Tea Party Power

By Alan Caruba

America is chockablock with some very smart people, if only the ones in charge would pay them some attention. One of them is Peggy Noonan who writes a weekly commentary for The Wall Street Journal. She came to public attention as a speechwriter for George H.W. Bush, coining his “thousand points of light” phrase.

Unlike the vast majority of political pundits, Noonan “gets” what the Tea Party movement is all about. Writing in the September 18 edition, she examined the tug of war between conservative and liberal legislators in Congress, with the liberal side always gaining more when the rest of us on the sidelines have wanted both Democrats and Republicans to STOP spending money and start reducing the size of a government run amuck.

The other factor is the increasing urgency of the times in which we live. She wrote, “Here’s the great virtue of the tea party; They know what time it is. It’s getting late. If we don’t get the size and cost of government in line now, we won’t be able to. We’re teetering on the brink of some vast, dark, new world—states and cities on the brink of bankruptcy, the federal government too.”

“The issue isn’t ‘big spending’ anymore. It’s ruinous spending that they fear will end America as we know it, as they promised it to their children.”

In short, the Tea Party movement is us!

That’s “us” as in conservatives, people who go to church; small business owners; people who love both college and professional football, NASCAR and other sports; people who think abortion is murder; gun owners; people who worked all their lives and can’t get by on Social Security and who know, even with Medicare, any serious illness will financially destroy them; people raising children today who wonder if there will be any Social Security when they retire—if they can retire; people worried about what their kids are learning in school and what they are not being taught about U.S. history and civics.

In my state, New Jersey, Democrat to the core, these people, despite their party affiliation, put Chris Christie into office as Governor. Last week he addressed a conference of firefighters, greeted initially by some boos, but in the end, they crowded around him like he was a rock star, all eager to shake his hand. He hadn’t backed down an inch from his demand that government service union members begin to contribute more to their pension and healthcare funds. He bluntly told them, “we’re doing this now so there will be a pension fund ten years from now.” They knew he was right.

After a misstep or two, the Republican National Party got the primary elections message. They back Miller in Alaska, O’Donnell in Delaware, and Angle in Nevada. The inside-the-beltway crowd have, excuse the pun, read the tea leaves!

Ultimately, this leads political wonks and onlookers to ask whether Sarah Palin will take a run at the GOP nomination for president. There is no question that she has confounded a lot of people, myself included, who were ready to write her off as an anomaly, an unknown Governor of Alaska selected to be, of all things, the GOP candidate for Vice President.

I think that, once the midterm elections determine how much power in Congress shifts to from the Democrat to the Republican Party and how well the GOP puts into action the expectations and demands of the Tea Party movement, neither Palin, nor anyone else will know what her decision will be.

This nation has already experimented with electing a charismatic candidate for President, a man about whom little was actually known, and who has demonstrated how spectacularly ill-prepared and unprepared he was for the job.

I am inclined to think that, consciously or not, when it comes to a presidential candidate the Tea Party voters are going to be looking for substantial experience and, perhaps more importantly, a proven record of belief and action that reflect traditional conservative values.

First, though, a Republican Congress will need to do some immediate heavy-lifting, repealing or at least defunding Obamacare, making it clear that Cap-and-Trade is dead, cracking down on a rogue EPA, stopping amnesty proposals, and letting it be known that any unspent billions in bailout programs should be returned to the national treasury to reduce the debt.

After that, the 2012 national elections will take care of themselves and the Tea Party movement may have reinvigorated the GOP, creating a coalition of independents and even disaffected Democrats that may yet save this nation from ruin. The last time that happened Ronald Reagan got elected.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

DC to Get a Taste of Tea

Picking a Fight with Patriots

By Alan Caruba

The British, when they still ruled the American colonies, learned to their displeasure what a bad idea it is to pick a fight with patriots.

By the time the Revolution began the colonies had been running their own affairs for a long time and, while many saw benefits in being allied with one of the great powers of their times and their world, they soon tired of “taxation without representation.”

The colonists had no say in Parliament and generally regarded it, not the king, as the source of their problems. The British, however, had spent themselves into huge debt by pursuing various wars. Parliament saw the colonies as a source of revenue with which to dig themselves out of that debt. One way was to monopolize what the colonies could import and another way was to tax those imports.

