The Left Is Making a Mistake in Ridiculing the Tea Parties

The Left Is Making a Mistake in Ridiculing the Tea Parties

By Frank Salvato

(posted at the author's request)

 

The political Left in the United States is making a grave mistake in diminishing and dismissing the anger of the American people. Where it may be common place for liberals, Leftists, neo-Marxists and Progressive-Leftists to take to the streets over anything and everything, including a change of wind direction, it is entirely a different story with conservatives and Republicans. Conservatives and Republicans don’t march in the streets for anything. The fact that they have now taken to the streets in protest of massive government spending and government’s encroachment into our liberties speaks volumes to those who would listen.

 

“Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!”

An amazing thing happened on the way to America’s socialistic demise...a revolution has fomented. Born of a righteous anger centered on wasteful and special interest government spending, lack of honest representation in government, a move toward transforming the United States Constitutional Republic into a Socialist Democracy, excessive taxation and many more constitutionally based grievances, conservatives, traditionalists and Republicans, as well as centrists, independents and Democrats, took to the streets of just about every congressional district to protest a behemoth runaway government run by an elitist and opportunistic political class. From Chicago to New York, St. Louis to San Francisco, St. Paul to Austin and Miami to Portland, hard-working, taxpaying Americans, who aren’t too often moved to taking to the streets in protest, took to the streets to redress their government.

 

What makes this “protest” more important and more potent than any petition drive, any email, letter writing or phone campaign, is that it moved conservatives, traditionalists and Republicans to take to the streets, something that in most every instance and in every circumstance they are not wont to do. The question that is being asked now is this: Will this movement grow and gather strength enough to affect real, meaningful and constitutionally friendly “change” or will conservatives, traditionalists and Republicans fall prey to their traditional boogey-man, factionalism?

 

The Conservative Challenge

For decades– both in my political life and for as long as I have been writing and publishing – I have contended that conservatives and Republicans – the Right – aren’t cohesive. Since entering into the new media publishing and non-profit educational venues I have come to understand that they don’t financially support the organizations and publications that carry the water for them; who defend the traditionalist ideology from mainstream media and Leftist attacks. They employ ideological litmus tests for their prospective candidates instead of selecting candidates that would dedicate their public service to preserving their individual rights to pursue their special interests. And it is obvious to anyone but those walking around with eyes wide shut that it takes an act outrageous and egregious to motivate conservatives and Republicans to the streets in protest.

 

While this analysis may sound harsh (and with regard to the lack of financial support for those who carry the water for conservatism it is meant to be), for the most part there is an underlying philosophical reason for the differences between the pack mentality of the Left and the individualism of the Right. Where the Left leans more toward identifying our populace in the collective (what’s good for the country is good for the individual), the Right identifies our populace as individuals who, together, make up the whole (what is good for the individual is good for the country). This individualist philosophy lends itself to self-sufficiency and individual responsibility which leads to a community of people who believe that solutions come from individuals and not government. This, of course, leads to a civically responsible community.

 

A vulnerability that exists in extreme individualism is that it leads to a community of individuals who always want to be the leader. We’ve all heard the phrase, “Too many chiefs and not enough Indians.” When everyone believes that their way of achieving things is the best, factions develop that impede the whole of the community from being effective in achieving common goals.

 

A prime example of this can be found in the ideological litmus test for political candidates. Instead of supporting candidates that would fight to protect an individual’s right to pursue matters important to the individual, factions within the conservative community threaten to withhold support if their individual special interests, the subjects and issues most important to them, are not embraced by candidates. Using the individualist philosophy in political pursuits instead of measuring candidates on their dedication to preserving and defending the individuals’ rights to pursue their individual interests makes it next to impossible to not only come to a consensus on a candidate, but slate a candidate that can beat the Left’s cohesive, pack-mentality voting style.

 

Extreme individualism is also the main reason that the Right continually falls to the Left in establishing and funding political action and advocacy groups. It is the primary reason why, even though there are people on the right side of the ideological aisle who have even more money than neo-Marxist financier George Soros, there are no groups like MoveOn.org, America Coming Together, Media Matters, etc. Those ideological groups that do exist on the right side of the ideological aisle are almost always extremely limited in what they can do to combat the Leftists because they are so underfunded.

 

This is why the events of April 15th, 2009, are so incredible and important in and of themselves. It would seem that the acts outrageous and egregious have occurred at the hand of our government, so much so and for so long that – to borrow a line from a Bob Dylan song, “...the times, they are a changin’.”

