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SyndicateThe Tea Party Goes Docile
By Robert Ringer - Tuesday, April 20, 2010
By Robert Ringer
On April 15, I attended my third tea-party rally, this one at the Washington Monument. While I applaud those who put in the time and effort to organize the event, as well as those who took the time to participate, I was a bit disappointed.
First, I was hopeful that an overwhelmingly large crowd would turn out, given the significance of the date. It didn’t happen. It looked to me to be about 10,000 people, which must have warmed the hearts of the Obama-loving left that so desperately wants to believe that voter anger will fade away by November.
Second, unlike the previous two tea-party rallies at the Capitol Building, the atmosphere was more like a social gathering than a serious protest. In fact, because of the lack of excitement and intensity, I left in less than an hour.
My feelings were confirmed by a column in The Wall Street Journal, which said that “The Thursday night crowd was more subdued than tea party activists at town hall meetings last summer; they waved more flags and displayed fewer angry posters.” Sounds good for the progressives who now rule the country, but bad for American serfs.
I go to these tea-party rallies with two objectives in mind. First, I want to get a grasp of the overall mood of the event. Second, I closely study as many people as possible, observing their approximate age, dress, demeanor, body language, and anything else about them that is noteworthy.
I would use the word docile to describe the overall mood at the April 15 event as compared to previous rallies. I got the uncomfortable feeling that the tea-party people might be consciously – or perhaps unconsciously – toning down their anger because they’re feeling intimidated by the wild accusations of the ruling oligarchy in D.C., the government-manipulated media, and true-believing citizens who yearn to live in a socialist utopia.
While observing the lack of enthusiasm I had seen in previous rallies, the dreaded phrase “compassionate conservatism” came to mind. Yes, I’m talking about the “I’m really a nice guy at heart” mantra that brought George Bush from wildly high popularity numbers to being the most unpopular president of our time.
Worse, compassionate conservatism – which implies, wrongly, that true conservatism is not compassionate – has virtually destroyed the Republican Party. After ultra-progressive John McMush was upstaged by a wet-behind-the-ears socialist community organizer, it didn’t take progressives like Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Lindsey Graham, and Orrin Hatch long to get right back in the heat of things, trying to convince people that they can be just as compassionate as their comrades in arms on the other side of the aisle.
Forget the fact that the Democrats learned nothing from the recent election results in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. What’s worse is that Republicans seem to have learned nothing from those results. Whether it’s a result of ignorance or cowardice is subject to debate – or perhaps it’s simply a matter of insanity.
The reach-across-the-aisle stuff has worked out really well for Charlie Crist, hasn’t it? After all, any compassionate conservative worth his salt knows that you have a moral obligation to support an $800 billion dollar transfer-of-wealth program (commonly referred to as a “stimulus package”) and top it off with a romantic hugfest with the Obamessiah himself.
Crist expected a big payoff for his dumber-than-dumb strategy of showing how willing he was to “work” with liberal Democrats. And he got it – a fifty-three point swing, from thirty points ahead of once unknown Marco Rubio to twenty-three points behind! Of course, opportunists Huckabee and Romney have both jumped on the Rubio bandwagon now that the outcome is predictable, but have they learned anything? Let me take a wild guess: No!
The tea-party people must not make the same mistake as the Republican Party and allow themselves to be intimidated by the lies and baseless innuendos of the White House and its media outlets – ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, CNBC, The New York Times, etc.
But it’s not just the over-the-top stuff like the lies and idiotic distortions about the tea-party movement that America’s premiere socialist organ, Newsweek, recently printed. Now, even Fox News has joined in the ruse. Last Saturday Geraldo did a segment that was outrageous even for him, pondering aloud whether the tea-party movement is awash in racism, hate speech, and dangerous paramilitary groups. He then interviewed Tea Party Express Chairman Mark Williams, and began by asking:
”Is there, or should there be, anxiety in the tea parties about extremists?” He went on to say that “There are some anecdotal stories like in the big Washington rally how some militia dressed guys were walking around armed, looking for liberals. There are some in the extreme right – some of these patriot party [sic] – that are claiming to have affiliations with the tea party. Do you fear that they will sully an otherwise legitimate grass-roots movement and paint you, at least in the mainstream media, so-called, as something other than what you are?”
