2010 REDUX IN THE WORKS
Much as the news media would like to forget 2010, American conservatives know that individually and collectively we shook the very foundations of government two years ago. From the local level on up and with non-partisan ground troops armed with common sense policies, the fed up American taxpayer rose to the occasion and gave freedom itself a desperately needed boost. Now here we are in 2012. The tea party has grown up into a more substantive, better organized and more effective force for change. But the country is still slipping away from the vision of our Founders.
The secret to our success will be persistence – the type of relentlessness that we have seen from the left for years. There were folks who were part of the tea party movement in 2010 who wrongly believed that the work was done after new leadership was brought to the Congress or to statehouses. We all need to realize that this country’s problems weren’t created by one party or one administration. They weren’t the result of one bad policy, one corrupt official or even one generation of poor decision-making. The America that sees the majority of its citizens’ rights, hopes and dreams subservient to a protected class of incumbents and public union members, didn’t develop overnight. The America that buckles under the weight of massive debt, huge budget deficits and colossal bureaucracy has been created over decades of neglect.
Here’s the catch – the elected officials haven’t neglected the country. They may be bought and paid for in many cases, but it’s not their fault. Americans have neglected America. Maybe not you, or the folks in your organization, but clearly the American majority had been silent for too long. 2010 was a great awakening. What we need to do now is wake more people up.
What has been fascinating to watch over these last three years is just how much the tea party’s core values of less spending, lower taxes and limited government have shaped the American political discourse. It often doesn’t get the credit for doing it but it did. While the news media and liberal pundits would like to trumpet new programs and new spending, in a vain attempt to convince us that more government will save us, it has been the tea party that has made our national conversation about debt, deficits, and the impact those problems have on jobs.
2010 was a time of great exploration. Ordinary people did the extraordinary thing of blending old fashioned street theater politics, grassroots interaction and the new media to have a profound impact. 2012 is now a time to build on those skills.
We need to reenergize folks who were part of the fight in 2010 but perhaps were disillusioned by a perceived lack of progress on critical issues. We need to engage new citizen activists now to join not the tea party movement but a national, non-partisan effort to stand up for the American majority. All it takes is one person on your block, in your office, in your organization to start talking about how our freedom is dependent on us to limit the power of government. The more we let the government take from us, our families and our businesses, the less free we become – the less exceptional we are as a nation. It’s a simple message. It was the message of 2010. It will work again in 2012.
Keep America Free,
Ned Ryun
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