Richard Viguerie: Why leaderless Tea Parties are beating the GOP

American Thinker ^ | December 10, 2009 | Richard Viguerie

[neverdem]

Rasmussen reports the Tea Party Movement, which percolated only months ago, is beating the Grand Old Party.

That's amazing -- and good -- news. A nascent grassroots movement is more popular than a long-established political party.

Republican Party leaders should be embarrassed. Instead, the Republican establishment disdains this populist uprising. Rather than embracing this genuine movement, establishment politicians and consultants are calculating how to co-opt, sideline or even defeat the newest phenomenon in politics - tea partiers.

That would be arrogance, not leadership. It could be the downfall of Republican leaders, who have taken the Party of Reagan to the Party of No -- meaning, No Ideas, No Leadership, and No Principles.

What's driving the Tea Party phenomenon? Robert Stacy McCain writes at American Spectator about one tea partier, Rhonda Lee Welsch, who says, "‘It's a systemic problem,' discussing the top-down approach of leaders in both parties who seem indifferent to the concerns of ordinary Americans."

People realize that big-government, career politicians aren't going to save America, if it's not too late for that already. Like a modern-day court of Louis XVI, our leaders are disconnected from the people. An uprising is taking place, yet our political leaders seem more interested in playing a good round of golf.

As I wrote not long ago:

Americans are concluding more and more that many of the current problems we face are caused by unrestrained and corrupt government. It is becoming apparent to millions of voters the solution lies in electing officials who understand, respect and abide by the Constitution as much as we citizens are expected to follow the law.

The Tea Party Movement, however, is about more than electing new politicians, although that will be one of its consequences. What's happening in the tea parties is that people are actually using the Constitution to ground and form policy choices, and as a constructive means to hold the political establishment accountable.

Our constitutional system of checks and balances is currently in shambles. Congress refuses to hold the President accountable constitutionally, and the courts refuse to hold the other two branches accountable. 

This is why the 10^th Amendment is becoming so popular within the Tea Party Movement, and why that Amendment is becoming the bane of statists in the political establishment.  The 10th Amendment, intended as a fundamental, "systemic" protection of our constitutional form of government, says that all powers not given expressly to the federal government by the text of the Constitution are reserved to the States or to the people. It is a failsafe against tyranny.

The 10^th Amendment, which has been in the closet and is dusty, is a natural resource for the "leaderless" Tea Party Movement. The way to restrain the abuses of power, and create a culture of freedom and economic prosperity, is within the Constitution itself.  Tea partiers will use the Constitution, which has been so disregarded by the three branches of government, to tame the beast of tyrannical big government. The 10^th Amendment is one key to overcoming what Ms. Welsch articulates for all of us as a "systemic problem."

One of the best books I've read in recent years is The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom.

Read it, and you'll better understand why the Tea Party Movement is surging, and the Republican Party isn't. The book describes the success of leaderless organizations using the analogy of a spider, which is killed when its head is cut off, versus the starfish, which, when a tentacle is cut off, grows a new one.

The great Aztec civilization existed for centuries before the Spaniards arrived on the continent. Cortes told the Aztec leader, Montezuma, give me your gold or your life. Montezuma gave Cortes his gold, and Cortes killed him anyway. The Aztec civilization did not survive the loss of its leader. The head of the spider had been cut off.

The Apaches, a leaderless "starfish" society, survived hundreds of years of the Spaniards' trying to do what they did to the Aztecs. As Brafman and Beckstrom write:

You wanted to follow Geronimo? You followed Geronimo. You didn't want to follow him? Then you didn't. The power lay with each individual.

We are seeing the "starfish" Tea Party Movement with candidates running in both Democratic and Republican primaries. When they are shut out by the party establishments, as happened in New York's 23^rd congressional district, they are running as independents, or under third parties.

"Starfish" tea partiers are learning how to organize, raise money, and utilize the alternative media in record numbers. They are voicing their opposition to unaccountable Big Government, and promoting productive policy alternatives, through the guiding principles of the Founders.

From the tea parties, the grassroots, and the alternative media, we are seeing new leaders emerge. Like our Founders, they understand their strength of leadership does not come from a political party, but from consent of the governed. That is why they don't hitch their wagons to one person or one party.

Talk radio host Mark ‘The Great One" Levin discussed recently how Reagan spoke not of "his" administration, but of "this" administration. Levin noted how Reagan understood his power came from the people, not from the office he held. Reagan didn't read The Starfish and the Spider, but he understood its principles. The successors to Reagan's GOP do not understand those principles, and seem more beholden to staying in Washington than saving America. They are "spiders."

The Tea Party Movement is determined to save America. Republican Party leaders would be unwise to try to co-opt, sideline or defeat it. Perhaps they should welcome the new leadership into the Party as their single most important survival tactic.

[Ronin]

Those are good sources, and they show a lot of what I am talking about. But there are other names, much less discussed because they keep behind the scenes and are far less visible.

I am trying to find a link that I had to the top contributors of both parties. A lot of them are very familiar. Soros, Rockefeller, Kennedy, etc. But there are several other names with deep ties and strong but silent influence in both parties.

[oblomov]

Affirmative Action and wage and price controls were also Nixon Administration policies. He was the most left-wing President in our history, until Ogabe.