I was super impressed to hear Williams respond quickly and boldly with, “Well, as long as you keep helping them with hit pieces like the one you just ran. The tea-party movement is a political movement based on the Constitution.” With eloquent clarity, he went on to explain what the tea-party rallies were all about, while Geraldo was more interested in focusing on why Williams was “personally attacking” him – as though he had never mentioned the name Timothy McVeigh or the words “right-wing extremists” in connection with the tea parties.
Let me help you out a bit Geraldo: After three tea-parties, where I spent a majority of my time closely observing the people in attendance, I can once again say, unequivocally, that I have never seen the slightest hint of violence or hateful speech. (BTW, referring to BHO as a socialist – which is simply stating a truth based on incontrovertible evidence – is not hate speech.)
I repeat what I said earlier: If anything, I believe the tea-party rally on tax day was far too docile. It once again demonstrated just how intimidating the far left can be. Not only intimidating, but clever.
How so? The BHO oligarchy has managed to change the Big Question from “Is Obama a socialist?” to “Is the tea-party movement dangerously immersed in racism, hate speech, and violence-prone affiliations with paramilitary groups?” Never sell the Saul Alinsky crowd short when it comes to turning every negative around and pointing it in the direction of its accusers.
I honestly believe that Der Fuhrbama believes his verbal skills are so powerful that he can embarrass the tea-party people into submission. He may be a lightweight in most respects, but he’s a lightweight with an abundance of (over)confidence. The tea-party people had better take a page from Rules from Radicals and press down twice as hard on the accelerator, lest they lose their momentum long before November 2.
Docile simply doesn’t cut it. Just ask the compassionate conservatives who are now in the process of going down in flames.
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ROBERT RINGER is a New York Times #1 bestselling author and host of the highly acclaimed Liberty Education Interview Series, which features interviews with top political, economic, and social leaders. He has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, The Tonight Show, Today, The Dennis Miller Show, Good Morning America, The Lars Larson Show, ABC Nightline, and The Charlie Rose Show, and has been the subject of feature articles in such major publications as Time, People, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Barron's, and The New York Times.
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11 Responses to “The Tea Party Goes Docile”
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It’s pretty much as I’ve suspected for a long time. The Democratic and Republican parties have both been thoroughly infiltrated by Progressives and it is they, not the average American who controls the levers of power in the parties. Relying on the Republicans to “learn” from the tea party lessons is like expecting Obama to wake up tomorrow and change his Communist ways. It’ll never happen.
Whatever happens later this year and in 2012, it will most likely be more of the same. Bush or Obama, take your pick. I’d suggest to your readers that they read up on the history of the Weimar Republic in its last days. The parallels between what that government did and what ours is doing is eerily similar. We can expect to go down the same road, the time to prepare is now.
I suspect that the 2014 midterms and, especially, the 2016 elections will be rather interesting. People will now have had before them successive Republican and Democratic “leaders” in charge and there will be irrefutable proof that both parties are corrupt and Progressive leaning.
The only difference between then and now is that people will be in much more pain and things will be much further along towards collapse. Which seems to be the way of the world. If you don’t learn your lesson, you’re going to get burned.
Robert, I couldn’t have said it better myself. The problem as I see it is the lack of a direct cause. The anger and passion you observed as past rallies was probably due to the socialized health care in the offing. The Tea Party people had something immediate and direct to focus on. At the moment there are some other big things Chairman MaObama wants to do, but it appears he isn’t pushing them hard at the moment, i.e. Cap and Tax and Amnesty for illegals among many. Maybe I am wrong, but I believe Chairman MaObama is laying low hoping that if he doesn’t push anything big between now and November that the passion and anger will drain away. Combine that with his cronies relentless attacks on the movement itself and he has a recipe for dismantling the group and minimizing his damage in November.
If he is successful and his damage doesn’t turn out to be as catastrophic as some are predicting and he has another 2 years to inflict unbridled tyranny and socialism he will push the rest of his big agenda through. We must stop him. The very fabric of our country depends on it.
You are 100% correct, we need to ignore the morons in the media calling us racists and hate mongers and keep focusing, organizing, informing, and ultimately crushing his socialist ambitions once and for all in November.
I enjoy your thoughts and have been a fan of yours since 1974 when I read ‘Winning Through Intimidation.’
My opinion of the Tea Party is that we NEED to take the battle right to the enemy…the BHO administration. I believe that “The Best Defense is a Good Offense” and we must alert the electorate as to who these people are.
