Posted on 02/24/2010 3:29:15 PM PST by Former Military Chick
A network of Tea Party activists are circulating what they call the Tea Party Declaration of Independence, a document meant to define the movement and establish its independence from Republicans.
We reject the idea that the electoral goals of the Republican party are identical to the goals of the Tea Party Movement, the document, released Tuesday, reads.
Activist Bob MacGuffie, involved in the drafting process and also known for authoring a memo last year on how to disrupt health-care town hall meetings, said activists, got tired of being defined from the outside and decided to do some self-definition themselves.
MacGuffie said the idea for the document came from a number of leaders who attended a summit hosted by conservative group FreedomWorks, which has been heavily involved in the movement but was not officially involved in the drafting. He wouldnt say specifically who drafted the document, but said there are at least 60 groups nationally behind it.
They would just end up being targets, he said of the drafters. Well remain nameless for now.
He also said its hard to say whos co-signed the document, saying, Its just organically moving out there, mainly on the Internet.
The movement will work against Republicans if they try to force RINOs on them, according to the document, referencing Republicans in Name Only or members of the GOP seen as too moderate or liberal. It also demands that Republicans understand that activists will reject its attempts to co-opt the Tea Party movement.
The declaration says activists will organize, demonstrate and vote to achieve their goals.
It doesnt just declare the movements independence from the Republicans, but from Democrats and the media as well.
We reject arrogant left-wing politicians who furtively hide from public scrutiny, as they cut corrupt deals loaded with earmarks and pork in order to produce 2,000-page pieces of legislation so purposely incomprehensible, they do not even bother to read them before foisting them upon us, the document reads.
The document said the media has proved itself to be anything but a fair and balanced enterprise and which focuses more on entertainment, fear mongering and shock value than investigation and unbiased fact.
They also reject that anyone leads the movement, including self-styled leaders who claim to speak for the Tea Party Movement.
This movement is not a brand name to be used to sell product; nor is it a logo to be used to justify profiting off its name, the document reads. We reject those who seek to personally capitalize on our popularity and momentum by trying to associate with our cause.
John Loudon, a leader of the Tea Party political action committee Ensuring Liberty PAC, said he was e-mailed a copy of the document, which he said is generating quite a bit of buzz among Tea Party activists.
Even though the document speaks for the entire movement something that would appear to irk activists known for being adverse to any type of leadership Loudon said he doesnt see it that way. Instead, he said, someone was just putting out their thoughtful work and hoping that it gets picked up.
If they were trying to claim leadership, I think theyd try to put their name on it, he said.
McGuffie said he has not heard any negative responses yet to the declaration and doesnt see it making any Tea Partiers angry as the document is voluntary for activists to sign off on.
The declaration comes at a time where several other manifestos have emerged trying to define what the conservative movement stands for. Last week, several Tea Party groups unveiled plans for drafting a list of specific legislative proposals desired by activists called the Contract from America. And a group of leaders representing the economic, social and a foreign policy wings of the conservative movement signed the Mount Vernon Statement last Wednesday before the start of the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Read the full Tea Party Declaration of Independence here.
Jon Ward contributed to this report.
I agree with Rove. Esp that last paragraph. In Nashville, the tea party refused admittance to anyone who looked like a birther, oather, etc. Any insulting posters were not allowed in. It is a start and certainly improves their credibility.
Frank, I think the “Tea Party” needs to swing it’s big bat in the Repubican Primaries.
Supporting the best Conservative running. It has been made clear Steele and the other GOP leaders are not listening yet. The primary fights should be a good slap in the face to the leadership.
After the Primary - Support the Republican that wins.
Smaller government and less spending? As in less government is the best government? Sounds like the conservative party I joined in the late 70’s. Think we will ever get back that?? I never imagined I would see the spending that I have seen by the Republican party in the last eight years...well, further back than that. jeeze.
Yup...yup...yup...I've been trying to tell Medina supporters where they went wrong and they just don't get it. Or are fakes and don't want to get it. Beck didn't set her up. All she had to say was no. But there is no talking to these people. Tell themm\, "OK she believes that but it she wants to win, she has to shut up...this line goes nowhere..it will never be resolved...there is no point to it...its like bringing up the grassy knoll"....oh...no..no..no..that would not be being honest, they say.
My town canceled Tea Parties because of Ron Paul people and libertarians from out of town crashing it. We knew the first two hours they were alienating the locals.
What a joke.
If they want to get something done, they’re going to have to attach to a political party at some point. It’s stupid to keep protesting but then turn away attempts by politicians to link with and support their goals.
Ross Perot redux.
Declaration of Tea Party Independence
I. As the course of human events winds its way through History, it has found some paths
lead to Tyranny and some to Liberty. In seeking a path to Liberty, a great and powerful
movement is now rising from every corner of our land. Created by the Will of the
American People, it rejects unconstitutional domination by the Government that is
supposed to be its servant. This movement has arisen, in large part, because our elected
officials have failed us.
For much of its history the United States has been a land of prosperity and liberty, sound
policies such as fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and a belief in
the free market have safeguarded this condition. In recent years however, Congress, the
President, the Federal Reserve Board and the Courts have replaced those practices with
profligate government spending and expansion of the government power beyond what is
constitutionally permissible.
