The Tea Party Goes to Tampa

Liberty movement to have huge presence at two rallies

It's as if the mainstream news outlets have been reincarnated as the Ministry of Truth in Orwell’s 1984. Are their reporters digging for real news, or are they merely leagues of Winston-like characters whose job it is to remove any information that they have been told to ignore, or that doesn’t jive with the media’s created reality? It is otherwise a mystery, given today's access to the internet, how members of the press could remain so  unaware. 

The press may not know it, but the Tea Party IS going to Tampa.  Of course they may be referring to groups that are actually GOP PACs — such as Tea Party Patriots, Tea Party Nation, or Tea Party Express —  all of which were created by GOP consultants in 2009, fully two years after the original liberty movement began in 2007 to protest certain policies that have existed under either party’s administrations. Unfortunately, the media keeps referring to the aforementioned three groups as if they were representatives of that original movement even when it’s painfully obvious for whom they are working. Although many original Tea Party sympathizers are Republicans, they consider themselves to be conservatives and constitutionalists FIRST, unafraid to challenge others calling themselves ‘conservatives.'

As we have been writing this piece, we now find that theteaparty.net (not the original grassroots movement but the creation of a pre-existing publication called TownHall.com) is attempting to organize a “Unity Rally” in Tampa. On their FaceBook page they ask  that people “rise above our disagreements and rivalries for the good of the Tea Party movement at Unity Rally 2012.” So far, only Michelle Bachmann and Herman Cain are listed as speakers. We’re not quite sure how it will be for the “good of the Tea Party movement”  to endorse yet another establishment candidate, one who will likely follow the same path as the last two presidents when it comes to those fiscal, foreign, or freedom policy issues around which liberty lovers formed their opposition in 2007. If we simply accept what was forced upon us, what is the point in having a liberty movement at all? 

Apparently Jim Robinson, founder of the website Free Republic agrees.

Robinson, who runs one of the oldest conservative forums on the internet, admitted in an email to POLITICO that his Free Republic forum site routinely blocks Romney supporters from posting -- and “offered no apologies for the practice”. Apparently this has been going on since November of 2011.

Robinson said, “Free Republic is a pro-life, pro-family, pro-gun, pro-small government, pro-constitution, pro-liberty site. Governor Romney is none of the above. His record is that of an abortionist, gay rights pushing, gun grabbing, global warming advocating, big government, mandate loving, constitution trampling, flip-flopping liberal progressive with no core values. That and the fact that he is the chief architect and advocate for ObamaCare disqualifies him for any consideration whatsoever on Free Republic as a potential nominee for the presidency.”

If Romney’s supporters have been obnoxious on forums, you might imagine how they’ve tarnished their candidate’s “nice guy image” by bizarre behavior at caucuses.

When Romney failed to capture all but one delegate in his home state of Massachusetts, GOP establishment operatives decided to change the rules and toss out the delegates because those delegates supported someone else. Conservative talk host Michael Graham, no fan of the candidate who actually won the plurality of delegates, called the move by the state party “corrupt and stupid” and asked them to stop.

In Maine, a similar attempt is being made to deny delegates the right to vote for whomever they wish. Here is a letter to the State GOP of Maine from one such delegate, a long-time Republican. 

This effort to unseat delegates follows a disturbing pattern of behavior engaged in by other state GOPs; behavior that ranged from arresting voters who would not vote for whom they were told, locking voters out of the buildings, turning off lights or air conditioning, hiding or not counting votes, handing out false ballots, to refusing to hold caucuses altogether. 

As a result of these incidents, a group of lawyers is filing suit over what they describe as a “pattern of abuse” and “election fraud” by state GOP committees and the RNC. They have likened the behavior at the caucuses to “organized crime” and want delegates to be free to vote for whomever they wish, per RNC rules. 

Recently it was reported that someone mass registered thousands of fake Twitter accounts and linked them to Romney's. We wonder if Twitter will consider that abuse? (They all bear the same avatar, male and female names alike.)

Since the NH primary, others have written about operations of the Romney campaign. 

Some say that supposed "Tea Party" candidates, for example Nikki Haley, literally sold out. 

In NH however, not all were convinced. One NH Tea Party leader who wished to remain anonymous declined an offer to work for Romney. The work would have been to travel around the country to speak to Tea Party groups to garner “tea party” support for Romney. When I asked how such an offer could be refused, the response was “why would I do that when I'm not even voting for him as he has shunned the tea party and liberty groups”.  

The bottom line is, before the GOP can speak with authority about all the corruption in the Democratic Party, it should be willing to challenge its own. But criticisms are often met with that glazed look of partisanship. For example, recently, conservative NH bloggers ranted about Democratic Senator Shaheen’s wasteful green jobs bill; and what seemed to be a boondoggle for their green buddies. But not a word was said about Republican Senator Rob Portman who co-sponsored the bill with Shaheen, and who has sponsored his own Agenda 21-style “sustainability” bills.

What frustrates people the most about this election is reflected in the thoughts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough who called the 2012 presidential election "gross" and "repulsive" on air recently, arguing that neither candidate is "saying anything of significance."

We know how Joe feels. It makes some of us cringe to hear the back and forth bickering over some crazy statement made by Obama or Romney, all while more important issues go unaddressed, issues that have little hope of seeing the light of day with either of them in office.

Joe even went so far as to say "Conservative Leaders are Telling Me They'd 'Rather Lose' Than Elect Mitt Romney".

Is it any wonder we’re seeing holdouts such as blogger Judy Morris? She writes: “The Polls are NOT Looking Good for Mitt and it's Not Too Late to Nominate Ron Paul” 

She says “While it's early in the presidential campaign season and the RNC and DNC national conventions are still a month away, it's not too late for Republicans to change their minds and nominate the only Republican who can defeat Obama - Ron Paul!”

Indeed, the Tea Party will be present in force in Tampa.

Presidential Candidate Dr. Ron Paul “Father of the Tea Party”, having succeeded in enough caucuses, will be on the ballot and thus has been in coordination with the GOP organizers concerning his appearance. Mainstream press act as if this hasn’t been so and some who believed it have started petitions demanding Paul get speaking time. Paul will also host a huge rally for his Tea Party people.

Supporters will also gather at another massive Tea Party event called Paul Fest  Some of the notables who have been with the Tea Party movement from the beginning and who will speak there are Peter Schiff, Tom Woods, Jerry Doyle, Michael Scheuer; Former CIA intelligence Officer, Gov. Gary Johnson, Stewart Rhodes; Founder and President of Oath Keepers, Lew Rockwell; Founder of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and other well-known liberty figures.

It helps to know the history of the true liberty movement known as the Tea Party. It is non-partisan, and it formed in 2007 around issues that continue to trouble Americans today. It doesn’t collect money to give to candidates and it gets no funding for itself. Here in NH, it was thanks to principled and determined individuals who worked alone or with others to get like-minded legislators elected, and they did so without compensation (despite Barney Frank's comment in a mailer sent on behalf of Carol Shea-Porter, wherein he referred to us as "Tea Partiers and their wealthy backers"). Its supporters also hope that somehow, America can return to her constitutional republican roots.

In August, thousands of liberty activists and a multitude of delegates will travel to Tampa  because they still believe in miracles. When the media tells you the Tea Party, a.k.a the "liberty movement" will have no presence in TAMPA, don't believe it. 

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“He never takes anything at face value; he can argue any side of a question. And sometimes you think he’s like really believing his argument, but he’s not.”

~ Ann Romney