Without a doubt, they are Un-Americans and hate Liberty. They must control everything and everybody that stands in their way.
The ‘Drive By Media’ must hear the people say that they are supporting a ‘Regime’ that is Stealing from it’s neighbors. Too many examples to give but Ronald Reagan said that “Taxation is Theft” and this is what has been going on when the Healthcare Bill was passed.
#1. BHO stole over $300 million of our money to buy the vote of Sen. Ben Nelson
#2. BHO stole over $200 million to buy the vote of Sen Landreu of Louisiana.
I could go on and on…
You get the idea.. BHO is a thief, plain and simple not to mention that he has spent #900,000.+ to keep his records from being seen by the public.
Keep up the good work;
Mike Iamaio
Although I planned to attend one of the local Tea Party events on April 15, I had a gut feeling not to go. When I got home (after a 12 hour shift), I read about the unprovoked attacks at the SRLC in LA. Seems like a good time to keep your head down and your powder dry.
Personally, my energy is better spent supporting with dollars quality Conservative candidates around the country. I have never given money to a Congressional candidate until this year.
I have also become a supporter of the Heritage Foundation and urged my friends and family to do the same.
I also designed a tee shirt which I wore for the first time in public yesterday. It was interesting to watch the faces of those who read these words on my shirt (which appear above a photo of the Statue of Liberty):
“Tea Party Patriots Don’t Wear Masks
Proudly Standing Up For Liberty”
Most people who read it smiled! Only one person reacted with a look of suspicion. In return I smiled at her.
I have a problem with semantics and am not much of a fan of dichotomies in general.
Three labels that come to mind are applied to one group: Liberals, Left and Progressive. These people gain support by claiming to care for what some might call ‘the little guy,’ and offering to take care of people’s needs.
Two labels another group have are Conservatives and the Right. I suppose that ‘conservative’ and ‘progressive’ might seem like terms that are the obverse and reverse of a terminological coin. The so-called ‘conservative’ group is painted as not caring for ‘the little guy’ and favoring ‘greedy corporations.’
Little attention is paid to the truth of actions (which is one reason I enjoy this blog; The Tortoise opened my eyes to Reality back when he wrote ‘Winning’) of these groups aka parties. The conservative group seems to have more of the interests of everyone, both big and little by offering them an environment in which they can flourish.
I think this group needs to make a more obvious statement about how they also support the little guy by giving him/her the opportunity to better themselves. Perhaps hire Bono and U2 to do a little song and dance. Sorry, I’m getting off point here.
Mr. Ringer put it succinctly when he stated in ‘Winning’ that “reality isn’t the way you wish things to be, nor the way they appear to be, but the way they actually are.” Putting the truth out there is requisite to knowing what’s going on. More people need to learn to provide source material for what they say with something that backs it up, or the lie-mongers will just tear it apart with inflammatory bovine excrement.
I hope we’re not too late. I apologize for rambling.
Learn. Educate. Communicate. Vote.
Robert,
As I’ve become older and hopefully wiser from experience, I’ve been very hesitant to align myself with any specific group due to the fact that I’ve become suspicious and skeptical of most political groups having the strength and integrity to adhere to a declared set of standards. I feel the same way about the Tea Party.
Obviously from recent polls, there is quite a bit of distrust for government among the American people.
The Tea Party to become a “force to be reckoned with” and to be taken seriously by more people has to declare a common set of principles and standards on which any sincere believer in the party can fall behind and be proud of.
So far, what I’ve been able to read on the official Tea Party site and by speakers claiming to represent Tea Party ethics, morals, principles, and standards have not codified or made clear EXACTLY what the Tea Party stands for? There are vast generalizations but I believe that someone needs to state clearly and without equivocation what the goals and principles of the Tea Party actually are?
This way, those people who are trying to claim that they are followers of the Tea Party and yet who exhibit beliefs and behavior that are not in accordance with the political and ethical beliefs of the actual Tea Party, can be identified and then publicly distanced from soiling and corrupting the image of the Tea Party and then the desire for other respectful and sincere believers in The Constitution and freedom to join behind the Tea Party banner.
