There is something very pleasurable to see in the Tea Party movement for those who cut their political teeth in the populist conservative uprising of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Like passage in 1978 of California’s Prop 13, a cultural tectonic shift has set off a rumbling across the American political landscape.
What makes this populist uprising different from others in American history is the absence of an Andrew Jackson or Carrie Nation or William Jennings Bryan or any national leader at the top. This is an utterly grassroots, philosophically-oriented movement, which can neither be represented – nor betrayed -by any one individual.
The great historian George Satayana said those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it. President Obama, clearly no student of American history (as his genuflecting to foreign royalty demonstrates) has put his faith in government rather than the American people, and is thus following the lead of Jimmy Carter, who arrived in Washington as an agent of change but quickly became a champion of centralized authority.
In so doing, the Georgian helped create the modern conservative movement and it was from that which sprung all the political and legislative initiatives of the late 1970’s; from tax-cutting referenda, Enterprise Zones to opposition to the Panama Canal Treaties, to pro-life initiatives. The GOP of that era was dead; and into that empty vessel the energized intellectual conservatives poured their ideas.
The current GOP is consoling itself with the canard that the Tea Party members have no place to go except with them, that they have no alternatives. But ask yourself who really holds the balance of power on the Right today; the national Republican Party, or the Tea Party?
Could the Republican National Committee assemble hundreds of thousands of citizens at the Capitol, as the Tea Party did on September 12, 2009? Could the RNC organize the hundreds of pro-freedom rallies that spanned the country this past April 15?
The question though, is what should be the next steps for the Tea Party movement? Here are some ideas to consider:
First, they should organize a “Citizens Congress” and elect via the Internet one representative from each state to serve one term-limited year. No compensation. This group of 50 wise Americans should meet weekly by phone or via the Internet to co-ordinate their efforts and issue joint communiqués. All meetings and discussions would be transparent.
From this group should also come solutions based in federalism, such as a constitutional amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s odious Kelo decision or an effort to create state-based stock markets. This would keep investment money in the respective states, thus lessening the power of Wall Street and Washington, with the added benefit of reducing corruption.
Another order of business should be to demand a formal apology from the Republican Party for its past transgressions. If no apology is forthcoming, well, use your imagination.
Secondly, they should generate a 10-point document for those who seek Tea Party endorsements, support and funding. This document should not be called, as some have suggested, a “Contract from America” but rather a “Contract for Sovereignty.”
It should be specific on tax policy, trade, foreign policy, social policy, Federalism, border security and the like. Any candidate wanting Tea Party support must sign said document.
Sometime this summer, a list of those candidates earning the Tea Party’s “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval” would be released. A list of those not earning approval should also be released. Those who are approved receive funding and support. Those who don’t, well, ce le vie.
As so many of the problems of the GOP came at the hands of unscrupulous political consultants, the Citizens Congress should consider how to deal with this ongoing problem as well. The GOP is still in a weakened condition and, while creating a third party is not advisable at this time, the threat of doing so would be a powerful inducement to bring the GOP to heel.
Always in the back of the minds of the national Republicans is the power the Tea Party has, to call for a general strike against contributing to the Republican Party, starving it into submission.
Obama has given America a great gift, though it is surely one he did not intend. A new awakening is sweeping across America, one not seen since 1980, when Ronald Reagan, leading a movement of optimistic conservatism put government on trial, charged it with corruption and convicted it of excessively overstepping its bounds. Today, Americans are questioning all levels of government as never before.
The bottom line is that the Tea Party, in little over a year, has grown into an impressive movement including millions from all walks of life. History and principles are on their side. Now is the time to take the next step. “Politics” as Reagan’s former campaign manager John Sears once said, “is motion.”
To grow, the Tea Party must stay in motion.
Craig Shirley is the president of Shirley & Banister Public Affairs and is the author of two books on Ronald Reagan including the newly released Rendezvous with Destiny. Shirley is now at work on a political biography of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.
