A guest column on this April 15 by Robert Romano originally posted at GetLiberty.org about the Tea Party movement taking place all across the United States today:An American Revolution
"I was tired of seeing all the irresponsible spending going on with the 'stimulus' and the omnibus, and from back in last September going forward under both Presidents, under all the Congressmen and Senators. They're spending money that we don’t have." — Toby Marie Walker, Waco, TX, on why she joined the tea party movement.
The tea party movement sweeping the nation today is a genuine American revolution amid growing alarm over the insolvency of banks, creditors, the financial system, and the public treasury at large. And like the rebellion for liberty of some 233 years ago, this one promises to reweave the very political fiber of the nation.
"I am angry at the politicians because they betrayed us, and the Constitution," says Tanya Bachand of New Haven, Connecticut. "They punish the producers, and praise the takers. Not one of them stands up for those of us who toil away everyday to pay to take care of those who can't or won't do for themselves."
Tanya organized a tea party in her hometown, and has been racing across the state "doing television and radio interviews, and picking up supplies from volunteers who wanted to help, but couldn't make it to the rally ahead of time." She views her role as a duty. "We may just save this country yet."
Tanya is not alone. She is one of tens of thousands of Americans who are participating in the tea party movement, and who are descending on branches of the Federal Reserve, city halls, state capitals, and other key locales to speak out against an unaccountable government engaged in the most chilling power grabs in human history.
Toby Marie Walker expects at least 250 people to show up at her tea party at Heritage Square in Waco, Texas. "All of us, what I’m hearing, and why I'm angry is the irresponsible spending, the lack of concern about spending our way out of debt. You can’t spend your way out of debt. And when the President went on today and said we’re going to have more loans available to people because they’re not spending money, well, that doesn’t help."
Toby is worried about the future of America. "To be honest, no, I'm not hopeful about the future—our economic future."
She and her fellow countrymen are gravely concerned about the over $11 trillion being spent, lent, and pledged by the federal government at a frightening pace through the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, the FDIC, and Congress since March, 2008.
Toby does see a glimmer of hope in the tea party movement. "I'm more hopeful than I was only because people are starting to say no to the spending."
Although the controlled media may like to portray that the tea party movement is not important, that somehow the events are contrived, NetRightNation.com's Adam Bitely, also a tea party activist, disagrees. "These people are mad as Hell. Those going to the protests are average, everyday Americans. They are not professional political activists. These are the people that vote in elections." Mr. Bitely is right.
Just look at what the movement has accomplished all on its own. The entrenched political establishment is taking note. On the Left, Democrats are wary of the movement, fearful that it represents genuine outrage against government that could spell an end to the era of Big Government that has reigned almost unimpeded since 1933. They should be scared.
On the Right, the situation is more complex. The Republican Party as an institution, like its Democrat counterparts across the aisle, is controlled by people who make money from the public till. It has not been a vehicle for significant change for decades now, and certainly has proven unable — or, worse yet, unwilling — to roll back the unfunded trillions of dollars of entitlements, pensions, and welfare.
The GOP views the tea party movement as a constituency to either commandeer or to tame. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele recently (albeit belatedly) requested to speak at the tea party in Chicago, but Taxdayteaparty.com organizer Eric Odom refused, writing, "I very much appreciate the fact that Chairman Steele is now finally starting to reach out to the true grassroots side of the free-market movement in America. Unfortunately, it appears that he has only just decided to reach out after realizing how big the movement has gotten and how much media is now involved… That said, we're still excited to know that Chairman Steele will be in Chicago and we hope, after knowing that he'll be in the city, that he'll stop by and mingle with the Americans who will be rallying on April 15th."
The Republican National Committee later denied that the Steele had ever requested to speak — despite clearest evidence to the contrary. We assume that he also will not be stopping by to say hello to folks like Toby or Tanya, who are rightly concerned about future generations of Americans and the debts they are being saddled with. By extension, we must assume that the Republican Party has no intention of standing in the way of Barack Obama's trillions of dollars of bailouts at all.
The Republican Party's mentality, unfortunately, is better epitomized by the example of Ray Lahood who, without question, is a Washington insider. Once he was Chief of Staff to House Minority Leader Bob Michel (R-IL), and then he succeeded his boss to become the Republican Congressman in Illinois' 18th District.
Now, he is the Secretary of Transportation who sold out so he could dole out hundreds of billions of dollars in make-work programs that would make Roosevelt and Keynes blush. It was he who once chortled, "Who knows better how to spend money on worthwhile projects than a community and an individual Congressman?"
The mentality embodied by Lahood, unfortunately for taxpayers, makes it very easy to just give away a $700 billion blank check to the Treasury Department to arbitrarily spread around to banks, creditors, and investment funds as it sees fit. It is that mentality that makes it very easy for then-New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner to arrange $29 billion in federal loans for JP Morgan to purchase Bear Stearns—and then move to Washington to dole out even more.
It is that mentality that is chaining the American people to a mountain of debt—more than $11 trillion, the largest debt in human history — that can never possibly be paid back. It is that mentality that has allowed the national debt held to grow for every single year since 1957.
And it is precisely that mentality that has disenchanted millions of Americans nationwide.
Asked why she joined the movement, Tanya says, "I could not stand the thought that 20 years from now I would have to look my son in the face and say, yes I lived through that moment in history when America ceased to be great, but I did nothing about it."
Tanya and Toby will not be alone. This second American revolution is only just beginning.
Robert Romano is the Senior Editor of ALG News Bureau.
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