The Achievement of the Tea Party Movement It was the first two years of protest. Others had taken the initiative to start a Tea Party. We joined them and supported their efforts with our time, our work , our energy our ideas and our dollars. We helped to organize events and rallies , make signs, distribute thousands of flyers, print hundreds of petitions and wo ve our way through rally crowds to gather signatures. We visited our Congressmen's offices, wrote our Senators, phoned Legislators, at tended City Council meetings and commissioner and district meetings. We joined parades and yelled ourselves hoarse for our chosen candidates. We sweated bulle ts during summer events and froze our fingers and toes during winter's. We regi stered voters and became poll challengers and poll workers. Sometimes we worked through the night answering queries and often rose in the morning to start work without taking time to change out of our pajamas. We cheered when others honked in support of our efforts and laughed at our own exhaustion. Today, seasoned and still dedicated to our principles, we are, each and everyone one of us, we are the Tea Party Movement. The Tea Party is a movement of many different kinds of people coming together sp ontaneously and voluntarily: Capitalists, Objectivists, Conservatives, Republica ns, Democrats and Independents. We hold similar ideas and share a common goal of seeking to restore individual rights, Constitutional freedoms, limited governme nt, and to establish free-markets and fiscal responsibility. For these reasons we are united against big government, against the intrusive, regulatory governme nt of the welfare state. We hold a basic point of view: in order to realize the American Dream, each individual must work to earn it, and not look to government to hand them what others have earned. During the Tea Party's infancy our concerns regarding big government were too ob vious to ignore; so, the Leftist media and Leftist politicians tried to ridicule the grassroots by calling the Tea Party Movement "astro-turf." Since the 2010 elections, the Left no longer uses that slur against us. They got the picture. During the "debt talks" Sour Harry had to scramble about for anoth er slur. He thought he found one. He bemoaned "Tea Party Republicans" and their refusal to compromise. He flatly stated that Mr. Boehner's proposal was "the worse piece of legislation ever writ ten." How could one know he was speaking the truth? He did not allow the Sena te to read it. He instructed them to vote no without seeing it. Like sheep th ey followed their B.O.-Peep without a baaa. As Reid's statements became shrille r against "Tea Party Republicans," so did those of his fellow Leftists. One Leftist spat out something about a proposal that would have gone through exc ept for "a few right-wing nuts." The New York Leftist Charles Schumer complaine d that the Tea Party Republicans' refusal to compromise amounted to "It has to b e their way or the highway . . . or no way." (He got a little confused in the he at of his moment.) Tea Party Republicans. It is a tag to be embraced. It is a clear distinction t hat separates us from politics-as-usual-Republicans and Democrats. Tea Party Republicans stick to principles. We do not compromise them. We can be accommodating when non-essentials are involved. But principles are basic. They are derived from ethics. We do not give in on them. Because of that, the Tea Pa rty attained something far more important in the long run than an insufficient b udget agreement.