The problem for the British was the long established practice of Americans to ignore any legislation or taxes they did not like. Decades before the Revolution ignited, a British official named Edward Randolph wrote “There is no notice taken of the act of navigation, plantation, or any other laws made in England for the regulation of trade. All nations having free liberty to come into their ports and vend their commodities without any restraint…” Apparently, Randolph noted, Americans regarded themselves as “a free state and do act in all matters accordingly.”

We tend to see men like Sam Adams, John Hancock, and Paul Revere through the gauzy haze of a distant time, but we should remind ourselves that they were real men trying to cope with an increasingly difficult situation.

Their grievances were real and they had grown up in a place where liberty, the freedom to worship as they wanted, to publish what they wanted, and engage in commerce as they wanted was not only well established, but valued above all else. They had a good understanding of the British constitution and the rights it granted. It was Britain, far across the Atlantic, that controlled their fortunes and, through a series of abuses, Britain lost their allegiance.

The importance of tea cannot be underestimated. By 1769, Americans were importing 900,000 pounds of English tea, but by 1773 that was not longer the case, in large part due to the Tea Act of 1773. It was a tax specific to the colonies. Americans began to boycott tea. Coffee would come to be seen as a more patriotic brew to drink.

Adams, Hancock, Revere, and others had formed the Sons of Liberty, a group that on December 16, 1773 boarded three ships from England, the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver, and dumped 342 crates of tea into Boston Harbor.

The event would become known as the Boston Tea Party and from that event today’s Tea Party members take their name. The source of oppressive taxes, unimaginable waste, and unpopular legislation is now the federal government in Washington, D.C.

Such events and groups do not occur in a vacuum. They are preceded by earlier abuses and in the case of the colonies there was a Stamp Act that was so strongly resisted Parliament repealed it. In Massachusetts, the royal governor and other officials appointed by the king were so unpopular that they were frequently under attack. Effigies were hung from an elm in North Boston that became known as the Liberty Tree.

There can be few more foolish acts by any government in power than to ignore Americans, to force upon them legislation the majority opposes, to bring shame to the nation in various ways. Patient to a fault, Americans have a long track record of opposing oppression that runs contrary to the U.S. Constitution.

By coincidence, I have been reading Joel J. Miller’s excellent biography, “The Revolutionary Paul Revere.” Made famous by a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Paul Revere’s Ride”, Revere had made a long ride the night of the Tea Party to inform the New York Committee of Correspondence about the event. Another rode to Philadelphia for the same purpose. The ride immortalized by Longfellow was “On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five.”

Paul Revere, silversmith and patriot, lived to the age of 83, dying in May 1818; long enough a life to encompass the tempestuous birth of America in its earliest years. He would live through the Revolution, the original Articles of Confederation, and in 1787, the Constitution under which Americans live today, still enjoying the blessings of liberty.

In Boston, the church bells tolled his passing. One newspaper said, “Seldom has the tomb closed upon a life so honorable and useful.”

The spirit of Paul Revere and the Sons of Liberty still lives. America is home again to Tea Parties.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Searchlight, Nevada Tea Party - 3/28/10

Don't let the mainstream media lie to you and say that only a few folks showed up at the Tea Party event, Saturday, March 28. Watch out, Obama! Watch out, Democrats in Congress! You have pissed off a lot of Americans and that is never a good thing to do.

Resisting Obama: The New American Revolution

By Alan Caruba

This is a government unlike anything those of us who have been around a long time and have long memories has ever seen.

You may recall that when the Bush administration tried to foist yet another amnesty for illegal aliens, Americans came out in full force to ultimately defeat the bill. When Bush tried to pass legislation to reform Social Security he threw in the towel when it became evident that no one wanted it.

Not so today. Despite the polls that demonstrate that the vast majority of Americans are opposed to Obamacare and despite the protests taking place in Washington, D.C., as well as an avalanche of calls, emails, and faxes to members of Congress (Republicans are exempt as they stand united against it), the Obama administration and his fascist supporters in Congress are determined to pass or send something to the President for his signature.

