Can The Tea Party Survive Victory?
By Art Gallagher
Now that the left is unhappy with President Obama it is safe to criticize him without being called a racists.
Obama came into office with a promise of unifying the country. He’s done it. The extreme left, the extreme right and the mushy middle agree that Obama is not a leader and not up to the job of President of the United States.
From today’s APP.com editorial:
The president gave in and gave in, and he has lost whatever good will the great middle had for his attempt to be the rational one in the argument. Americans cannot respect a president who runs up the white flag of surrender.
And this obscene sausage-making is only the latest in a long line of appeasements: on health care, on Guantanamo Bay, on civilian trials for terror suspects.
We teach our children the fine art of compromise, but if you compromise away your values, you’ve lost something you cannot get back by barter.
We don’t want to elect some “philosopher-king” out of Plato. We want a leader with fire in his belly, who at least puts up an honest struggle based on core principles, who, in the words of Theodore Roosevelt, “spends himself in a worthy cause … and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
So many thought that Barack Obama might be just that man. It looks as if we were wrong.
Not surprisingly, the leftist media is assailing the Tea Party for exhibiting the very characteristics they say Obama is lacking.
APP.com says Obama “has revealed himself to be a man unwilling to fight for the principles in which he has said he believed.” Yet the principled Tea Party members of congress are “80 unreasoning Tea Party members of the House of Representatives and their right-wing echo chamber on talk radio and cable TV?
NY Times Columnist Maureen Dowd said:
Consider what the towel-snapping Tea Party crazies have already accomplished. They’ve changed the entire discussion. They’ve neutralized the White House. They’ve whipped their leadership into submission. They’ve taken taxes and revenues off the table. They’ve withered the stock and bond markets. They’ve made journalists speak to them as though they’re John Calhoun and Alexander Hamilton.
Indeed, the accomplishments of the Tea Party members of congress are impressive. They have changed the discourse. A year ago the Obama, Reid, Pelosi triumvirate were expanding the federal government with impunity. Today there is a new direction. The job or reining government is hardly done. The deficit/debt deal is far from perfect, but it is a huge accomplishment.
For the most part the Tea Party members of congress and other Republicans who voted no on the debt ceiling deal have been gracious in victory. While asserting their principles and not backing down on the need for spending cuts and a balanced budget amendment, the have praised the leadership of Speaker John Boehner.
Grass roots Tea Party activists need to develop such grace without abandoning their principles.
The Tea Party has withstood vicious media attacks since its emergence. They were able to withstand the attacks of racism and lunacy with grace and cogent arguments.
Whether the Tea Party can withstand the coming attacks remains to be seen. The behavior and rhetoric of many grassroots activists and leaders is feeding into the left’s new attacks of crazy and unreasonable. Many Tea Party activists are coming off as sore winners. They are coming off as crazy and unreasonable.
Their anger at Republicans is misdirected. Their expressed disappointment with recent heroes, like Allen West who voted with the majority yesterday, is misguided.
The leftist media cannot thwart the Tea Party movement on its own. However, the movement can be killed off if the Tea Party unwittingly cooperates, which it is in danger of doing.
Can the Tea Party survive victory? Time will tell if the two year old unstructured grassroots movement can develop political maturity. Time will tell if it has what it takes for the long haul of incremental victories
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If it weren’t for the freshmen in the House (and some in the Senate), does anyone believe the nation would be focused on the national debt and deficit spending?
While this current debt ceiling debate has left many pondering the distinct flavor of sausage making in Washington, DC (with apologies to the real sausage makers) it is at least a modest first step (certainly not “real cuts”, but only a reduction in the growth of spending).
Is it a victory for fiscal conservatives? The answer is both yes and no. No, as this “deal” does not truly address immediate and actual cuts in spending. Yes, as the discussion has absolutely changed the course of the Washington establishment.
This deal only solidifies the need to retake control over both houses of Congress and the White House.
What was accomplished is the result of fiscal conservatives controlling only one-third of the parts involved in passing and signing legislation into law (The Congress – the House and Senate, and the President).
All fiscal conservatives, both Tea party and others, must recognize that we must re-energize our efforts to regain control over both houses of Congress as well as elect a fiscal conservative as President.
Complaining that this deal was a sell-out of conservative principles ignores the reality of who controls Washington DC., and serves only to splinter the opposition and prevent what must happen next November. Let’s get real, folks, and roll up our sleeves to defeat the liberal (some might say socialist) democrats who are standing in the way of fiscal accountability and sanity.
Stay tuned Art——–we will keep you and your RINO friends informed………..
Only 23 voted no not 80 the APP needs to get there facts right
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2011-691&sort=vote
Brian, thanks for contributing nothing. Please slink back under your rock. If you don’t think there was a definite calculus going on to see who had to vote yes and who got to vote no, you are delusional. Tea Party or not, every single member of congress is now in re-elect mode. They know who needed a no vote and who could get by with a yes.
Yes, please keep us informed, so we know what rocks to avoid stepping on, as you cower beneath them, cursing the world.
I agree with Art. I would like to have seen a larger victory, but it took a long time to get us to where we are. The Left holds the Presidency, the Senate, the Courts, the Media, and the Schools, and they act in mutual support.