This course, if not reversed, can only lead to economic collapse and tyranny.
Therefore, Individuals acting through the Tea Party Movement, seek to restore the
policies, which are proven to safeguard liberty and prosperity for all. We will organize,
demonstrate and vote until this restoration has been achieved. We will stay focused on
this goal and remain INDEPENDENT from any persons or political parties who seek to
distract us from this end.
Many seek to define this Movement, to use it, to lead it, to co-opt it, to channel it, to
control it, to defeat it.
WE WILL NOT LET THIS HAPPEN.
The Tea Party Movement is in agreement with our Founders that the government that
governs least governs best. We believe that Capitalism NOT GOVERNMENT - is
essential to the creation of wealth and a vastly reduced government provides the
foundation for a thriving Capitalist system.
The Tea Party Movement of America embraces and serves people of all races, creeds,
religions, and political affiliations, and we declare ourselves to be independent of all
those forces that seek to manipulate our actions or control our destiny.
II. We Declare ourselves INDEPENDENT of the Democrat Party and its power drunk
junta in Washington DC, which is currently seeking to impose a Socialist agenda on our
Republic.
We reject arrogant Left-wing politicians who furtively hide from public scrutiny, as they
cut corrupt deals loaded with earmarks and pork in order to produce 2000 page pieces of
legislation so purposely incomprehensible, they do not even bother to read them before
foisting them upon us.
We reject the endless creation of myriad federal government agencies that drown free
enterprise and local control in the swarms of education, energy, ecology, and commerce
bureaucrats who style themselves czars sent to harass us. We reject the creation of
federal government regulations and agencies which demand the States pay for unfunded
Federal mandates.
We reject a Democrat Party which refuses to give credence to our demands for just
redress of grievances and which insults and seeks to demonize our legal right to
peacefully protest the unjust laws it inflicts upon us.
We reject a profligate Government that is spending TRILLIONS of dollars on worthless
socialist schemes designed to bankrupt us and put the American people in a position of
dependence on the State, as peasants begging for their very sustenance from self-styled
educated classes and so-called experts.
We reject a foreign policy which bows and scrapes and apologizes before the world for
America.
We reject an Attorney General of the United States who offers succor and rights to
vicious terrorist murderers and seeks to protect them with a mock civilian trial when such
enemy combatants, captured on the field of battle, should be tried in secure military
courts.
We reject the claims of an un-elected Federal Judiciary to violate the separation of
powers by demanding its decisions be enforced by the other coequal branches of
government, regardless of how unconstitutional the other branches of government may
think those decisions are.
We reject all acts that ignore or diminish the 2nd and 10th Amendments to the US
Constitution and we seek to have all powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution to be reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
III. We Declare ourselves INDEPENDENT of the Republican Party, which has in the
past manipulated its Conservative Base to win election after election and which then
betrays everything that Base fought for and believed.
We reject the idea that the electoral goals of the Republican Party are identical to the
goals of the Tea Party Movement or that this Movement is an adjunct to the Republican
Party.
We reject the Republican Party professionals who now seek to use the Tea Party
Movement for their corrupt and narrow political purposes.
We acknowledge that standing on our principles does not mean throwing out our
common sense; we will NOT abandon our principles in the name of a nonexistent
bipartisanship or a misguided devotion to an illusion of pragmatism, which disguises a
desire to betray us in its name.
We reject the scare tactics of the Republican Party, which seeks to herd us into voting for
candidates who supposedly represent the lesser of two evils in the name of fealty to the
principle of small government and then having to suffer such candidates as they betray
that principle. We are not well served by parasites whose livelihoods depend on the very
State whose power to reward or sanction we elected them to limit and proscribe.
We insist that the Tea Party Movement does NOT consider the election of Republicans in
and of itself to be necessarily beneficial to our goals.
We demand the Republican Party understand that we reject its attempts to co-opt us.
WE WILL WORK AGAINST THEM when they oppose our views by trying to force
Republicans In Name Only (RINO) on us. When Republicans are in accord with their
Conservative Base as well as the Independent voters who align with it, IT WINS; when
they are NOT in accord with the Conservative Base and the Independent voters who align
with it, IT LOSES.
We reject RINO money; we reject RINO advice; we reject RINO professional experience;
we reject RINO progressivism; we reject RINO support of Big Government; we
reject RINO back room deal making; we reject RINO pork spending; we reject false
RINO professions of Conservative views and we reject the RINOs statist subversion of
the principles of small government for which the Republican Party is supposed to stand.
Republican Party attempts to ignore the will of the Base, as it did in 1976, 1992, 1996,
2006 and 2008, resulted in disaster; when it embraces the will of the Base, as it did in
1980, 1984 and 1994, it wins historic victories.
We demand the Republican Party recognize that while the Tea Party Movement cannot
guarantee their aid will help them win elections, it is very likely WE CAN MAKE THEM
LOSE if they are disdainful of our goals.
IV. We Declare ourselves INDEPENDENT of the Media, which has proved itself to be
anything BUT a fair and balanced enterprise and which focuses more on entertainment,
fear mongering and shock value than investigation and unbiased fact.
