Conservative Wanderer

“A troubled and afflicted mankind looks to us, pleading for us to keep our rendezvous with destiny; that we will uphold the principles of self-reliance, self-discipline, morality, and, above all, responsible liberty for every individual that we will become that shining city on a hill.” — Ronald Wilson Reagan

The Day After The Tea Parties: Now What?

Jim Geraghty has an idea about how all the fired-up people who went to the Tea Parties can follow through:

If 100-1,000 people show up at a rally, the event may or may not get media coverage, and that coverage may or may not be snarky or dismissive. Congressmen may or may not notice, and the President’s spokesman will announce he’s not aware of them.

But if 100-1,000 people show up at a town council, city council, etc. meeting, in most places, that’s an earthquake. It varies widely, but most local government budget meetings are sleepy affairs, and many local lawmakers are used to settling their spending with minimal scrutiny. They’ve never seen anything like several hundred people showing up with the same message of “don’t waste my money.”

In other words, if conservatives want to make sure stimulus funds don’t get spent on crap, applying pressure at the local level is a way to leverage the tea party energy into something with real impact on the ground. Who knows? It might even get some conservatives involved in government on a more regular basis. Back in 1996, an obscure Chicago lawyer and law school lecturer was motivated to get involved in state legislature, and within a decade, he was running for president.

Indeed. There are few things more grassroots than your own city council meeting, and I am sure that nearly everyone that’s able to read this on the web can use the same web to find out when the next meeting is, or at least use it to find the phone number to call to find out.

Tea Partiers can also get involved in the Republican Party at the grassroots level. So get in touch with your county, district, or even state Republican Party, and start putting your principles into action to change the parts of the party you don’t like.

So get out there and make your voices heard again, and again, and again!

Category: Domestic Policy, Economy, Society
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  • http://conservativewanderer.wordpress.com/ PhyCon

    And this is exactly how a viable 3rd party starts. As long as the momentum from the TEA Party movement is carried forward AND the two major parties continue to ‘miss the boat’ then that will only give more steam for the formation.

  • invisiblecontract

    I appreciate the way everyone seems to be coming together (I even saw some borderline socialists at my tea party). And I agree that the local level is the most efficient place to focus grassroots efforts, including any “protest”. Nevertheless, there is no requirement on government to listen to its taxpayers, and when it does, it’s akin to a corporate employer making some minor concession to its employees to keep them all from walking out at once.

    I’m also uncomfortable that FOX seems to have co-opted this “movement” by playing a major part in sponsoring and marketing the tea parties. That doesn’t seem grassroots at all, and in light of FOX’s reputation, it might even be considered divisive–are we looking to start a civil war between two groups of taxpayers? In this polarized climate, I also find the FOX rhetoric to fall just short of inciting revolt, a move that will likely prod government to start throwing people in cages.

    But to reiterate: now that the people are energized, I agree totally that the solution will come by activity in our local communities. We’ll likely find that we spend our wealth better, and some might even choose to stop calling themselves taxpayers.

    peace

  • http://conservativewanderer.wordpress.com/ PhyCon

    I like the handle, invisiblecontract. I’m not going to speculate (much) as to what you are intending by it, yet I think I detect a bit of constitutionality behind it.

    The old addage of “all politics are local” is the key phrase for the TEA Party scene. If the momentum is maintained then the local scene will change for the better. I’m not saying we still won’t be seeing sweetheart deals for buddies of city council members or school boards that are more concerned with finding more funding for athletics than whether the kids are learning anything. But I do see positive movement to having “Joe Citizen” re-energized into at least the local political scene.

    If there was one thing I could fault with the Cowboy TEA Party it is this: too much emphasis was on what the Washington DC elite players are doing. The local scene was de-emphasized by that. There were a couple of speakers that talked about getting involved locally but they tended to be a bit weak, IMHO.

    On to the one contention I have with your comment. While I admit it is probably not so much as a bone to pick but rather one to polish…FNC was the ONLY ‘major’ news outlet to cover the TEA Parties. Admittedly, there were local concerns that did rather good jobs (like our local paper and TV station) but national coverage was by and large negative in the extreme.

    FNC had some of their usual ‘fringe’ (if you will) commentators working the crowds like Hannity and Beck. However, those guys along with all of the others who were involved specifically noted the gatherings were not “just angry Republicans”. Outfits like CNN, NBC, and MSNBC did everything in their power to marginalize the message of the participants. Their ‘reporters’ (most of them commentators in their current trade) did their best to spin their reportage while FNC represented the overall atmosphere. I freely admit, there was plenty of cheerleading by those FNC commentators. However, the points they cheerlead were almost without an exception constitutionally, capitalist, and rights based.

    The fact most national outlets poo-pooed the TEA Parties or outright denegrated the participants merely proves an interesting level of hypocracy on the “left’s” part in general. Dissent is no longer the highest form of patriotism. Demonstrating against “current administration policy” is something to be marginalized and denegrated as being racist or even a form of mental disorder…according to the vast majority of the left and their mouthpieces.

    Did FNC as a business enterprise ‘co-opt’ the movement? Perhaps. If so, it was extremely astute of them to do so.

  • http://conservativewanderer.wordpress.com/ Conservative Wanderer

    Outfits like CNN, NBC, and MSNBC did everything in their power to marginalize the message of the participants. Their ‘reporters’ (most of them commentators in their current trade) did their best to spin their reportage while FNC represented the overall atmosphere.

    Just to follow up on that… at least Fox didn’t have anyone declaring the tea parties “anti-Fox” or “not for family viewing” like a certain CNN commentator did… though she declared the Chicago tea party “anti-CNN.”

    Personally, I am glad that we have media outlets that cover the news from both angles… that way people are more likely to get the full story. I am quite content with CNN and MSNBC’s existence, and do not wish to see them fail, because that would be just as bad as the media was before Fox decided to be a voice for the right.

  • http://conservativewanderer.wordpress.com/ PhyCon

    First paragraph – good, CW. Second paragraph – no so much.

    FNC is NOT a voice for the “right”. They are a voice for both sides (while I do grant they have more ‘traditional’ leaning commentators if not outright conservatives). Imagine if MSNBC had the same level of balance in their commentary broadcasts FNC has. I think NY City might actually end up following Atlantis if that were the case.

  • http://conservativewanderer.wordpress.com/ Conservative Wanderer

    Phy… by permitting both sides to speak, Fox is truly a voice for the right… simply because the competition (cable and broadcast both) are so far to the left.

    If other news outlets hadn’t drifted so far from the center, Fox (assuming it had the same people it does now) wouldn’t be such a “voice for the right.”

    In short, I was speaking in a relative sense, not an absolute one.

  • http://conservativewanderer.wordpress.com/ PhyCon

    Ah, at least you admit your statement recognizes the ‘relative’ shift of the center point of the ideological scale away from true center.

    The discourse in the nation as driven by the MSM has so distorted the concepts of “left”, “right”, and “center” so much that the ‘conservative GOP’ nominated a near socialist in McRINO. Elect a true ‘conservative – right’ candidate and I believe the MSM will die collectively of paroxysm.

  • http://conservativewanderer.wordpress.com/ Conservative Wanderer

    Elect a true ‘conservative – right’ candidate and I believe the MSM will die collectively of paroxysm.

    On that, my friend, we agree.