"What happened to the Tea Party? - I see no difference one year after 87 Tea Party Members were elected to Congress" is a thought expressed by far too many people I talk to. Subscribers to this blog of course know that the great majority of these Tea Party (Freshman) Members threw in the towel long ago & within the first three months of taking office joined the Republican old guard establishment led by the detestable John Boehner – click here for specific voting details on one issue - Only 21 Of 87 Freshman House Republicans Are Still With You.
Now with human nature being what it is it is not hard to see that we have looked for the root of the problem & have not recognized that it is us. How else could Heather Haddon been able to report in the WSJ that "NJ appeared to show record apathy in Tuesday's elections, shattering previous turn out lows." Ms. Haddon went on to say that the NJ turn out was 26% of the state's 5.2 million registered voters meaning that 3.8 million people eligible to vote did not bother.
Of significant importance is that these stats prompted the marvelous congressional candidate Anna Little to send the first negative e-mail she has ever written to me – "Election Day is over and the results were VERY disappointing. ONLY 26% of the registered voters came out. SEVEN out of TEN people did not show up. How can WE THE PEOPLE expect to change government if we do not show up?" Lose enough candidates like Anna Little & you don't have much, if anything, left.
I know of congressional town hall meetings where less than a dozen people attended. This type of participation would strain the purity of even the most patriotic of Representatives. If it becomes so obvious to our elected reps that the citizenry is not watching the store or really not taking the time to care or be involved @ all are we not asking too much of these elected reps to care more about us than we care about ourselves?
It is slipping away from us as the Ohio public sector union reversal vote so strongly indicates – the unions won 2 to 1. Turn out in Ohio was 46% – the highest in 20 years for an Ohio off-year election. It is hard to believe that Ohioans who are 60+ years old who know they will have to work the rest of their lives with no means to ever retire themselves voted for retirement & healthcare benefits for public sector employee neighbors. The worst part of this arrangement for the working stiffs is that they will go off to work every day with an ever increasing part of their state & local taxes paying for the pensions & healthcare insurance of public sector union members who retire in their early 50s. This vote is an indication of the power of $30 million of union money that poured into determining the results of the referendum.
Watch the union effort in 2012 in Wisconsin to recall Governor Scott Walker who was elected to do exactly what he did – similar to the union situation in Ohio. This effort has only gained momentum after the pro-union result in Ohio.
BO has targeted $1 billion for his reelection campaign. The real bad news is that for the first time the "generic Republican candidate" loses in the latest poll to BO. I received the following message right after the election from a long time reader – "As I see it people are fed up with BO AND also the Republican Party. They hear talk about Republicans wanting to cut Social Security, Medicare and other government programs people now enjoy – Republicans can LOSE big. Not that BO is any better - he wants to spend till he drops. If there was truly a third party running that party would win."
Now I certainly am for a viable third party – in fact the more parties the better. The two party system has not served us well – Judge Napolitano frequently points out it really has deteriorated into one Big Government Party with Democrat & Republican wings. But in the meantime we have to focus on finding new Tea Party Members who will replace all of those who let us down since the 2010 election.
Thanks to everyone who let me know that they are beating the bushes in their neighborhoods alerting everyone who will listen to the seriousness of the stakes of the 2012 election. For those who have not started you can't get started too soon as this short video explains.
Video was very good. Forwarded it on.
ReplyDeleteOne reason turnout was light, as I see it -no major issues, no big names running for office, like Senators.
Possible reason for people in Ohio, voting the "union way", because people employed want and demand better
Medicare benefits, better social security benefits,etc. As General MacArthur said, "older people fade away".
Candidates know in several years, older people will not be around. They will cater to younger ones knowing
they will have their votes for years and years.
Average young person does not care about country running deficits - all they want is more and more. They do not care
where it comes from.
Doug
ReplyDeleteIMHO, People should be attending Leadership Institute bootcamps and other GOTV training type events....NOW. http://www.leadershipinstitute.org
This year I saw Tea Parties and Tea Party candidates making the very same mistakes the establishment Republicans have made in the past. Mistakes like: Failure to do research on their voting districts/base. Failure to canvass and recruit motivated voters and volunteers. Failure to communicate their message. Taking the year off and not getting to work until after Labor Day.
Guess what? Work for EVERY election begins the day after Election Day the year before ...if not earlier. They should take lessons from Anna Little and "Anna's Army" (which consisted mostly of Bayshore Tea Party members). ***They should look to towns like Old Bridge, which successfully defeated deeply entrenched Democrats for a landslide victory...AND DO WHAT THEY DID, and DO IT BETTER. Work harder, work faster, work more effectively.***
The only reason Anna came as close as she did last year was because of her own effectiveness and hard work as a candidate and the effectiveness and hard work of her volunteers. The only reason she lost last year is because too many establishment Republicans were once again lazy, flatfooted, and just plain stubborn and sour grapes, infighting among themselves as they always do, worrying about "what's in it for them" (just like corrupt members of the Democrat party) instead of fighting the common enemy...and because Middlesex County had not developed a strong grassroots volunteer army or Tea Party, as Monmouth County had done.
We're working hard in Middlesex County to get people aware and trained to be effective in elections. If you know anyone in Middlesex County who is motivated to work smart and hard to take our country back from those who would continue the entitlement state to the point of our destruction, please send them my way! Thank you.
God bless you.