We reject the fiction that an unbiased media still exists; there is friendly media and there
is unfriendly ENE-media. The Tea Party Movement refuses to give false credence to the
self-aggrandizing, self-deluding lie that ANY PART of the Fourth Estate is free of the
self-serving agendas of those who own them.
V. We Declare ourselves INDEPENDENT of self-styled leaders who claim to speak
for the Tea Party Movement. This movement is not a brand name to be used to sell
product; nor is it a logo to be used to justify profiting off its name.
We reject those who seek to personally capitalize on our popularity and momentum by
trying to associate with our cause.
We reject the idea that the Tea Party Movement is led by anyone other than the
millions of average citizens who make it up. The Tea Party Movement understands that
as a Free People, we need to SAVE OURSELVES, BY OURSELVES, FOR
OURSELVES.
The Tea Party Movement is not led. The Tea Party Movement LEADS.
VI. We are united in our common belief in Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutionally
Limited Government and Free Markets. This threefold purpose is the source of our unity
in the Tea Party Movement.
We reject the idea that the Tea Party Movement must all be unanimous in our specific
policy views in order to win. We recognize that the current situation requires we come
together in confederation to achieve the MANY MUTUAL GOALS we all seek to
accomplish.
We recognize that the current situation requires that we concentrate on the many things
we have in common rather than those few things about which we may disagree.
We are the Tea Party Movement of America and we believe in American Exceptionalism.
We believe that American Exceptionalism is found in its devotion to the cause of Liberty.
We believe that Liberty is based in rational self-interest, in freedom of thought, in free
markets, free association, free speech, a free press and the ability granted us under the
Constitution TO DIRECT OUR OWN AFFAIRS FREE OF THE DICTATES OF AN
EVER EXPANDING FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WHICH IS AS VORACIOUS IN
ITS DESIRE FOR POWER AS IT IS INCOMPETENT AND DANGEROUS IN ITS
EXERCISE.
We believe that either fate or history has chosen this Country to be a beacon of freedom
and prosperity to the whole world because of Americas belief in and vigorous defense of
political and economic Liberty. The United States has been the instrument of Liberty
against the many tyrannies that have threatened the people of this world.
The Tea Party Movement rejects the idea that America has to apologize to a far guiltier
world that has been largely unappreciative of the sacrifices made on their behalf by the
brave and noble members of our Armed Forces, whose sacrifice and patriotic service in
our defense makes all else possible.
The Tea Party Movement rejects the imposition of transformational change performed
on our Nation by smug elites who call themselves the educated class.
The Tea Party Movement understands that our Nation is NOT the same thing as our
government and that America is much more than simply a militarily and economically
powerful State.
The Tea Party Movement sees America as something exceptional, as something unique,
as something that came into existence to fulfill the hope of all previous generations that
longed for freedom.
It came into existence because it is more than simply a country with land and population
and riches and armaments. America came into existence because LIBERTY is an eternal
concept in the mind of both God AND Man.
The United States of America came into existence because Mankind needs freedom the
same way it needs food and air and property and security and love.
And what is freedom other than the RIGHT to be free of the tyranny of Government and
the elitist, self-styled aristocrats who seek to run it at our expense and to our detriment?
The Tea Party Movement will fight this danger to our Liberty as long as its members
have breath in their bodies.
When America didnt exist men and women were compelled to invent it, BECAUSE
MANKIND CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT FREEDOM AND STILL BE FULLY
HUMAN.
To this goal we mutually pledge to each other, as our Founding Fathers did over two
centuries ago, our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
February 24, 2010
I have had the same frustrating debate with Medina supporters here. She was Not set up by Beck. As you said, all she had to say was No...that is what most of us would have done.
We'll let you know when we've taken over when your liberal republican leadership finds itself kicked to the curb where they belong.
“After the Primary - Support the Republican that wins.”
Nope... Support the “conservative” that wins. It may not always be the republican.
You are correct; there is no such thing as “The Tea Party”.
There are however millions of citizens who are ready to turn around
decades of federal power grabbing; come hell or high water.
A live rino is better than a jackass any day.
My concern is people voting for so called tea party candidates based on that fact alone. Last night someone came into a thread and suggested that we all vote for the tea party candidate in my district but admitted that they didn’t know anything about the republican but his candidate wasn’t from “within the establishment”.
That’s the sign of a pure emotion voter and a dangerous thing to do.
RNC may be picking winners and losers in primary races. They give help...contact lists, etc. that may help one candidate over another. I had hoped they wouldn’t do that after they got burned in NY. But, it may still be happening.
There would be no TEA party if the GOP had done what it said it was going to do.
Instead, they started dropping the ball in 1995 and got progressively worse.
I don’t believe there is one “Tea Party”.... In Arizona, the Tucson Tea Party is not always in sync with the Arizona Tea Party. They have separate events, and while the AZ Tea Party has endorsed candidates, the Tucson Tea Party has not.
I want the Tea Party to go away.
The whole point, in my opinion, is we dont want a national “leader.” We want Federalism, not centralized power. That is what we are protesting against.
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