Neil Boortz made me do it.        

TEA PARTIES - GIVE ME A BREAK


The self proclaimed " High Priest of The Church of the Painful Truth" made me reevaluate this extraordinary uprising by a lot of good people that typically don't uprise. Boortz has me working this from from my head and not my heart. Full disclosure- I was a starry-eyed Tea Party Participant from the chilled Omaha event in February. Wow did I feel relevant then. He has forced to think how I can be effective now.

The Tea Party Catharsis is a noble statement of protest on this government sprint toward a fiscally bankrupt, freedom poor, socialist nation. It is not action. As we have seen in the last month, the media has little interest in this remarkable grass roots initiative. It is precisely the fact that we won't lay down in the streets and disrupt traffic, break windows of businesses, smear paint on landmarks, throw rocks at the police, shout obscenities at churchgoers, load up buses with a socialist rent-a-mob to harass the capitalist target du jour or generally visit misery on good people that results in a pressroom snore. We are the good people and it's a dog bites man story. We may be Mad as Hell and Not Going to Take It Anymore. So what? What does that really mean? Are we going to escalate our threat level to Really Mad as Hell and By God Not We're Going to Take it Any More. What if elected officials don't respond to "we want lower taxes and less spending" by getting teabags in the office mail? We make damn impressive noise for a bunch of protest rookies in the process of announcing what we're against. What in fact are we for? Is it the same expectations for the folks in Orlando or Cincinatti as it is in Omaha? Nationally, are the Tea Parties advocating the 912 project, the AS Platform, The Fair Tax or some other set of specific legislative goals that will restrain government lower taxes and reduce spending? If we don't know we can sure feel relevant but we can't be nearly as effective.

These events need have a clear set of articulate actionable goals and demonstrable results to present to a yawning elected officials and media that is editorially benign to the unprotected classes. Think voter registration, distributing Congressional contact information, elected officials voting alert emails, getting local, state and federal elected officials endorsements of the event and free market policy.  It can include creating local citizens PACs, recruiting local talk show celebrity's to amplify the message, etc, etc. The point--translate the outrage, frustration and love of freedom into political action towards Congress that results in legislation that celebrates and enables constitutional life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody's power, that is not easy.
Aristotle