Originally posted by J. Croft:
Airforce...
With all due respect, the TEA Party has been subverted at the national level and all good people who signed up are being led around in circles...
You don't get any argument from me. The politicians are trying to marginalize the people. Nothing new about that. That's what the political class does.
And those candidates-where are the coat tails? Where are the state and more importantly LOCAL campaigns?
Another good question. We had candidates in city council races here in Tulsa, and a darn good candidate for governor of Oklahoma, as well. But it takes money to overcome name recognition, and they didn't have it. Brogdon gave it a good shot for the Republican gubernatorial primary, but Mary Fallin was a former congresswoman. That kind of advantage is hard to beat.
At least Governor Fallin is listening to us. It could be worse.
6 in 10 Americans want spending cuts. Great. Do those 6 in 10 Americans have a clue about what else is needed? Do they have a clue that most of the tyranny in this country is at the LOCAL level?
You don't think this is going to be easy, do you? Look how long it took for the American Revolution to finally get off the ground. We're still years away from victory, but we're making headway.
A few years ago, finding someone actually brave enough to criticize the War on Drugs (and who wasn't named Ron Paul) was pretty danged hard to do. And speaking of the Pauls--both of them--people are listening to them. Who would have thought that would be possible even five years ago?
...You cannot take the federal government peaceably unless you have a grass roots movement that can 1. sustain itself and 2. be decentralized enough to resist being infiltrated and subverted like the TEA party yet have the overall unity of purpose....
We're going to have to stop agreeing with each other. People are going to start wondering about us.
I'm not sure how the TEA party and Sarah Palin(!) became synonymous. And I don't like it. But that will straighten itself out over time. Either Sarah Palin will go away, or something else will replace the TEA party.
If there's anything I've learned about the Patriot Movement its that we love to fight among ourselves.
You noticed that too, eh? Libertarians have the same problem. And don't even talk about the Constitution Party. But that's really nothing new. The Founding Fathers had more than their share of disagreements, too.
We need to wise up, figure out a long game, stop fighting and being pissed at each other, or letting COINTELPRO divide us, and start harnessing that anger, educate those awakened but still naive Americans about the REAL DEAL and go from there.
That's the challenge. And it won't be easy.
Radley Balko has a theory that no one "becomes" a libertarian. Libertarianism
happens to people. They undergo one too many searches at an airport, or a cop stops them one time too many, or they're finally shocked at what their children are being taught in the government school, or some dumb bureaucrat insults them on a bad day, or...
You get the picture. It's not a convincing argument that finally sways most people, although those are important. It's what the tyrants finally do to them.
And the tyrants are doing their best to piss off the people. Why else would Donald Trump, of all people, be scoring so high in the polls?
In 1775, maybe ten percent of the colonists favored independence. It was enough. And we have way more than that now. We will win, but it won't be easy.
Onward and upward,
airforce
