How they will discredit us
As the last Tea Party rally is over, some words by one of the local speakers continue to roll through my head. He said “all protests all the time is not leadership.”
I could not agree more. Don’t get me wrong I think we need to protest as much as we are now, if not more in the coming months, and possibly years. That does not mean however, that simply making fun signs, listening to music, and yelling in the park are going to help any of us achieve our political goals for this nation .
What do I mean by that? I think the 9-12 groups are a good example. These groups are not known for protesting, instead they are meeting, educating one another, and taking action in their local governments. 9-12 groups have been responsible for getting rid of corrupt local officials, changing local laws, and creating a lasting bond between members who can agree on at least a majority of the 9-12 principles.
So why don’t they protest in a way that gets national media attention? How are they going to effect change without a national voice? Don’t get me wrong there are lots of 9-12 groups at the tea parties. These groups have had a national spokesperson leading them and promoting them to the rest of the country. Namely, Glen Beck. They are able to find more like minded individuals through the public attention he brings to the group.
This kind of pulic attention has also been given to the Tea Parties, and more.. through its efforts to protest in every major city in the nation. The resounding unity of people around the country, all getting together to protest is drawing a lot of public attention. This is also bringing huge criticism from the left who are trying very hard to discredit the tea party movement. Beyond the lefts ability to discredit the party by calling it racist, violent, or stupid, the right is also looking to co-opt the tea party movement under its own banner to create a new base to its party. Its as though when Ron Paul raised so much money by talking about these issues the rest of the right learned they can “shake the money tree” using those same issues and gain new supporters for their candidates in the process.
The Tea Party Protests do not effect change, instead they create awareness that change needs to happen, and that people are not alone in their feelings.
The Knee Jerk Response
The initial response from the left to the tea parties has been to call us names and say hateful things about us. Do not think for a second that this is the end game for progressives in this country on both sides of the fence. Making exagerated claims about the tea parties is going to deter some people from our ranks, but it will not protect socialist candidates from losing seats in congress as all of the national press grows our numbers every time we protest. Americans across the nation will resonate with our message about a government out of control. This will draw voters who are Regan conservatives, Ron Paul supporters, Libertarians, Alex Jones followers, Jeffersonians, and many middle of the road republicans.
Do not be deceived for a moment that claims of racism and violence will be the true stumbling blocks to our cause. The left may adopt insain ideas and policy, but they are not stupid, or under-funded in their efforts. The left is going to hit us on our issues, and we as a group need to be prepared.
Here is a video from the Huffington Post where a man who appears to be a lone journalist goes out looking to ask tea party members about the issues. Of course you can not see the hours of taping that probably had well spoken people telling the truth and making him look like an idiot, instead you get this.. well just watch and you will see what I mean.
This is the kind of attack we should be expecting from the left. He is attacking the tea party on its ignorance, and skipping the real issues people are concerned about.
For instance he talks aout how Obama cut taxes for 95% of Americans. This is not true, but he did in fact give tax breaks to 98% of working families in his stimulus package. This however is NOT the issue, he did this while at the same time taking over one of the nations largest auto-makers, the nations largest insurance company, and giving billions to the banks that were “to big to fail”. This also skips the issue of the fact that the president is spending money like it is growing on the white house lawn. A small tax cut to working Americans and other small tax breaks for buying a new car, or a new home do not reverse the truth that the other side of those exact same actions were to make the tax payers owners of fortune 500 companies. IE Socialism.
You will also notice in this video the interviewer is showing interviews with people who may not be stupid, but they are clearly not public speakers, and may not even fully understand all of the specifics of the issues. It is hard for ordinary people to understand all of the specifics when they rapidly change, and the left spins everything to make it look more appealing. Tea Party members do not attend a rally thinking “If a journalist asks me about the issues this is what I will say” but that journalist did with the people he interviewed.
Obama and company are clearly lying about the issues in many cases. For instance Obama claims that everyone will see Health Insurance rates decline. This is an outright lie. In reality the best case scenario for the bill would be to see the rate of increase in premiums decline.. that is not a decline in itself and is deceptive. Even that is probably a pipe dream when you consider the inflation of the government program that will oversee the new legislation and the increased costs over time that we can not even imagine today. Even the CBO which the white house likes to quote basically says they do not know the true cost of the health care bill over the coming years because there are to many unknowns. That is basically an admission that it will cost a lot more than we now realize, probably billions more. Not to mention the costs that companies will face which will raise prices and hurt us all at the checkout line.
The other part of the health care puzzle is the individual mandate that people must purchase insurance, or pay a fine. This kind of “you must cooperate” with the government kind of legislation is leading us down the road experienced in the book 1984. (Written by a former communist I might add).
Where does this lead us? Will they later force everyone to buy a home? a car? certain clothes? specific food? I can not even imagine the dark places this kind of legislation could bring us in the future.
The left is not going to stop at flinging feces at the tea party, that was just a knee jerk reaction because they didn’t see us coming. The true way they will discredit us in the future elections is to not respond to the real issues, but instead point out the things obama is doing that will make us look like we just don’t like him, not his policy. When Obama stood up and said he didn’t know why the tea party was angry because he had lowered taxes, it was a very smart political move. Its true, he did give out tax breaks to people making less than 90k a year. Thats NOT the issue!