 

The Beneficiaries of American Political Apathy

The American Fifth Column – an association of one-worlders, neo-Marxists, Progressive-Leftists, Communists, Socialists and anarchists, to name some of the more notable groups – has successfully intruded into our daily lives by implementing a shadow set of societal laws in “political correctness”; a shadow set of rules antithetical to the United States Constitution. This is true to such an extent that elected officials are basing the creation of legislation on these tenets, tenets directly taken from the Marxist-Leninist philosophy. From hate crime laws whose definitions are open to ideological interpretation to the mass redistribution of wealth currently being perpetrated upon the American people by the Obama Administration to the government funded indoctrination of our children into special interest ideology via the public schools system, the elements of our society that believe government is the answer have infiltrated every avenue of our lives and they have placed the importance of their ideology above even the proper execution of representative government.

 

But most disturbing is that the American Fifth Column has so successfully employed the tactics of Marxist “community organizer” Saul Alinsky  to achieve their goal – the radical transformation of America's social and economic structure – that they have taken control of the US government. Nancy Pelosi’s oligarchy in the US House of Representatives, combined with the almost filibuster-proof Democrat majority in the US Senate, place the Legislative Branch firmly in control of the neo-Marxist wing of the Democrat Party. President Obama – who has talked unabashedly about “economic justice” and the “arrogance” of the United States and who is a self-declared “community organizer” in the mold of the Alinsky model – has populated his administration with far-Left ideologues – many from the Clinton Administration – including many members of the biased and agendized mainstream media.

 

It can be successfully argued that the neo-Marxist Progressive-Left has become “the establishment” and traditionalist Americans – those who believe in the sanctity of the US Constitution, in freedom, liberty and personal and civic responsibility – have become the “counter-culture.”

 

Enter the tea parties...

 

Goebbels Would Be Proud
As real, hard-working Americans from all walks of life – rich, poor, religious, non-religious, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Independent, white, black, yellow, brown, male and female – took to the streets to send a message to their elected officials; those elected to office to represent the best interests of their constituencies, not their political parties, perhaps the most organized and vicious threat to our Constitutional Republic took to the airwaves to discredit, diminish and otherwise smear We the People: the mainstream media.

 

Make no mistake, while the neo-Marxists elected to office are a threat to our liberty and freedom, to our Constitutional Republic, they wouldn’t be able to come close to the success they have seen so far if it weren’t for the propagandists in the mainstream media. The mainstream media disingenuously and blatantly violated their constitutionally mandated responsibility to act as citizen’s advocate by championing the Obama campaign in the 2008 elections. By refusing to ask the tough questions and selectively airing favorable coverage of the Obama campaign, while criticizing the McCain campaign for even the most benign faux pas, they ensured a victory for Barack Obama thus violating the public trust. True journalism is dead in the mainstream media. It has been replaced by a propaganda dissemination mechanism that would have made Nazi propaganda chief Josef Goebbels envious. With regard to the tea parties two examples stand out...

 

Radio talk show host, Bill Press, on FOX News, April 14th, tried to float the idea that nefarious conservative organizations were behind the organizing of the nationwide tea party assemblage, saying he ”didn’t see anything genuine or see anything real” about the protests. He advanced a ridiculous theory that because advocate organizations and politicians decided to get on board with the public outrage that they somehow were pulling the strings of the total of protesters from coast-to-coast. Press may understand protests on the Left to be funded by nefarious political and ideological forces – George Soros, MoveOn.org, America Coming Together, Media Matters, the Communist and Socialist Parties, etc. – but conservatives and Republicans aren’t that adept at organizing “march-in-the-street” protests.

 

Another came from CNN’s Susan Roesgen who displayed a level of elitism in her interviewing of tea party protesters in Chicago heretofore unseen throughout the history of journalism. Roesgen questioned one protester whose frustration with Barack Obama’s totalitarian governmental style led him to equate it to the political stylings of a young, pre-holocaust Adolf Hitler. Forgetting that fascism exists on the left side of an accurate political spectrum, Roesgen chastised the protester for being “offensive.” One must question how offended she was when the same thing was happening to President George W. Bush. Then Roesgen, under the guise of asking a question, lectured and entered into debate with another protester before cutting him off and declaring that the entire protest was orchestrated by FOX News and was, in fact, “anti-government,” “anti-CNN” and “not family viewing.”

 

This blatant disregard for the public’s genuine anger lends credence to the argument that the mainstream media is not only in the tank for the Obama Administration, but that they have reached such a level of elitism, possessing such an agenda-driven arrogance, that they have literally become not only an enemy of the Charters of Freedom but an enemy of the people.

 

Overthrowing Men Who Pervert the Constitution

According to the recently released DHS threat assessment titled, Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic & Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization & Recruitment, my proclivity to actively defend the US Constitution, to actively question a reckless government that has strayed from the principles set forth by our Founders and Framers – principles born of Natural Law and Judeo-Christian values, principles that forged a Constitutional Republic, defines me as a threat to our nation. According to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano (please tell me again what her qualifications for this post are?) because I am angry about the government’s abdication of effective representative government I am a threat to the nation, along with US soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and each and every American who turned out for the tea parties across the nation. Both Napolitano and President Obama – for his silence on the matter – consider We the People “the enemy.”

