never “protested” before in their lives. What do we do? Do we holler? Do we swear? Do we march? March? Around what? If we had not been so serious it would have been funny. Here, on a day normally reserved for standing in line at the post office, ensuring outgoing taxes made the day’s deadline were several hundred people wanting nothing more that to reach out to likeminded Americans.
That’s how it started, last April. Hundreds, then thousands, then millions of Americans, all across the country we stood up against “the government” for the first time in our lives. And truthfully, by previous standards we didn’t even do that right. There were no Molotov cocktails, no damaged store fronts. There were no tipped over cars, set ablaze for all to see. There were none of these because we worked for a living. We understood the true cost of those damaged storefronts. Stores are owned by hard working people just like us and cars don’t simply materialize on the street to be burned. Someone owned them, paid for them and needed them.
So what were we blood-crazed hooligans to do? Well, some of us brought lawn chairs because we were tired. Like most Tea Party events ours started after work. Most of the crowd had already put in a hard day somewhere and needed a rest. But no, something’s got to be said. Folks have got to join up and tell our elected representatives that those blank checks they keep writing have to be cashed someday! Those blank checks are going to be cashed by our children and our grandchildren! STOP IT - DAMMIT - STOP!!!
We had a term in the military called BLUF: Bottom Line Up Front. The BLUF for these crazy tea partiers was simple: Our government is “We the People” and our electeds had better wake back up to the fact that they work for us and they’d better do it fast. What our elected representatives do in Raleigh or in Washington is our business, not some other state’s business, not a President’s bucket list – our business. And when we, collectively, say “Stop!” our electeds had damned well better stop.
What have we accomplished in the past year? America has had lots of small town tea parties, then bigger tea parties, then several hundred thousand to a couple million strong tea party, and more little ones again this past month but to what end? Of note, our own Democrat senator told us she simply didn’t care. Senator Kay Hagan, following the dictates of her party leadership looked North Carolina citizens and voters square in the eyes and told us, figuratively, to sit down and shut the hell up. Good’ol Kay voted squarely against the wishes of her constituents. Then again why are we surprised? Our governor and most of NC’s state leadership, also Democrats, are tickled to death that Obamacare was voted in. No joining in with the nationwide lawsuits for North Carolina, no siree Bob; North Carolina will tow the White House’s party line regardless of the loss of state sovereignty or the long term negative effects on future generations.
So who are these tea partiers; the ones who supposedly mainstream journalists, the President and news anchors repeatedly call by denigrating names? They’re you and me. And Mom and Dad and Aunt Her and Uncle Him and Cousin Them, and our neighbor down the block, and, and, and. We are rock solid American citizens, all taxpayers and most all voters who have quietly sat back and let someone else have their say, and now we worry in our guts we’ve been quiet for too long. Maybe we’ve lost control, and then again, maybe not. Nevada’s GOP Primary results were something to behold, weren’t they?
You see, April 15, 2010 was our one year anniversary; not of “response to unanimous GOP opposition”, but of hard working Americans saying “We the People” is not just a slogan. And November 2nd, you can take that to the bank.
Steve Clayton is a retired U.S. Marine, who successfully served in all three military rank structures; Enlisted, Warrant Officer and Regular Officer. He now lives in Holly Ridge, NC. 