[riri]

bkmk

[roamer_1]

So while he laments CONSERVATIVES like Mark Levin and dares to use the words of Ronald Reagan against Republicans, he cares not a thing about CONSERVATIVES who wear the Republican banner, only about defeating their party, as if that advances his own.

Richard Viguerie is dead on. I don't care if you are a Republican. I care that you are a Conservative. One cannot be a Republican more than a Conservative, or one is merely a Republican.

Republicans, who have lose well past half of their membership, do not deserve the mantle of Reagan Conservatism. If they do not SUBMIT to the Tea Partiers, they will cease to be a party. Mark my words.

[onyx]

Hmmm. Are you thinking of the donor’s list that showed all large contributors by individual name(s) to every campaign in ‘08? I had one of those listings bookmarked, but when I went to access it recently, the url was no good.

[PGalt]

Very good article and a very, very good thread. Thanks for the background information/education on Viguerie. Thanks to all posters.

[onyx]

If they do not SUBMIT to the Tea Partiers, they will cease to be a party. Mark my words.

Submit to the Tea Parties? How about EMBRACE?

I am NOT interested in REHAB FOR INCUMBENTS.

There's a revitalization taking place, but it's not for another National Third party. Nationwide, there's already several so-called "third parties," and that's RV's aim, just as it's always been.

[onyx]

Hi PGalt! Good to see you!

[timetostand]

Third parties , we have been told, always assure victory for the opposition, an unintended consequence. Third parties have never had enough strength to win in total. The Tea party movement is different and is growing stronger because it is rapidly becoming clear that the established parties, in trying to keep their priviledged positions, are letting stealth marxists, statists, and one worlders destroy the Republic! The only chance America has lies with the true Patriots We the People

[roamer_1]

Submit to the Tea Parties? How about EMBRACE?

No, I mean submit.

There's a revitalization taking place, but it's not for another National Third party.

There is a chance at revitalization. If the Republicans don't heed the warning, they will be run over by a freight train, and will be on the ash heap of history.

Conservatism is at stake. Republicanism is dispensable.

Nationwide, there's already several so-called "third parties," and that's RV's aim, just as it's always been.

And he is correct. This is no longer a threat. This is action after the threats of 2004-2008. It isn't that Conservatives will leave the Republicans... They already have.

[varon]

From the tea parties, the grassroots, and the alternative media, we are seeing new leaders emerge. Like our Founders, they understand their strength of leadership does not come from a political party, but from consent of the governed. That is why they don't hitch their wagons to one person or one party.

[Jim Noble]

You walk into the room
With your pencil in your hand
You see somebody naked
And you say, “Who is that man?”
You try so hard
But you don’t understand
Just what you’ll say
When you get home

Because something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

You raise up your head
And you ask, “Is this where it is?”
And somebody points to you and says
“It’s his”
And you say, “What’s mine?”
And somebody else says, “Where what is?”
And you say, “Oh my God
Am I here all alone?”

Because something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

[Mad Dawgg]

I will work hard to help Conservatives in the Primaries to take the Republican Nomination, but if a RINO gets the nomination I vote third party.

Hey RNC, the ball is in your court!

[rrrod]

true....the GOP/RNC elites dont have a clue....they havent listened to the base in years.

[onyx]

You can speak only for yourself, and I can speak only for myself. You do not speak for conservatives, any more than I speak for conservatives. That said, you may have already left the Republican party, but I am not a registered member of any party although I am registered to vote and I vote in every election.

Your claim that “Conservatism is at stake” is folly. Where have you been? Conservatism has never been more energetic and popular since the days of Ronald Reagan. Conseratives are currently found in both Houses of Congress and they’re all Republicans. Imagine *that*!

Conservatives have a grand chance to nominate and replace lifelong incumbents in Republican primaries. JD Hayworth is mulling a campaign to challenge McCain in Arizona and McCain already has one or two challengers.

Your dream of a viable conservative national third party with respect to the presidential election is as silly today as it’s always been, even with a back-channeled financing by George Soros.

Please don’t try to lecture me about fulfilling “the threats of ‘04 and ‘08” -— conservatives voted in both elections. Conservatives NEVER help democrats win.

[Theodore R.]

As I recall he was, like Strom Thurmond, a John Connally booster in 1980.

[onyx]

I didn't know the answer to that so I quickly looked a wiki for info on RV. I didn't see anything, but I did notice I erred when I stated that he ran against Ford in 1976. He tried to,(AIP) but he lost to Lester Maddox for that privilege...lol.

[Joe Boucher]

Republican “leaders”?
You mean like Juan McLame? Newt Gingrich? and that boy with the pretty hairdo the Morman fella?
These aren’t leaders, they are horse crap RINO’s
Hell Gingrich has simply become a camera whore.
Only one real conservative I’m interested in and that b
SARA CUDA.

[Jabba the Nutt]

Ah, the Stupid Party got its name the old-fashioned way, it earned it.

[bert]

They don’t understand and think you must send them money because you is no alternative

By loudly and vociferously destroying the morale of RNC telephone solicitors, by returning each of the weekly RNC mail solicitation envelopes marked with a bold red Sharpie “Gone to a Tea Party” A message can be delivered.