Many people are worried that if the Tea Party Movement supports anyone but Republicans we will help elect Democrats. We want to address this directly.
Strategically there is a very simple solution: win big. A necessary condition for winning is having a plan to win, and we plan to win. We have a clean, limited, conservative platform based on ethics and common sense American civics. We are focused, in district selection and on issues, and we have one goal: Victory in at least 50 districts from AZ-7 to WI-8. Winning congressional races is basic political blocking and tackling: people, money, and determination to win. The Tea Party Movement brings all of these to Fire Fifty Independents.
We have selected districts where Republicans have not presented a credible alternative to the “Progressive” running as a Democrat. By running as Independents, we are not saddled with the baggage of the Republican brand, and can run in New England, the Rust Belt and rural and suburban districts around the country. These districts are now represented by Democrats that are much more liberal than their constituents; they are vulnerable to a Tea Party Independent.
Philosophically, we start by telling people what we believe. We are Americans, American Revolutionaries, who believe in our founding Constitutional principles as a democratic republic: the rule of law, individual rights, checks and balances, equality before the law, fairness, open debate, free markets, free minds. We also believe in a strong smart defense, shouldering our burdens and not loading our children with debt. We don’t want to be led into a bright, shiny future; we don’t want to be led anywhere. We want to be left alone to live our lives as free human beings, and our individual work will lead to a better tomorrow for all of us.
We are not Republican or Democrats. We are conservatives! Although I have voted for a Republican in every Presidential election since I was old enough to vote I no longer recognize the party I once identified with. Most of today’s Republicans are fiscally indistinguishable from the Democrats across the aisle. The Republicans had the House from 1994 – 2006. After the Bush Administration came in with “compassionate conservatism” they gave us:
- A New Medicare drug benefit that was the largest expansion of the welfare state in 40 years
- Federal spending on schools up 79.9% without any changes in how the Big City Machines / Teachers Unions operate, as if throwing more money at a failed approach would educate our children
- Failure on Social Security / Retirement modernization
- Out of control spending that took the budget from a surplus to a $1.2 Trillion deficit
- Bailouts of everyone (except the dwindling 53% of us who pay all the income taxes)
- Federal government control of political speech via Mc_Cain-Feingold, signed by Bush
- The bipartisan $700 billion Wall Street bailout
- The 2009 Budget bill; 40% of the 9000 earmarks were from Republicans.
- George W. Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress increased discretionary spending at twice the rate that prevailed under Bill Clinton.
If you think of yourself as a Conservative, why are you supporting Republicans? Because they are better than the Democrats? I’m tired of electing Republicans because “at least they’re better than the other guy”. They are the “other guy”. We are going to elect ethical, fiscally conservative individuals who support a strong, smart defense, school choice, individual rights, and the rule of law. We are here to work for the American people, not the Republican Party.