These kinds of lies will also be used on a local level. Tom Parriello recently posted on twitter that he was excited to be a part of the “biggest tax cut in history” referring to the health care bill. When you look at Parriello’s position on taxes you can see how deceptive this statement really is. People like Obama and Tom are not going to stand back and let us take our country back without a fight. They are going to approach the undecided voters who do not follow politics and tell them lies they want to hear. We need to constantly be watching for these lies.
How do we beat them?
We have to be more organized than we already are. The leadership of the local Lynchburg tea party is doing a great job, but the rank and file people in this town, who may not even attend protests need to stand up and start working. In politics there are two things that are required for victory.
1. We need to raise money and get behind one candidate.
2. We must be more organized than our opposition.
Do not get me wrong, I love freedom, and the tea party itself does not have to endorse anyone. BUT elections are a matter of money. No matter how much truth we can muster, the liars with a bigger wallet will always win the votes of the un-educated who like the status quo, or who are unaware of false accusations the left is flinging. Average people are not engaged in the political process except one day every four years. This is reality, and trying to pretend it is not true will not get us anywhere.
We need to fund a candidate that supports our issues, listens to us, and has the background and statesmanship to win. Sending the most well meaning person to office who has no skill in public speaking or lacks the ability to get our issues heard by others will do us no good. The world is full of officials who are just along for the ride. They don’t actually get anything done because they are ill-equipped to be leaders, or they have no back bone / influence.
Getting this person to office is going to require a mountain of money. This is not an understatement. If we are looking to send a congressman into office we need to raise money that is counted in hundreds of thousands For a senator we need millions. That kind of money is not easy to raise, and requires the support of large financial backers who can donate thousands at a time. When Goode was elected he had companies donate tens of thousands to his campaign in one gift. This is a part of the political process that can not be ignored. Who among us has the ability to fund raise? Who has experience financing an election? How many of us are ready to ask our friends and relatives to give to a candidate we are going to back?
Running for office requires a lot of labor hours by ordinary people. Having close friends and family members who worked on large campaigns I can tell you they work hard to make it happen. A member of my family was asked to work on the state level for the McCain campaign by a friend of our family in Washington. The idea of investing that kind of time and travel was a daunting prospect alone. Having worked with a public affairs group that runs governors campaigns I can tell you these guys work from sun up, to sleep time. Running a campaign is a huge effort that requires immense man hours to accomplish. Even running a campaign for state legislature requires endless phone calls, luncheons, meetings, public speaking events, and volunteers.
Who among us is equipped for that kind of effort? At the recent tea party I was listening to a young college age girl talk about her candidate. She said “I am the campaign secretary” and I was a bit surprised. I am not saying a college kid can not do a great job, as they do much of the political leg work in this country, but in my experience that position is usually filled by a lawyer, business owner, or full time experienced political operative. Running for congress is not a small task by any means.
So I ask a tough question. Do any of the candidates running in the GOP primary have the know how to create the political machine needed to win against a well funded opponent? Do any of them have the people on board that will be needed to fund raise the campaign. Does our local group have anyone with the financial power to help make this thing happen in a meaningful way? What if the GOP on the national level does not help fund the campaign because they do not like the candidate? Would not be the first time. Simply getting that “R” on the ballot is not enough to win any election.
Do we have opposition research on the level required to win? A friend of mine was asked to practice debate with President Bush before he took office. He sat across the room from the president as a stand in for the real opponents he would face in the debate. He gave great detail on how the operation was run on a presidential level. He was working on the Bush campaign, and later became one of the president advisors. When he was working the campaign he went to the campaign headquarters every day in DC. He walked into the high rise building past a secure room that only certain people were allowed access to. He was working on the top floor with the President, so he always felt kind of important, like he was up there with the big guy during the campaign. It was not until he prepared to be a stand in for the debate that he saw the overwhelming size of the operation he was involved in. He was taken into that secure room where he found hundreds of desks full of people with gigantic stacks of paper. They were hustling over the stacks and computer screens and on telephone calls. The place looked like a trading floor of the stock exchange. When he asked what this place was they said “This is opposition research”. The entire room, and floor of the building was dedicated to examining every angle of his opponents. When he was given the volumes of printed paper to study he was told, this is everything we have on the person you are standing in for. He spent days reading on every position the candidate had every had on anything. They knew things about this person he had probably forgotten.
Then the process of practicing for the debate happened. He started off debating with other stand-ins. There was even a stand in for the president so they could practice every part of the deate before it happened. Then after the stand ins practiced with the other stand ins the president to be came in and practiced for hours on end with his debate stand ins. They had the entire stage setup so it looked and felt like the real thing. Every issue, and every response was based on the opposition research they had spent months collecting.
This of course was a presidential election, which millions of dollars a spent on, even hundreds of millions. But the idea still stands. Winning campaigns are very well orchestrated political exercises by large groups of people all culminating on the events of a single day.