When the South secceeded, Winfield Scott started planning to strangle the South by cutting off sea and land routes. He was drummed out of office and the shouts of “On To Richmond!” prevailed. The shouters forgot the lessons of both the Revolution and the War of 1812. Taking the capital wasn’t decisive; defeating the armies was. The Union almost lost the war by trying to end it in a single blow, but ultimately won it by a series of small victories that shut closed the transport routes and denied the armies of the Confederacy both movement and materiel. Denied of resources and mutual support, they could be defeated in detail.
Winfield Scott had been right. You have to untangle the support and win small victories. You also have to pick your fights: battles the enemy cannot afford to win, or else battles the enemy cannot win, but cannot afford to lose.
For instance, Boehner gave way on forcing a second Congressional battle for a second phase of debt ceiling increase. The Donks gave up a lot for that, and pushing them harder would have hit the deadline. Had we actually hit that, it would have been a very high-stakes gamble, and the Left’s On-The-Air Propaganda Force would have had a huge target. It might have turned out very badly for us.
It’s more important to take something back and survive in a position to win the next battle. Art is right: this is no place for the summer soldier or part-time patriot. It will be a long battle. It will take four conservative presidential terms, matched by a strongly conservative Senate, to recover even two of the Supreme Court seats held by Leftists. And we desperately need to get a conservative in the White House in the next election to undo the NLRB and EPA damage now done, never mind the blatant “reverse” racism in the DOJ.
The Tea Party in this area is dead
The Tea Party is on its way to self-destructing. They think they know it all, but are clueless as to how things work and more importantly, how to change the system. The one idiot who posts his one-liners calling people “rinos” is a perfect example. This is how stupid they are. A Republican can vote the way they want 99 times in a row. Number 100 is a vote they don’t like. What do they do? Turn on the poor bastard which invariably helps the socialist Democrat POS who is wrong on every issue. Look at what they are doing to the great Allen West. The guy is a staunch, outspoken conservative who voted for an admittedly flawed bill that he had no choice on. Obviously, if the Reps had the presidency and/or the Senate they could have done much more. You watch, the TP won’t be happy with progress – they will punish their own and reward Pelosi and Reid and the rest of the socialist Dem s-bags. Now how long will it take numbnuts to call me a rino?
Do you understand that this is high time to receive the loan, which can make you dreams real.
I understand the frustration of the tea party and conservatives in general. Here is what they have to remember. While D-Day was a gret victory in World War II it did not win the war. There where a lot of other battles to win before the war was over.
What just happened in DC is a big victory that established a beach head. We have reframed the debate on our terms We can not now self destruct. Now is not the time to turn on each other. We need to keep fighting and keep moving forward or we will loose the war.
The Tea Party has to learn patience. Show appreciation and celebrate what has been accomplished and then keep the pressure on, keep driving forward to victory.
Nicely put, MLaffey.
Yes mlaffey, well put, but unfortunately it makes too much sense for the loudmouth, know-it-all wing of the TP. As a card carrying member since the beginning who still believes in the TP doctrine, it pains me to watch ignorant know-it-alls drive like-minded people, candidates and elected officials from the fold. These dummies cannot do simple math – if you want a majority you must find ways to INCREASE your numbers, not DECREASE your numbers. Just sit back and watch these boobs twist themselves into a pretzel fighting those Republicans who dared not vote 100% down the line, while the socialist, union-ass-kissing Democrats laugh their asses off on their way to victory.
to anyone involved with the TEA Parties, at any level now, is: every time any of you makes a statement, advertises a mtg. or event, etc., PLEASE start each one with : “does ANYone in America today at least not think that we are “TAXED ENOUGH ALREADY”??.. then, do your thing/make your point: my frustration is, the leftist loons have demonized us all with the rather mundane, and silly, “Tea Party” moniker, as though we’re jerks, just out there having a ball, meaning nothing: ANY American who does not believe these people are stealing our freedoms and costing all working folks more of their $$ each day, to complete the destruction of the America we love, is on the dole, and, completely DUMB!.. as Sarah says, simply don’t take that put-down, and continue to fight for what we were founded on, period!
Whew, luckily those crazy Tea Party hobbits with their crazy ideas about cutting spending and living within our means were defeated by our heroic leaders like McConnell, Boehnor, Schumer and Pelosi and their courageous quislings to save our economy with their wonderful deal–because if those wacky extremists got their way the stock market (and millions of folks retirements) would drop precipitously, gold would skyrocket, unemployment would rise again, the European debt crisis would deepen, consumer confidence would plummet——but, fortunately, the wizards of smart that mark and the other pompous republicans believe in have averted this.
Kudos to the original tea partier thjat’s NEVER been to a rally, thank God 70% of the American people oppose this sham of a deal—-but they’re all stupid too–right marky mark
Dow down over 400 pts, erasing gains for year, gold approaches $1700………….
Thanks Mitch………..
Brian, deciphering your 2:03 post is like trying to solve a broken Rubik’s Cube.
You should take slow, deep breaths when you type.
Sorry, next time l won’t put so many facts in there and type slower to help you a bit.
From todays APP:
http://www.app.com/article/20110807/NJOPINION01/308070021/The-deadly-sins-Tea-Party?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Opinion|p