Why liberals will never understand the Tea Party.

By D.C.

Last week Sen.Harry Reid told the Las Vegas Review Journal newspaper that he expects the Tea Party to fade away.Once again we see yet another example that liberals just fundamentally don't understand what the Tea Party is really all about.

What has liberals and the media so confused is they have never seen conservatives organize,hold rallies and promote political candidates in this way.They see it as a passing fad,something that won't last.But here is where they get it wrong.The Tea Party has always been here,it was referred to in the 80's as the silent majority.Sometimes it was just conservatives,libertarians or right wingers.A name is just a name,call it what you will but the philosophy,the principles of a smaller and responsible government are at it's core.People who now identify as Tea Party were there in 1980 to elect Reagan,they were there in '94 to elect a republican house majority,we have always been here.

As this gallop poll shows,since '92 conservatives have consistently been roughly 40% of the population,liberals roughly 20%.Those 40% are the Tea Party.

Liberals like to think that the Tea Party are folks who reject Obama because of his race and not so much his politics.The Tea Party is not just a rejection of socialist democrat policies(which is a huge part of it),it was a rejection of what the republican party had become.

Over the last 30 years the democrat party has moved further and further to the left.The media has always shown the democrats as the moderates and the republicans as the extremists.The republican party answered this by moving more and more to the center.Trying to go along to get along.I think most republicans have now faced the realization that the mainstream media is never going to give them a fair shake.

With the democrat party moving more to the left,the center kept moving to the left.The republicans kept moving this way to the point that we ended up with a bunch of big government RINOS.The Tea Party is a movement trying to move the center back to the center.In some cases these RINOS had to be put out to pasture,in other cases we had to drag them(kicking and screaming for some) back to the right,back to the root of what it means to be a conservative(and/or a libertarian).

It's why the media went nuts when Tea Party conservatives held up the debt ceiling deal.They are not used to us standing up.In the past the RINOS would have just rolled over in exchange for a few shiny beads(pork).This is what liberals can't mentally compute.They think everybody wants "free" goodies from government.

The Tea Party doesn't want anything from government(other than less of it),we don't want the shiny beads.We do want government to exercise it's constitutional duties,be responsible with the people's tax money and generally stay out of our lives (Such as the whole light bulb thing).

Another fundamental thing the left gets wrong about the tea party is they think it's all a fabrication of big money.That it is not a genuine popular uprising.They think it's a top down movement.As Nancy Pelosi famously said that the Tea Party is just astroturf and not a true grassroots movement.

Yes,as the Tea Party grew conservative organizations came in to organize rallies and these sorts of things,but it also gave birth to many new groups that were a response to the people.The Tea Party people came first,then the organizations came about,true grassroots.

The reason Nancy couldn't get it is because she(and the rest of the left) have no real experience with true grassroots movements.Just like liberals want a centralized big government all left wing groups are top down.The left comes up with an idea,they create an organization,with pre determined leaders and pre determined political issues.Then they promote it,seek people to join up and it's always about getting something from the government (money,programs,etc).There is no such thing as lefty grassroots.The organization comes first and the people are just followers.

The Tea party is exactly the opposite,the people were first,the organizing came second.This turns the left's brain upside down,they just don't get it,they can't mentally process it.It's why they still refuse to believe the Tea Party is an genuine grassroots movement because they have never seen(or been part of) a genuine grassroots movement.

(I would note that some of the lefty environmental movements,mainly NIMBY issues,things like saving a local forest from logging,are true grassroots.These are always small,single issue and local.These are not national or large popular movements.)

If you haven't noticed,for the last 6 months or so the liberal media has taken a new tack in dealing with the Tea Party.They produce skewed polls saying the Tea Party is growing more and more unpopular,it's being rejected by "mainstream" Americans,the Tea Party is dying off like Harry Reid said,it was just a fad,etc.They are trying to paint a picture that the Tea Party are just a few dying off extremists,a politically dead movement.

Just because we don't invade public buildings to become bongo drum banging,dope smoking squatters doesn't mean we are not still here.We have always been here,the gallop poll I referred to earlier proves this.

All the negative media only proves this to me,they,being the liberal establishment,fear us.We are knocking their gravy train off the tracks.For all the hope and change talk they don't want change,they want the status quo.It's the Tea Party thats bringing the change and this is what they fear.

