The new era of citizen-empowered politics, where personal investment and political energy is created upon “principle,” means Senator Lindsay Graham (SC) has already lost his re-election bid of 2014; he just doesn’t know it yet.
RINO dinosaurs like Graham, cannot grasp how and why the conservative power has shifted from organized Republican Party direction to Tea Party. He is sure of his sound-bite importance however, as he offers this un-educated view on the Tea Party movement to the online liberal Huffington Post:
In a previous conversation, Graham told me: “The problem with the Tea Party, I think it’s just unsustainable because they can never come up with a coherent vision for governing the country. It will die out.” Now he said, in a tone of casual lament: “We don’t have a lot of Reagan-type leaders in our party. Remember Ronald Reagan Democrats? I want a Republican that can attract Democrats.” Chortling, he added, “Ronald Reagan would have a hard time getting elected as a Republican today.”
Why Graham is wrong:
His “unsustainable Tea Party” is “our growing American patriot movement.”
(1) As a movement heavily invested in by its following with substance, meaning, and emotion (patriotism, anger, frustration) no political party can claim having offered, the people are more patriotically motivated than politically.
2) It is about two things the people are loyal to first: fiscal responsibility and the Constitution. Both are anything but whimsical ideological debates— like so many which blow with the prevailing political breeze—to the people of the Tea Party.
3) It is “funded” through direct investment in each member’s activities by that member. In business we call the position “asset rich” with “zero liabilities.” Farewell RNC and DNC. We invest direct nowadays.
(4) Grassroots led, the people know this: election outcomes are ballot box dynamics and the people control the ballot.
(5) Sustainability as defined by Graham means within a “party” structure. The Tea Party movement is by nature independent in order to force politicians to be on guard.
No Coherent Vision:
Tell that to millions of Americans who are now studying political principles, procedures, and government like never before and are arguing for: (1) More adherence to the US Constitution (2) Reagan Conservatism (3) Constant direct activism via hundreds of national and local organizations offering energetic leadership (4) in defeating the old and electing the new class of politicians with platforms, quantifiable goals, plans, and governing principles they can believe in.
To Mr. Graham and 99 other US Senators:
We want a Republican “like Ronald Reagan” who can attract Democrats; yes. But not “Reagan-style” to your brand of watered down moderate/liberal views destructive of traditional American values; values the world has come to look to for hope for 200 years.
We want Reagan-style leadership of fiscal sanity, moral responsibility, abundance through creative and productive enterprise, and the dream of American-style freedom projected at home and abroad. We want Democrats to abandon the platform of death to innocent beating hearts, socialism that destroys and devalues, and yes— join us, Mr. Graham—the new American Tea Party.
Political parties are not in charge of the “vision” anymore, Mr. Graham. Keep your tarnished GOP and jackass led Democrat Party.
Our coherence is found in common beliefs. Much like the Christian faith with a thousand sects, Tea Party voices find the common ground of traditional values to bring unity and activism into focus. Though it defies your logic, it energizes ours.
Upon principles the Tea Party non-elite will find sustaining and coherent strength all the way to the ballot box in 2010, 2012 and 2014.
You may want to line up that lobbying or corporate advisor job now Mr. Graham. You’ve lost the 2014 election but just don’t know it yet.
James Michael Pratt is a New York Times bestselling novelist and non-fiction author of nine works, Op Ed writer for The Daily Caller, CEO of PowerThink Publishing, public speaker, and Founder of Reagan Revolution 2. Email: james@powerthink.com.