Ten Years Later The Tea Party Still Serves Strong Brew
Word of the Tea Party’s demise is premature. Ten years ago I was in Washington with 1.6 million friends. We marched down Pennsylvania Avenue and rallied at the Capitol. As revolutions go, this one was peaceful. There wasn’t any violence, no burnings and we picked up our garbage. I was back the following year, three times. Once for the Glenn Beck rally at the Lincoln Memorial, two weeks later for the Tea Party gathering and made a special trip the weekend Congress adopted Obamacare.
Oppression isn’t always a guy locked in a dungeon. Instead, bondage is the slow growth of a leviathan government.
The Tea Party wasn’t “Astroturf” as Nancy Pelosi whined. It was people in small towns and big cities meeting in fire stations, Grange Halls and at one point, an airplane hangar (I was the master of ceremonies at the latter). It was a new label for the old Silent Majority when it became vocal.
Donald Trump may not be an exact match to the early goals of a somewhat fluid movement, however. He’s the closest to many of the original Tea Party goals.
A liberal columnist warned me before one event at a state capitol that union “hardhats” were going to beat us up. As the son of an old “hardhat” let me say, they were on board with many of our goals. Too many columnists know nothing about the people they cover.
As for successes, not all are visible but many have quietly impacted our lives. As this writer explains at this link, it’s the reversal, even slowly, of the regulatory state. Oppression isn’t always a guy locked in a dungeon. Instead, bondage is the slow growth of a leviathan government.
Successful changes in culture require patience. The revolution continues.