 

As of this writing, there are 564 days until the 2010 midterm elections. The questions that remains are these:

 

▪ Will this truly patriotic movement continue to grow?

▪ Will those who took to the streets on April 15th, 2009, continue to do so until the totalitarian forces of the neo-Marxist Progressive-Left are vanquished once and for all?

 

▪ Or will conservative, traditionalists, Republicans, concerned centrists and honest Democrats look at their singular achievement and say job well-done as they retreat to the status quo?

 

To be sure, if the mid-term elections had been held on the day of the tea parties I truly believe most incumbents would have been ousted from office. The anger is that concentrated. But the past holds the truth of the future and it shows that – traditionally – conservatives are hard pressed to maintain cohesiveness over a prolonged period of time. Truthfully, I hope I am proven wrong on this point. The fact is, our nation’s future depends on me being wrong.

 

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is credited with having said, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." If the Left is smart – and that is truly being questioned by many Americans – they will form a new-found respect for the admiral’s words with regard to the events of April 15th, 2009.

 

If the Right is smart, and in their awakening it appears they are, they will realize this needs to be an ongoing effort, that there is hard work ahead, that everyone must act cohesively and that...

 ...the revolution starts now!

 “We, the people, are the rightful masters of both congress and the courts - not to overthrow the constitution, but to overthrow men who pervert the constitution.” -– Abraham Lincoln

 

Frank Salvato is the Executive Director and Director of Terrorism Research for BasicsProject.org a non-profit, non-partisan, 501(c)(3) research and education initiative. His writing has been recognized by the US House International Relations Committee and the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention. His organization, BasicsProject.org, partnered in producing the original national symposium series addressing the root causes of radical Islamist terrorism. He is a member of theInternational Analyst Network  He also serves as the managing editor for The New Media Journal. Mr. Salvato has appeared on The O'Reilly Factor on FOX News Channel, and is a regular guest on talk radio including on The Captain's America Radio Show airing on AM1220 WSRQ and on the Internet catering to the US Armed Forces around the world and on The Right Balance with Greg Allen syndicated nationally. His opinion-editorials have been published by The American Enterprise Institute, The Washington Times & Human Events and are syndicated nationally. He is occasionally quoted in The Federalist. Mr. Salvato is available for public speaking engagements.

He can be contacted at

newmediajournal@comcast.net.

 

Comments

[Truth-Pain]

This is one of the more salient and politico-organic pieces i've read in years. Well done, and my thanks for linking and posting it on you Blog.

There is something to be said for Nixon's "silent majority" comment. The silent majority, or those Americans of traditional ethos and values dont get riled for anything unless it is a deep fissure in their Patriotic pride. I am curious to see if this revolution call is a true Tsunami.... or just another drop in the water whose ripples die before having any effent whatsover.

[Katie]

This movement is not a Republican one, nor Democrat, nor Independent. It is not a white issue, nor a black one.

It is not a Christian one either.

It encompasses people from all walks of life. Rich and Poor. Black and White. Christian and non-Christian. Democrat, Republican and Independent.

I was at the Chicago Party, there were liberals who were angry at BO as well as Conservatives.

That is why the left is getting scared.

[Faultline USA]

Frank Salvato's article is superb and should be republished widely. He has so aptly described the conservative hyper-individualistic dilemma perfectly.

[Michael Travis]

If you like the article..please pass it on, and re-publish it!

Thanks,,Todah raba!

[Skunkfeathers]

The Left does think like Goebbels when it comes to propaganda, and tends to embrace his methodology. Yep, Hitler and Goebbels would be proud of the American Left today.

But like Hitler and Goebbels, they badly overplayed their hand. They had to be beaten down by a coalition they made aggressive war on; the American Left will be beaten down by making aggressive political war on conservatism, captialism and the freedoms they're trying to control in the Constitution.

[MK]

"Will this movement grow and gather strength enough to affect real, meaningful and constitutionally friendly “change”....."

I sure hope so, because whether we like it or no, the fate of the western world lies in those tea parties in American backyards.

Now that i think about this, it's almost laughable that it's come to this. An alien from some distant planet might rightly ask the rest of us, so you've tied yourselves and your existence, your very nations to whether one of your nations survives. Haven't you ever considered that America might one day stop protecting you or cannot actually protect you?

Well, no, not really.

[marianne]

I think protests by the Right will result in political oppression by the Left. Be careful in the days ahead, or you might end up imprisoned. The Left hates us, to the point of being willing to go to any extreme to remove us. I am still trying to establish a legitimate reason for 3 million FEMA coffins that have been made.