If the Tea Party has been so marginalized then I would like the left to explain what happened here in Wisconsin.The organized left threw everything they had at us.They literally blew up a political nuclear bomb here and they lost.The republicans survived.

Maybe now the Tea Party has to a certain degree gone back to what we were before,the silent majority,but we are still here and still motivated by our beliefs.Wisconsin is proof of this and I don't need a poll to tell me that I am wrong.I got eyes,ears and a brain,I know how to use them and they tell me all I need to know.
Also,if we are to believe that the Tea Party has gone the way of the horse and buggy or the VHS tape then why are they now creating their own version of the Tea Party?

Big shot lefties never go away too long,they just hide under a rock until the smoke clears then reemerge with some new facade on the same old thing.In this case it's Van Jones.Jones is starting up a liberal alternative to the Tea Party.Note I said that Jones was starting it.

On June 24th,Ari Melber writes in The Nation blog,"Van Jones Returns,Launches Liberal Alternative to the Tea Party".I'll spare you the whole post but here are some of the highlights;

"Over one thousand liberal activists gathered in Manhattan on Thursday night, in a bid to counter the Tea Party and elevate a progressive who can tangle with the Becks and Bachmanns that dominate today’s outraged populism.  The event launched "Rebuild the Dream," a MoveOn-backed effort to organize around economic issues.

The crowd that filed into Town Hall in midtown Manhattan was a mix of progressives old and young, in work clothes and casual attire. While they mingled and waited for music by The Roots, a second event was staged in a nearby press room. There reporters and bloggers heard from the would-be leader of a liberal Tea Party -- the attorney, author and former Obama official Van Jones.  Bowing to the lexicon of today’s Left, however, it was clear that Jones was not announcing a “campaign,” (despite the flashy website, social media strategy and PR campaign). He was not launching a lobbying “coalition,” either, (even though the effort was backed by MoveOn, labor unions, USAction, TrueMajority and "many others to be announced").   The event promised the beginning of a movement."

Hmmmm? When I think of grassroots,big union money is always the first thing that comes to mind.Sure,yes,thats what I think.

It goes on.

"According to Jones and MoveOn, the driving forces behind the launch, "Rebuild The Dream" is the Left’s collective effort to use grassroots organizing and new media to challenge the rhetoric coming out of Washington and strengthen the middle class."

When speaking of Jones,MoveOn head Justin Ruben says,"He’s a great communicator and we need more great communicators.”

And there is more,

"Ruben and Jones say they are following the Tea Party's strategy. “The thing that we’ve been doing a terrible job of is telling our story,” says Ruben. Highlighting how conservatives managed to unite Birthers, tax-phobes, and social conservatives under one ideological and—perhaps more importantly—rhetorical brand, Ruben said "Rebuild The Dream" could play a similar role for multi-faceted liberalism. It will be a “movement service organization,” he said, with Jones as a visionary -- not director -- and an opportunity for activists to unite under a “common banner, both literally and figuratively.” There will be "American Dream House Meetings" in mid-July, convened through MoveOn, to gather input on the effort's goals."

Then finally this,

"Some major principles, however, have been predetermined."

Oh really? Predetermined?

On August 15th,Michelle Goldberg writes in The Daily Beast an article titled "The Liberal's Tea Party." She interviews Van Jones in his Washington D.C. office. She tells of Jones recounting during the election when a woman told John McCain she thought Obama was an arab and McCain said,"No,he was a good decent family man."(Or something to that effect)

Somewhere during all this Jones begins to sob and cry,and says its "those people",like the woman who said Obama was an arab,who took over John McCain's party and are now trying to take over the country,in tears and banging on his desk he shouts,"We can't let them!"

It was a major league load of bullcrap.I wish Goldberg would have asked Van Jones what his salary is for running this sham group.I bet he is making out pretty well.

Goldberg goes on to write about a July 28th rally that Jones' group had at the capitol.They had their pre printed signs and tee shirts,it had all the hallmarks of a union organized rally.A whole 400 people showed up.I wonder how many of those were paid to be there.They seemed to blame the low turnout on the fact it was a very hot day.

I just want to ask you a couple of questions.What the hell is grassroots about this? How is this in any way,shape or form anything like the way the Tea Party came about?

The answer is this,it's not.

They have no clue as to how or why the Tea Party even exists and they never will.