History is replete with presidents who stumped for legislation that Americans opposed. Have we forgotten Clinton’s effort to pass healthcare “reform”? Woodrow Wilson’s failed campaign to get the U.S. to join the League of Nations comes to mind. I could cite other examples, but the point is that, when the People speak, presidents in the past have listened.

Not Obama. Not the Democrats led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The People be damned!

I am no constitutional expert, but I am pretty sure that Obamacare is unconstitutional in many respects, not the least its provision that authorizes the government to force you to buy insurance you don’t want.

What we are witnessing, however, is something contrary to the way the nation has been governed in the past. We are suffering through the worst abuse of power we have ever witnessed in the modern era.

It took a Civil War to end the movement to succession and it is going to take something short of a new Revolution to stop this President and this Democrat controlled Congress from forcing upon Americans a socialist effort to expand the government by incorporating within its control, the nation’s healthcare system.

Elements of that Revolution can be seen in the emergence of the Tea Party movement. It can be seen in the Oathkeepers movement in which members of the nation’s police forces and others have committed to refuse to enforce unconstitutional laws or power grabs such as a specious declaration of martial law.

What strikes some of us as astonishing is the deliberate ignorance of the President concerning the Constitution. For a man who taught courses on the subject at the University of Chicago, he seems utterly clueless about its limitation and restrictions.

It is more likely that he regards the Constitution as an impediment to the socialist reformation of our government.

The one thing the Founders feared most was the establishment of a monarchy or dictatorship in America. They lived in an era of the “divine right of kings” and saw the French Revolution turn bloody, resulting in the takeover by Napoleon who later crowned himself an emperor.

When George Washington was offered the monarchy by some, he spurned it and after two terms in office stepped aside for a transition of power. When King George III heard that Washington would return to his farm, he declared, “If he does that, he will be the greatest man on earth!”

Is it any wonder then that a growing number of States are distancing themselves from the central government, passing legislation intended to protect their citizens from the imposition of Obamacare if it is “passed” by Congress?

The Obama administration is hell-bent to wear down Americans, to pass Obamacare by any means possible including outright bribery. What Obama has actually managed to do is turn the majority of Americans against him and to set in motion a massive shift in the political control of the government when the midterm elections are held in November.

Whatever the outcome of Obamacare, the President and the Democrats have lost.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

We the People

Take five minutes to watch this video. It will remind you what is at stake and why we cannot dare to lose the struggle with the present administration.

Saint Sarah of Wasilla

By Alan Caruba

Every time I see Sarah Palin, I think of the total population of Alaska which, according to the 2010 World Almanac is 686,293 citizens. Anchorage’s population is 279,243..

Then I think of the many other U.S. cities that have populations that exceed the entire population of Alaska. They include Austin, Texas, Charlotte, North Carolina, Columbus, Ohio, and San Jose, California, to name just a few.

There are mayors throughout the U.S. that deal with problems of far greater magnitude than the former Governor of Alaska and former candidate for Vice President of the United States of America ever encountered.

I may well be the only conservative in America who thought John McCain was out of his mind when he chose then-Governor Palin to be his running mate in the 2008 campaign. The last person to choose a woman running mate was Walter Mondale, Jimmy Carter’s Vice President, who in 1984 was soundly defeated by Ronald Reagan.

I do not think America is ready for a woman president. I will leave it to the political scientists to argue whether Sarah helped or hurt the McCain campaign because, in my view, most of the damage was self-inflicted by Senator Maverick.

I confess, I have never been keen on women in political office. It is a prejudice of which I am not particularly proud, but one need only cast an eye on the likes of California’s Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, and Diane Feinstein to find common ground with Burt Prelutsky, a fellow commentator, who says they remind him of the three witches in the opening scene of Macbeth.

There are many other women in Congress and most of the time when I see or hear one, I keep wishing they had stayed home to raise a family or run a flower shop or some other business than the nation’s business.

None of this is politically correct, but I’m not here to offer pabulum.

I watched Palin’s $100,000 address to the Tea Party conference in Nashville and could not shake the notion that it was 98% pure clichés. This is not to say that the attendees weren’t the best kind of patriots America could hope for, but it is to say that Palin has very little to offer other than to wave the flag, mention Reagan a lot, and tease President Obama.

