14. April 2009 by admin.

An Explanation for Tea Parties Today (April 15, 2009)
and Similarities Between the Original Party

In 1773 British parliament passed the infamous Tea Act that led to the Boston Tea Party. We all know that law levied a tax on tea for the American colonies, but you may not realize the law lowered the tax rate and made British tea less expensive. Part of the legislation granted a monopoly to the financially troubled East India Company. Britain was trying to bailout the near bankrupt East India Company, which was sitting on stockpiles of tea it could not sell. This monopoly would eliminate all private tea merchants and outlaw all other sources of tea.

American colonialists were rightfully angered for two reasons. First, colonial merchants’ livelihood was being taken away by the government and given to a failing corporation. If the government could do this with tea, it could do this with anything. Second, colonialists recognized the British government’s ploy to trick colonists into accepting and acknowledging parliament’s right to levy taxes on the colonies. Britain thought the colonies would pay the tax as long as the tea was cheap. We all know Americans would not take taxes without representation.

When the East India Company sent tea to America under the new law, ships were turned away in Philadelphia and New York. In Charleston tea made it off the ships, but was locked up in a warehouse only to be sold years later by Americans to fund the revolution. On the night of December 16, 1773, Boston threw their illustrious tea party. So here we stand over two-hundred thirty-five years later in the United States of America.

Why are we here?

Our Founding Fathers wanted a limited centralized federal government. Our founders did limit centralized government. They recognized an important truth that those of us gathered for our tea party recognize today: government can only control the economy by controlling people. When British parliament attempted to bailout the failing East India Company, our founders recognized the attempted theft of economic freedom. They opposed it vehemently.

Government has no business in business. Liberty to practice freedom in the marketplace is an inalienable right outlined in the Declaration of Independence and protected in our Constitution. When our government confiscates large amounts of private wealth and enters the marketplace, it has far exceeded the power bestowed by the people. It has gone far beyond the framework of the Constitution. And those acting in the government’s name have violated their oath and pledge to all Americans.

Indebtedness welcomes our progeny into America. They are beholden to government for a tremendous financial obligation. Every dollar government spent from our children’s piggy banks is one less dollar our children can spend, one less dollar of economic freedom. Government has already deprived our children thousands of dollars of freedom. The government has no permission to spend our unborn children’s money.

The federal government must return power to the people. It has grown far beyond the control of the governed. The union of states constituted the federal government. We cannot permit the federal government to coerce states’ actions through conditional federal payments from locally collected taxes. We must stop the federal bureaucrats from telling the states how to spend their money, our money. We cannot permit centralized power in a federal government lacking authority.

Americans deserve better. For decades our political parties have traded policies of “tax and spend” for “borrow and spend” between one another. Each policy serves the same purpose: expand the power of centralized federal government at the cost of individual freedom. Rarely do they relinquish the powers usurped.

Now in economically troubled times both the current administration like the last fumbles from one crisis to the next. Our woes began with a sub-prime mortgage crisis that grew into a liquidity crisis and a banking crisis then an auto crisis. With each new crisis came a larger power grab in the form of tax-payer funded bailout, which has perpetuated the underlying problems. With each new failing corporation the federal government tries to avert failure by giving out our money, the money we were not willing to surrender by choice to failing endeavors.

America needs good leaders now more than ever. We can no longer accept mediocre leadership that has resulted in the theft of our money. Government has failed us for far too long, at all levels, federal, state and local, running up colossal debt. Now as many large corporations fail wiping out our retirement savings, our government leaders move to protect and preserve them at our expense. To those government leaders I say this, “Let the failures fail.” We must wash away those failures and remove those responsible from their leadership positions. There are good leaders throughout America. We must recognize them and elevate them. We must elect good leaders to the boards of our companies and governments.

One person will not be America’s savior. Everyone must play a role. We must be weary when one person promises to solve all the nation’s problems. We hoped for change and received more of the same. Our problems are systemic of a distant centralized government that believes it can better manage our lives than we are capable. What is best for an elitist distant politician is not best for all Americans.

Our Founding Fathers created America with a limited centralized federal government. Federal government will be limited. Government shall not decide what companies will be subsidized out of failure with tax dollars. Our progeny will be afforded representation before they are taxed any more. America deserves good leaders. Government shall not decide who will run private businesses. Whether in business or government, we will replace ineffective leaders set on a path of failure. As the Boston Tea Party ignited cries against “taxation without representation”, today our tea party puts bureaucrats on notice. We will not tolerate government depriving citizens of their livelihood to save a failing corporation. We will not tolerate taxation without representation.

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8. March 2009 by ReaganBrat.

The Reagan Era?

Is the Ronald Wilson Reagan Era concluded?

The question is not so simple. From one perspective the era is indeed over. One may deem the closure as the end of his political life or the passing from our world. Nevertheless, from that standpoint the Reagan Era has ended.

The complexity lies in the broader concept of the Reagan Era. The passing of an individual does not always dictate the end of an era. People with the impact and influence on a society, on the global level to garner an “Era” for their movement, will create change long after they are gone through the movement that remains.