I certainly do not ask these questions because I think its impossible, but i do think we should all be realistic in our efforts. If we do not have what we need today, how do we get it? All things can be done, but they require the power of the group, and many many dollars to make them happen. Are we going to unite behind one person, all give our collective efforts, talents, and money to making it happen? November could not come any sooner.
The next issue is the general rank and file of the movement. Are we educating one another? Are we reading books that will enlighten us, are we aware of the issues with the depth needed to defend ourselves against calculated attacks? Have we resolved to donate our own time and or money to seeing that our voice is heard in the next election? The opposition is going to know exactly what to say to discredit us, we all need to know what to say in return.
Lastly I would point out that the last few months have been amature hour in the 5th district. Its not even the amount of mud slinging that has been going on so much as the amature nature of the mud being slung. When I am at a tea party and a child walks up and hands me a flyer that tells me not to vote for one of the candidates, insulting their integrity, but not claiming who it was distributed by.. its clear somone does not get how this political process needs to happen. It is certainly a good thing to point out the inconsistencies of your competition, or to tell others why they should steer clear of them. It is not a good thing to fling feces at them without explaining who you are, and why you are saying it. One can not stand above reproach by hiding in the shadows, and should instead always approach competition head on, in the full light of day. To proceed otherwise is childish.
We need to think like political operatives. We have the greatest weapon known to political change… TRUTH. Our efforts should be focused on a get out the truth centered approach. We do not need to slander each other and weaken our cause as a whole, but should instead tell people the truth. WE ARE NOT POLITICIANS, WE ARE NOT WASHINGTON INSIDERS, WE ARE ORDINARY PEOPLE WHO LOVE THIS COUNTRY, AND WANT TO SEE REAL GRASS ROOTS CHANGE COME TO THE 5TH DISTRICT, AND WASHINGTON AS A WHOLE.WE WANT TO SEE THE POWER RETURNED TO THE PEOPLE OF THIS NATION.
Tell me something.
Lets say you are successful in repealing the 10th amendment — what then?
How would a businessman get his product from point a to point b if in another state?
Are you under the assumption that navigating state by state regulations is going to be less expensive/less paper work for the small business?
Each state right now receives federal dollars for the highway system, how would the states generate the cash needed for this purpose? Tolls? More state taxes on the states residents? Will there be a charge for every pound of product transported across states lines —- and how will that effect the price of goods (i.e. products from distant sources becomes more expensive since it has to travel across more states).
If each state becomes “sovereign” with its own splintering of regulations, commerce laws, travel restrictions, etc, etc, how would one travel from state to state? With a passport and a subjecting your person to a border guard?
See, the thing is, no can make you look stupider than you do yourself by repeating the Hannibaughbeckboortz commercial hooks they way you do.
It’s hard to take serious all the bluster that has no substance behind it. You do know that this MSM format (shock jock) is solely for generating revenew, not for informing the listener with anything of value, don’t you?
Shouting Repeal the tenth and kill the fifth and repeatedly pointing to non existent “socialism” while offering absolutely no alternative to the current SOP is not a recipe for solutions but simply serves as the vehicle of your ridicule.
No successful business in America can prosper using the flawed logic you repeatedly exhibit. NO decisions could be made in confidence because the information provided (by the likes of you) is always incomplete (again by design).
It is possible I mis-typed what I was saying I will have to read through it again..
My intention was to say: USE THE 10th Amendment to kick the federal government out of the states business! We need the 10th more now than we every have, I though that was understood in my post. I will read it and edit accordingly.
Also I am saying lets USE Article V of the constitution.. congress has been holding out on the people of the United States by not responding to state requests for a constitutional convention.. simply because they want to be the only ones making the laws.
Yes to the 10th Yes to article V.. NO to big government overstepping their bounds (which is limited by the 10th) and NO to government not doing its job (as described in article V)
I appreciate your effort, my questions have been answered.
After having similar dialog with other people who suddenly became concerned with deficits and government intrusions as of November 5th 2008, I now feel I have a grasp on where the tea party and the “others” are coming from and going to with all this.
Nowhere.
You’re made for TV and Radio shtick, just like the teahadist rhetoric, is all fury and no substance. It sells a few MSM personalities books, it gets people to watch otherwise unwatchable programming, (except it doesn’t seem to be getting you any traffic) but it has absolutely no value and is based entirely on fantasy. Its nothing but the same cyclic and empty platitudes of the same tired ideas that were employed when you people (the now angry and bitter sore loser teahadists) were chanting “Stay the Course” and “Four More Years” while the Government Grew and the Deficit Soared.
It makes me wonder if you also look to Howard Stern for marriage advice (because its obvious you take your political queues from his knock-offs).
Anyway, good luck with that 26% you keep referring to as “America”, it’s amazing how the percentages equate to the exact same percentage that supported Bush right up to his very dismal end.
I guess this is also a coincidence in your universe as well. Well, that or just another of the many “librul conspiracies” out to destroy you (as if that indicative of this virtue of “personal responsibility” we keep hearing about).
Good Luck