A civic reawakening: The Tea Party movement

Recently, Massachusetts, where I was born and raised, elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate, to a Kennedy’s seat no less, with the mandate to halt ObamaCare in its tracks. This reaffirmed not only the widespread appeal of the principles of the Tea Party movement, but the fact that the movement can and will move beyond a state of rallying and be a very real, very potent political force as we enter the 2010 election cycle.

Today our president, so sure just one year ago that he would usher in an audacious agenda with ease, is now proclaiming his preference for serving one good term versus sitting for two lackluster two terms. As Charles Krauthammer brilliantly pointed out, President Obama forgot to mention the third option: a lackluster one-term presidency. With approval numbers dipping lower and lower each week, he just might get it.

Let us not forget that the genesis of this counterrevolution was against the backdrop of a nation facing the stark reality that personalities and labels cannot and should not be trusted as sturdy vessels of a coherent political philosophy. Hope and change, for example, mean nothing without tangible policy solutions behind them—results behind the rhetoric. Similarly, Republicanism is not necessarily synonymous with a deep conviction in limited government and fiscal responsibility. I would encourage my fellow Tea Partiers and political observers alike to keep in mind that the label “tea party” is not what is important. It is not an end in and of itself. It’s the principles, stupid: limited government, free markets, and fiscal responsibility. Thankfully, more and more people are espousing said principles and attempting to advance and defend them in the political process.

John M. O’Hara is author of A New American Tea Party, a book chronicling the history and principles of the tea party movement.  He is assistant director of communications at The Heartland Institute, a national free-market think tank based in Chicago, Ill.