Saturday Morning Thoughts

Hello All:

I was just sitting here reading the morning paper, such as it is in northern New Jersey. It not a very good morning paper if you are accustomed to good morning papers, but if it’s all you have, you finally get used to mediocrity. The point is not much is either presented or if it is, it’s not much presented in a very complete way. But I digress.

The New Jersey Daily Wipe, aka The Star Ledger, publishes mostly main stream media bureau pieces such as AP, Bloomberg, Politico, etc. One of the stories is “Palin goes after the Tea Party Crown”. Disgusting!

Now I can tell you from firsthand experience. I have been to several Tea Parties, including the “big one” in DC in September. I have been to the Morristown semi monthly organizational meetings. From the hundreds of thousands at Washington to the sixty or so in the local monthly meetings the focus and intentions are amazingly the same and parallel. I can tell you that the messages are eerily the same.

Everyone wants less federal government. Everyone wants control of government spending and things like that but there is a more important message that all want a return to a constitutional driven government and less of it.

I have seen NO, I mean absolutely zero clamoring for power or leadership roles in any Tea Party movement anywhere. We must not let the mainstream media hijack our excellent efforts and paint us as something that we are not.

What I have seen is a few people stepping up to the occasion to provide organization and communication skills. Some people are better able to articulate things verbally and orally and others are better with the written word. The ones that are better speakers are not just presenting original thoughts, they rightfully quoting their fellow Tea Party goers as well. Again, the point is that those that are speaking may appear to be the leaders and while I am sure that there are many egos involved in every endeavor, I have never seen anything that would hint of a power grab.

In fact that would be at odds with what I think the fundamental basis for the Tea Party formulation is. At this point the Tea Party is a platform for expressing the requirement for our elected officials to follow the constitution, as written, and not selectively ignore parts and pieces for political expedience.

As the movement grows I do think that ultimately some form of organizational leadership and skill will be required. It must for our efforts to be effective. The Democratic and Republican machines are massive. There is no way to compete with that head on. Even if we could, that is not the point.

I really have not used the word “conservative” yet. I suppose that I was busy mentioning the real underpinnings of what we believe and why. Certainly the foundation of our gatherings is a conservative mindset. There are probably many more conservatives in the Republican Party then the Democratic Party but there are conservative in both. Also there are members of both parties that do not represent either conservative values or the core values of either organization.

Again I think our focus to maintain the momentum that the Tea Party folks have generated. It is an amazing, almost unbelievable movement that has sprung up very spontaneously all across the country and all at once. From California to Florida to New Jersey, Texas and in the Midwest, we all believe the same thing, feel the same thing, and have taken approximately the same actions without any real outside organizational push. It is unbelievable. It is inspirational and it is awesome. It is also that which we must maintain.

There are the Glen Beck’s, which finally got me off my duff but before him there was Rush, Mark Levin and a whole host of other conservative talk show hosts that beat the drum daily. They beat it loud and often. It finally “sunk in” and suddenly there was “critical mass” and the silent majority became known among other things as the Tea Party groups. We owe so much to these dedicated radio folks. Bill O’Reily and Sean Hannity have contributed heavily and others are certain owed a debt of gratitude.

The message here is: (to quote an unnamed Army general): “the main thing, is to make sure that the main, thing remains the main thing!” We do not want to divert any of our energy to become a political third party or to expend the energy and resources it requires to become the monster political machine that being a political party requires. We have to and we must be able to harness the unbelievable power and energy of the people who gather so spontaneously and enthusiastically. We often gather, even on very short notice, to express the same gut level feelings for the constitutional guidance our founding father created that now inspires our beliefs.

We must find a way to perpetuate all of this. I do not think that for a minute Sarah Palin is trying to become the Tea Party Prom Queen. Certainly she exemplifies the heartbeat of what we are all trying to accomplish. Ultimately someone will emerge as a spokesman and therefore a “leader” of the Tea Party movement. In my heart of hearts, I honestly believe that he or she will still feel like they are merely and simply a spokesperson for the rest of us. Yes, we will need some leaders. We will need some people with organizational and communicational skills. Don’t we have those folks at the most fundamental levels of the local county precinct phone banks and party gatherings? Sure we do. They provide the backbone and underpinning of our government. Most of these people serve silently, effectively and are the very spiritual power of strength for our country.

Let us all remain vigilant and strong. Let us all continue to do that which we are already doing. Let us make sure to bring along friends when we attend the various functions. I must say one more thing along this line. Many, most of my friends are not as “politically active” as I am and find my Tea Party interests at a very minimum, intriguing. A lot of them are very interested and curious about the activities and meetings that I attend and frankly seem to be very proud of my interest and actions.

While that part is encouraging, I must say that most of them share our fundamental thoughts and beliefs, but are simply leaving the heavy lifting to others. Those others are the heart beat of the Tea Parties.

Remember the quote by Edmund Burke, an Irish statesman and political theorist: “All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing”. I truly and honestly believe that which is going on in Washington today under the leadership of Barak Hussein Obama and his advisors, is evil. It is evil to the core. I believe that he and his gang of Chicago thugs have an unstated agenda of “progressivism,” and that these progressive beliefs are dangerous to our republic. They must be stopped and this progressive tracking must be reversed.

It will not be possible to stop them dead in their tracks, primarily because they have been coming in and out of view for a very long time. The Tea Party ideals have also been around for a long time. No one really thought about formulating a movement similar to the Tea Party because, well, we thought that was what we were supposed to be doing anyway. I guess we miscalculated a bit. In 1887, Lord Acton expressed, “Power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. We let things get away from us.

Under the Tea Party umbrella, we have it within our reach to get it back.

God bless our brilliant founding fathers and God Bless America.

Jan Hruska