Note: This was my “audition” post for the Liberty Features Syndicate and was cleared on August 25th. It’s mildly edited from my original submission, including the title which originally did not have “TEA Parties” in it, but the point remains.
In this year of fueled media admiration of the Obama agenda, Americans with a limited-government mindset are taking delight in the recent uprising against an excess in the growth of government. Those who organized the local TEA Parties have banded together to create numerous local chapters of small-government political groups but were rarely among those in the circle normally attending local political events. The labels “tea-bagger” or “Astroturf” placed on the pro-liberty side by left-leaning network pundits and Democratic Party leadership, couldn’t be farther from the truth.
So what these passionate people who are putting a lot into these recess protests need to be made aware of – even with the slanted media coverage they receive – is that change is a long, slow, and sometimes torturous process. Obviously those who have been around the block remember the optimism after the 1980 and 1994 elections, believing America was just around the corner from beating back those who were taking away liberty. But sadly, as history has shown, the gains achieved were soon wiped away once electoral tables turned – if not even sooner.
Recent polling suggests that at least a plurality of residents identify themselves as conservative in every state, with the lone national exception being the District of Columbia. And this also seems to reflect the TEA Party mindset – conservative in most respects until it gets inside the Beltway. This perception is among the key reasons the smoldering dissent among average Americans became a brushfire among the grassroots this summer; a summer that will culminate with a national-scale rally on September 12th in Washington, D.C.
Unfortunately the Republican Party as presently constituted in our nation’s capital is powerless to do anything except make the mistake of being “bipartisan”, thus allowing the Democrats to escape electoral suicide next year. As in a recent example, the conservative movement was proud of the total unanimity in the House against the stimulus bill but felt betrayed when three moderate Republicans bent to that siren song of bipartisanship and allowed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to become law.
But the true test of the newly-minted “angry mob” will come once big-ticket Obama schemes like socialized medicine and “cap and trade” are beaten back. Assuming success there, what is the next step? Thoughtful advocates of limited government need to make sure that the education they gain this summer doesn’t stop. The American people tend to be all for eliminating what they consider wasteful entitlements – that is, until their favorite entitlement is on the chopping block.
Just a few years ago many of the older TEA Party attendees were calling their Congressman pleading with them not to privatize Social Security. Yet, Social Security is an unsustainable entitlement and runs counter to the idea of limited Constitutional government many in the grassroots now claim to hold dear.
To make this new limited government push accomplish its stated goal, venerable programs will have to be phased out and space prohibits listing every entitlement running counter to anything but the most liberal interpretation of Constitutionally-sanctioned items.
But obviously this isn’t a task achieved overnight and the trick will be to hold together a cohesive movement long enough to get to the desired result, always keeping elected officials’ noses to the grindstone.Because otherwise historians will look back at 2009 and see yet another “temper tantrum” on par with Ronald Reagan’s election and the Contract With America in 1994.
To make this summer of discontent last, our anger must turn into a laserlike focus on the exact America that we wish for coming generations. Along with making the sacrifices necessary to achieve these ends.
Michael Swartz is a guest contributing writer for Liberty Features Syndicate.