There are two presidents who often rank tops with Ronald Reagan. They both serve as examples via comparison to determine whether an era has ended.

First, President Abraham Lincoln, who’s life abruptly ended. Lincoln’s movement to reunite this nation void of the inhumane enslavement of others continued years after he left our world. Post-Civil War Reconstruction continued for years. Republicans continued his cause. Former slaves made great strides serving as US Senators. However, Lincoln’s successor did not share his views. Upon Lincoln’s assassination the new President Johnson and Democrat Party opposed Lincoln’s pro-freedom Post-Civil War Reconstruction. We forget the tumultuous setbacks after Lincoln’s death. His political opponents never garnered the strength to reinstitute slavery. Unfortunately, those who supported slavery eventually instituted a segregated society often by capturing state governments through force. Lincoln’s cause struggled for a leader capable of filing his shoes. Most consider President Lincoln’s era abruptly ended on April 14, 1865, with his assassination. Though Lincoln’s dreams were not fully realized on his watch, his movement did long endure.

A second example is that of our Founding Father’s Era. George Washington remains the ultimate American: General, President, and Founding Father. We don’t deem this George Washington’s Era. Why? The era spans many decades and individuals. Though aren’t Washington’s years really most important? Of the Founding Fathers we also remember Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Franklin, Henry, Paine, and others from the time of revolution through the first few presidents. We remember the revolution and countless precedents Washington set serving two terms. Yet we often forget those years between when Washington went home after the war. The first attempt at American government failed miserably with the Articles of Confederation. Washington’s return of 8 years instilled stability and integrity in a government to last over 200 years. For one and a half centuries no one dared challenge his two term precedent. Washington’s influence and that of our Founding Fathers survives today.

The reason we struggle with the Reagan Era is twofold.
First, no successor has successfully filled Reagan’s role.
Second, we have identified the Era as Reagan’s.

To the question whether the Reagan Era has ended is both complicated and simplified by these problems.

First, since no one successfully filled Reagan’s shoes, it is difficult to believe the era continues. As with Lincoln and Washington you cannot fill their shoes so easily. You cannot duplicate an individual. Washington did not define the movement; he was simply its best leader. However, there were other leaders, other Founding Fathers. After Washington’s departure others continued the cause: Adams, Jefferson, etc. Lincoln’s story is much different. He successfully ended slavery and kept our states united. Lincoln was murdered for his movement. President Johnson opposed Lincoln’s vision of equality. In fact he wrote to Missouri Governor Fletcher, “This is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I am President, it shall be a government for white men.” The pro-slavery Democrats were eventually able to hostilely regain control in southern states and institute an economic and new societal form of slavery, which still resides subversively in Democrat party policies. Though no one filled Reagan’s shoes, his passing was not as abrupt as Lincoln’s. He faded from the national spotlight like Washington.

Second, identifying an era for one individual can obscure the underlying movement. George Washington didn’t offer an idea or vision that was his alone. It was a shared vision established by a group of brilliant individuals. The challenge is whether another can pick up the cause after the main leader steps aside. Plus the underlying cause must always be the focus. Adams proved able to continue the cause after Washington. Lincoln’s successor, President Johnson, did not share Lincoln’s vision. Reagan’s Revolution was the conservative movement. He was not the sole individual behind it, but he was the messenger. As “The Great Communicator” Reagan spread the message with an appearance of ease. Reagan’s passing was certainly a relative, momentary blow to the cause. But what is the cause?

The Reagan Revolution was a resurgence of the ideals of our Founding Fathers: modern conservatism.

This leaves us with an answer.
The era of Ronald Reagan is over. It will never be lost. It will never be forgotten. Ronald Reagan rose to the level of a Founding Father. He fully embraced their ideals and continued in action as the Founding Fathers. We came to know this era as the Reagan Revolution. But are they one in the same? Unequivocally, no.

Reagan’s conservatism and his message grew far beyond his own mortality. We embraced it as the Reagan Revolution. The title was intended as honorary for this brave leader. It was never intended a limiter. In Reagan’s farewell address he acknowledged that he and his supporters set out to improve our country and ended up changing the world. He encouraged us to continue the cause. He is right.

George Washington’s rebellion never ended. It evolved into something more powerful than the Founding Fathers could ever have foreseen. An era called the American Revolution evolved into the greatest force this world has seen. Transition is difficult. As the colonies moved to establish government at the end of the war, they floundered. The first attempt at American government was a failure. Lincoln again took up the cause and paid with his life. His passing was a major setback, but America moved forward. Ronald Reagan continued the fight our Founding Fathers began.

The era of Ronald Reagan fades more with each passing day. But we must never forget the Reagan Revolution ended in victory. More importantly we must not forget that the Reagan Revolution was a small piece in a much larger effort. The struggle of our Founding Fathers is now encompassed in the conservative movement.

We recognize and refuse to let go of the greatness of Ronald Reagan, and rightfully so, because he communicated the ideals of America better than any others in over a century.

We have graduated from the Reagan Revolution.

Now is time “to begin the world over again.”

Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You will have opportunities beyond anything we’ve ever known.

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