That didn’t keep the audience from giving her many rounds of applause and even, at one point, to shout “Run, Sarah, run.” No, please do not run, even though we both know you have to dangle that prospect in order to remain a viable political figure.

Part of my problem with Palin is that she resigned from the last political job she had. No doubt the rising costs of all the nonsense lawsuits brought against her played a role in that decision. The prospect of cashing in on her sudden celebrity and popularity was no doubt a factor as well. I daresay it may have been the best decision to make at the time.

The Palin conundrum is this: she is pretty much the lone voice of the conservative movement; articulating its fundamental values of self-reliance and responsibility, smaller government, and a strong defense. Almost alone among the Republican Party’s spokespersons, Palin plainly says we are at war with al Qaeda.

Even though I am in agreement with her, whenever I see her I cannot shake the same feeling I get while watching a circus act, akin to fire eaters or sword swallowers; briefly entertaining, but quite forgettable.

For the present, Palin offers the Republican Party a “personality” to carry the flag until someone like the new Senator from Massachusetts, Scott Brown, develops a national following or some other new faces emerge from the 2010 midterm elections.

With few exceptions, male Republican office holders tend to be fairly colorless policy wonks and pinstripe-suited folk who have the right answers, but not the theatrical skills to evoke much enthusiasm from a wary and weary electorate.

At some point, however, Sarah needs to return to Alaska…and stay there.

Obama: Getting It Wrong

By Alan Caruba

Consider this. Germany’s voters have turned away from socialism. So have Italy’s. The French elected a president who defeated a socialist opponent.

The British are about to rid themselves of the Labour Party, a proponent of socialism. Even China, while still governed by its communist party, has embraced capitalism and, in doing so, is on its way to become a real world power.

And America has elected the most leftist President in its history whose support comes from the far left elements of the Democrat Party. It should be said, however, that many Americans had grown tired and angry at the Republican Party for its failure to follow through on its conservative agenda, while other voters embraced the candidate, but not liberalism.

The result is that all Americans are literally under siege by a handful of Democrats in Congress that have been on a drunken borrowing and spending splurge, want to impose a huge tax on all energy use, and to “fix” an insolvent Medicare system by adding even more people to it while claiming to rid it of “waste and fraud” that no administration since its beginning has ever achieved.

What is wrong with this picture?

In a Saturday Night Live skit, an Obama impersonator asks the audience what he has accomplished since taking office and answers the question proudly saying “Nothing!”

Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House, former professor of history, says this is a teaching moment. Americans have discovered that a great smile and a powerful oratorical style (so long as the TelePrompters are working) is not a substitute for having a real plan as opposed to a head full of mushy socialist theory.

The likelihood is that President Obama has a better idea about what he will have for breakfast tomorrow morning than what he will do about America’s long involvement in Afghanistan. The irony is that, if he does get out, it will be conservatives, mindful of the Vietnam debacle, who will applaud the decision.

One hopes the CIA has shown him maps of Iran where all the known nuclear weapons sites are located. It isn’t that much of a secret. You can Google them. The real question is whether President Obama has the guts to do what every single person in the Middle East wants America to do. Bomb those sites. The President is hoping tiny Israel will do it for us.

He was not elected to make easy decisions.

He was not elected to fly around the world apologizing for America.

He was not elected to bow to the Saudi king.

Did you hear a single word out of him in the past two weeks regarding the arrest of three separate Muslims under suspicion of planning terrorist acts here? No. But he did not hesitate to characterize the arrest of an obstreperous black Harvard professor as “stupid.”

For all the torrent of criticism leveled against his predecessor, Americans slept peacefully in their beds for eight years, unafraid of a repeat of 9/11.

This President, though, wants to reduce the size of the military at the same time his Party has tacked over a billion dollars in “earmarks” the Pentagon does not want in the defense budget.

This President generated “tea parties” all over the nation within months of taking office and a huge protest rally in Washington, D.C. on September 12.

It is hard to think of a president who has gotten more things wrong in such a short period of time.

This cascade of failures, this effort to turn America into a socialist nation, this indifference to public protest can only lead to worsening conditions and events.