KD drives it home.
Remember - there are two tea parties:
1) The Republican stalking-horse FreedomWorks/Dick Armey operation, and
2) A bunch of pi**ed-off Americans.
#1 is NFG, unless you count the few folks with brains who awaken to the scam and bail.
#2 is embryonic, but may be fatally infected with silliness like the "democracy" and "Constitution" fetishes.
#2 is also a fertile ground for recruiting folks based on a realistic plan for unscrewing the current situation.
Anyone got one?
I traveled from Searchlight to DC back in the spring with the Tea Party Express (on my dime, not as part of the tour), collecting interviews and such for a book project.
ReplyDeleteI was overwhelmingly disappointed with the experience. Not the people who I met at the events across the country - I met and networked with some outstanding Americans.
But the folks running the show...not so much. While I am hesitant to be part of a circular firing squad, I must say that the folks running the show are far more a part of the problem rather than the solution.
The folks in the country who self-identify as Tea Party give me hope. The folks who immediately began trying to manipulate and control the movement are worse, IMHO, than the Liberals I so despise.
End rant/begin solution: What I observed across the country is that people were looking for a genuine leader to step up, someone who was as angry and patriotic as were they, someone who is willing to recommend Second Amendment Solutions, if needed, and then stand behind the rhetoric, not run away from the comments as soon as MSM looks their direction.
No such person is on the scene.
We need a Jefferson, and many, many people are looking for a Jefferson, but I am not sure he exists today...
Sam
III
Sam
III
Sam:
ReplyDeleteThe group #2 folks you mention -- what's the message they need (not want) to hear?
What they need to hear, in a word: Truth.
ReplyDeleteA very significant segment of the Tea Party folks I met get it. While it is in our nature to hope that the next election, or the next hero politician, will change reality, many, many people understand that such hopes are simply not very realistic at this point.
Very few of these people are cowards...nor are they willing to be a tip of the spear martyr.
What they need to hear is simply the truth. But they need to hear it from some nationally recognized figure. They need to hear their own thoughts affirmed: "America is in a mess and we don't have time to rely on elections and a generation or more of trying to defeat the cancers that are killing the republic. We need to take action and remove the bad guys from the controls of society, right now."
They need to hear this mythical figure give them permission to turn their anger into action. From what I saw, the average Patriot feels rather isolated and outnumbered, and the folks in area X are not confident that the Patriots in area Y will have their backs in a crunch, so everyone is hesitant to take that first step.
The nation is roiling right now, just beneath a boil, and just beneath the surface is a major ruckus waiting for that one event to set it off.
I honestly don't think it matters much who it is on our national stage that finally musters the nerve to say Go!. It was Rick Santelli, a relatively unknown on-air editor at a relatively unwatched business cable network who gave voice to the frustrations that exploded to what we now call the Tea Parties. All that Santelli did was say what so many other people were thinking, and it was off to the races from there.
I think any national figure from the Right could take it to the next level just by telling the average American the truth, and giving them permission to be outraged. Imagine what would happen if Sarah Palin or Ron Paul, either one, tweeted for Patriots in every city to show up at their local courthouse with rifles and go bags!
I also think that the far Left is really impatient for a major paradigm shift, many are frustrated that the Obama administration has not moved far enough to the left, and if one of their "Leaders" called for action, there would be a large number of Lefties who know how to shoot, move and communicate who would take the field for their cause.
Of course, if anyone on the national stage intends to take point, they'd better kick it into gear. The reality of our economy will tell our fellow Americans the truth very soon, whether they are ready to hear it, or not...
Sam
III
Write the speech, Sam.
ReplyDeleteAin't no major figure gonna give it.
We're it.
Let's roll.
Write the speech, Sam.
ReplyDeleteAin't no major figure gonna give it.
We're it.
Let's roll.
For what it's worth, Karl Denninger has been turning over rocks and exposing ugly truth for at least the past 3 years. He is passionate and uncompromising. Denninger is not nationally recognized by any stretch, though his star is rising. He has a gift for making complex subjects understandable. And he has not shied away from 2A.
ReplyDeleteWhile it would be convenient to have Jefferson jump up, it ain't reality. Besides, even if a Thomas appeared (at this late date), who among us would believe and trust him?
ReplyDeleteIt's going to be up to 'us' to get this mess squared away. And that is really the beauty of the movement, there is no central figure(s) to decapitate, thus the movement can't be stopped. The driving inertia is in each one of us and as long as we keep the pressure on in an intelligent, calculated manner, we have a chance to get this mess squared up. When it does finally happen, it will get messy and we'll lose some folks, financially and physically, but that will only cause the many on the fence to scramble into the fray and hopefully take this to completion.
Work the political system as long as possible with sincere hope of fixing things (low probability) and then when/if it doesn't work, we can all say we gave it our best effort before alternatives are considered.
It's back to the 1760's and 1770's boys and girls. How you choose to handle it is up to your own conscience.
Bob Katt
Reminds me of a comment on some blog somewhere I saw (actually, maybe even this blog) -
ReplyDelete"...and you guys are blabbing like Luke Skywalker's going to come swinging in to save the day. Go ask 6 million dead Jews why this is a mistake."
Sure, I got plans for Tea Party Group #2-at my blog http://freedomguide.wordpress.com and http://freedomguide.blogspot.com feel free to repost at will.
ReplyDeleteCA,
ReplyDeleteYou are, of course, correct. No established figure will risk stepping into the mire until he knows the risk/reward equation is on his side...so, we are on our own.
Better that way, of course. Who needs a wind-tester in a foxhole?
See you on the other side...
Sam
III
Outstanding Sam good post.
ReplyDeleteYou are spot on. Its not that we need a Jefferson to lead the show from start to finish. What is sitting there waiting to happen is for a Jefferson to stand up and wave the green flag. Thats it, he does not have to stand in for the long haul. In fact odds are he wont make the long haul.
We sit waiting calmly trying to live by the "no Fort Sumpters" rule. Great fine and dandy. The problem is that everyday we let small local outrages go by with no response. We are all waiting for the left to lose it and go out in the streets so that we can be seen as the responding heros. We want the opposition the start it with a major action. Well they started it a long time ago and there is not going to be a major action. This is a covert war. Not because they hide their actions but because their actions are not so outragous that they rise to the level of the national static that fills our day to day lives. They act locally and think globally. They count on all of us waiting until the ninjas are at our door. They are the ones who go to the streets when the wind blows against them, we sit at our desks and clean our guns. We have drawn an arbitrary line in the sand that says unless you pick on one of the handfull of folks who visit these blogs we will stand by and do nothing but gnash our teeth and shake our fists. I dont have the answers. I dont know what the target needs to be but we need to be doing more than breaking a few windows or painting a few signs. That might have worked a few years ago and it serves its purpose to show a path of escalation but we need to be thinking several acts into the future because these are not going to turn back the tide. I dont want to wait until the Ninjas are at my door thats too fucking late! What happens if that is the case? How many will sit back and say "lets wait to see if he really deserved it first".
Grenadier1