Would like to direct your attention to the words “intimidate” and “clever”. They are properly used when it comes to the Progressives. Unfortunately the Republicrats are not and never have been as “clever” (i.e. subtil) as their opponents. Plus, due to their (collective) low self-esteem, the Republicrats absolutely covet the approval of their opponents (how dumb is that?). Therefore, they are not and never will act intimidating, because they just want to “get along” (i.e. compromise)–like milktoast McCain. The point is this: when you are in a pissing contest with a skunk–and that’s exactly what politics is–an extremely filthy business, you don’t reach out to your opponent–you piss back at them twice as hard! In other words, short of violence, you use every tool in your arsenal to basically annihilate them. Of course the argument against that is always not wanting to stoop down to your opponent’s level, etc., but the fact of life is, in politics and elsewhere: you have to fight fire with fire. The Republicrats do not have the spine to do that, and why should they? They are only looking out for themselves anyway. Re-election is really ALL they care asbout. Wake up people! It’s a losing proposition. Politics is NOT the answer, especially with the crappy, corrupt, and controlling two-party system that plagues our land.
We Need concrete ideas to take this fight to them.
We NEED a leader.
We need somebody to LEAD. We can talk and talk but without a leader it is not going to happen!
Sorry
Leslie
The Tea Parties give fresh meaning to the term docile. Docile is the parties defining characteristic.
Tea Party organizers are rank amateurs when it comes to non-violent/ minimally violent protesting. By comparative example, The Red Shirts in Thailand have done everything right. They camped out on the banking and commercial nerve center of Thailand’s most important city, Bangkok, they opened and
established their own T.V. station to ensure that their message and point of view were getting out to the general public, and they stormed the Parliament forcing government leaders to flee. They
even held a blood drive and collected buckets of blood which was poured out at key locations around the city as a means of drawing attention to their cause. They formed a mile long line of protesters
and marched through the city of Bangkok, shutting it down. Now contrast that with the milquetoast Tea Parties. It’s laughable, really. Of course I don’t agree with the political ideology of the Red Shirts, but I sure do admire their courage, resolve, and strategy. It blows away anything seen in America since the 1960′s.
Here’s the bottom line: The pain level that the average American feels in his or her daily life has not yet reached the tipping point that forces action. American protesters are still inchoate, so don’t expect any ebullient resistance from the laughable Tea Party Movement any time soon.
It seems like if that is the case, the Tea Party movement is trying to fight be using the Maquis of Queensbury Rules while the left uses Vietcong tactics. That will not work. Someone pointed out the Redshirts in Thailand did it right. So do many protesters in Europe do it right, maybe not for the right things at times, but they do get the message across. IIRC, in France, when farmers protested, they drove their tractors to Paris on the highways gumming up traffic and another time, their truckers did the same thing.
Although we are all individuals, we do need some leadership for the Tea Party, I’d like to see someone like Glenn Beck step up or whomever can do the job. Although Mr. Ringer points out in “Looking Out for #1″ that many crusades waste time, this one is different since it is for our freedoms. Unlike most crusades, I’d like to see this one win so we can disband it (or at least put it in “sleep mode”) because I just want to enjoy life without a lot of forceable interference from the government.
I personally joined my local Tea Party in the hopes that all my involvement with the political realm would vastly improve. I had high hopes that the Tea Party, and the momentum that I sensed, would be able to shake my fellow Americans right out of their collective seats. It seemed to work for a short time and then it sizzled.
I have been trying to rally folks out of their seats for years now. It just seems to me that not enough Americans are willing to get out there and let their voices be heard; and heard loud and clear.
Too many, in my experience, are willing to sit back, click the remote, and let “someone” else do it.
Honestly, I just don’t know what it will take to get Americans up – and keep them up. I don’t understand how so many Americans have no clue about what is happening to our country; no clue about what’s going on in Washington; no clue about our rights and our very own Constitution’s possible demise, if some have their way.
We are still a very young nation. We have much growing up to do. But we cannot afford to allow what is taking place, to strip away all the battles that have already been won; and won with the blood of so many who refused to sit back and allow others to fight the fight.
I’m saddened by what I see.
I’m disappointed.
At times, I get so upset I just scream, “can’t they see what’s going on right in front of them? why don’t they care?”
What can I do alone? What can I do with one hundred American citizens standing beside me? I want to see millions with me; shoulder to shoulder.
Stand up! Wake up! Stop the madness!
The Tea Party is just not strong enough to result in any real action nationwide – not yet, anyway. Perhaps in time. I thought they could, but after seeing the small turnout, I’m just not sure anymore.
Disappointed in Jersey
D. Reaves