OT: Original Tea Partier

Over at Doug Ross I saw this term used, and I wanted to elaborate a little bit further on it for the benefit of those who read my blog. There is a war going on in the Republican Party right now, as this is still the nominating and convention season, between those people who call themselves "Tea Party people" and those who refer to themselves as 'the establishment.'

But there is an important fact that is being ignored in this war- many of the people who have been in the GOP for years and who are now 'part of the establishment' are in fact and have been Tea Party people for many years.

The Tea Party movement, according to wikipedia, is an American socio-political movement that emerged in 2009 through a series of locally and nationally coordinated protests. The protests were partially in response to several Federal laws: the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (the Bailout), the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the Stimulus or Porkulus Bill), and a series of health care reform bills (Obamacare). The Gadsden Flag has become an adopted symbol of the American Tea Party movement. Tea Party people have been shown to care about the constitution, want to stop cap-and-tax, want a balanced budget, want a simplified tax system, limit spending, reduce taxes, and increase transparency in government.

Tea Party people wear as a badge of pride that they are new to the political process and are proud of their ignorance of the rules and players in their local/county/state/national Republican parties. As an OT, I'm glad to see so many of my fellow brothers and sisters finally participating in the political process, but on the other hand I don't view their newness and ignorance as something to be proud of. They sat around and weren't Tea Partying for many years while me and many other OT's were. While they complained to their friends or silently stewed in anger over the political system, me and other OT's were busy getting involved, volunteering, learning the rules of the game, meeting the local partisan players, and becoming 'the establishment'. This is not meant to be criticism of those first-time Tea Party citizens who are now involved in the political process- rather, my intent is to educate those people and make them more aware that when they attack the Republican party establishment, they have to be careful, because the Republican party establishment has been infiltrated for years by Original Tea Parties.

For years, many of us OT's fought for the same principles and for the same agenda that the Tea Party is just now starting to fight for. I'm glad to welcome them to the fray, I only hope that when they enter they don't take people like me, Ron Paul, Rocky, Rush, and many others.