Squashing dissent with slander and libel

In the past year, the nation has witnessed the unprecedented expansion of the size and scope of government. From failed bailouts, to boondoggle programs like “cash for clunkers,” to junk-science based cap and trade, to the wildly unpopular government takeover of the nation’s health care system, it is clear that the will and interest of the people are not the first concerns of those at the helm of our nation. In fact, they don’t seem to be the second, third, or fourth concerns. Might that be what the tea party movement is about?

Each and every one of these initiatives has been or promises to be proven a net negative for the country. What this congress and this administration have revealed is that the end-game to these and other policy initiatives isn’t the increased safety, health, and wealth of the many, but increased control for the few. But that couldn’t possibly be what the tea party movement is about. It is about melanin content, and the viewer and subscriber hemorrhaging media and poll plummeting politicians are sticking to their story.

Attempts to marginalize the tea party movement are really quite predictable. The rattling the collective cages of entrenched interest and nervous incumbents serves as vindication that the movement is having an impact. At the end of the day, most Americans realize this and see these attacks as desperate attempts to squash healthy voices of dissent.

I’d encourage Tea Partiers to keep in mind a quote attributed to Mohandas Gandhi, a fellow dissenting, non-violent voice: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

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.