ONE YEAR LATER: WHERE DID THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT COME FROM?

[FCTP]

This coming Thursday the First Coast Tea Party will once again hold it’s Tax Day Tea Party. Last year at this same time, six individuals came together to set up the first big rally of our local tea party. Not knowing what to expect, we anticipated about 500 people would show up. Instead 5,000 came together and waved their signs and voiced their opinions about the bailouts.

For me – the personal journey of igniting my civic responsibility to ensure freedom – started in September 2008. When the market crashed in September, John McCain suspended his campaign to return to Washington, a fearful-looking President Bush told the American people we were in a financial crisis and the soon-to-be President Obama sat quietly by and watched from the sidelines.

Shortly after those announcements, the bailouts began and the organizers of the Tea Party Movement found each other through the internet and all at one time and on one day – we Stood Up for Freedom alongside Rick Santelli as he ranted and said the things we all felt. When he called out for a Tea Party, we Stood Up and Said “Let’s roll!” and the first tea parties across America began. See Rick's Rant here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp-Jw-5Kx8k&feature=related

As a reminder, the Tea Party Movement began as a response to the bailouts and taxes being imposed on the American people. While researching those bailouts, we uncovered a very disturbing C-Span interview with Rep. Paul Kanjorski. In that interview, Rep. Kanjorski tells the viewers about the “run on the banks” by “someone” and why Congress and the President had to do what they did with the bailouts to ensure our banking system and political system remain in tact. Watch this very revealing video and hang on – you’re not going to be pleased.

For more about this story, check out Jeff Lukins article at http://www.redstate.com – “2008 Market Crash Should be Investigated.”

As this year has unfolded politically, we have watched as this Administration and Congress have failed to listen to the American people. They have passed legislation that we do not want and will cause us personal pain and suffering. They don’t care and we wonder why. The only answer we can come up with is this: Power

Those we sent to DC to serve us, have instead turned on us. They are attacking the people, taking away our freedoms, pushing down legislation that will hamper our success, unemployment continues to rise, welfare rolls are increasing, houses are upside down, CEOs are demonized, banks are failing faster and more frequently than ever before, healthcare is now being run by the IRS, small businesses are barely holding on, students are now working for the government, car companies are being run by the government, babies and senior citizens are being aborted through legislation and those who hate us in other countries are laughing at our vulnerabilities.

And with all that said, we are told to sit down and shut up? Not on our watch Mr. Obama, Congress and you thugs in purple shirts and you nuts from ACORN. You can’t scare us anymore. We are the people and you forgot one big factor – we are the AMERICAN people and we stand up against tyranny!

Have you had enough? If so, join us at the Jacksonville Landing at 5:30 this Thursday, April 15th for our Stand Up for Freedom Rally. We’re calling all citizens who love this country and love freedom to join us ‘cause it’s your turn now to Stand Up for Freedom. If not you, then who?

Here's the information for the event. Pass it along and share the joy of Standing Up for Freedom as an Amerian citizen.

[theresa rhoden]

great summary of how millions of americans feel.

[Kay Ragan Durden]

Yes another great one Billie. You can write girl!!! We will all stand with you and we will win the war!!
Dennis, I like that about the Snake. Great example!! We keep popping up all over and they can't believe it. You can read in the Bible how the church was set up that way. A fish goes bad at the head first and then all the way down to the tail. God had a plan. If one gets off track, they don't all mess up. The way our Tea Parties are going the same thing will apply. The New Order will go crazy trying to find who our leader is. and if one Tea Party gets crazy, we won't all go with them into crazy land.
Sounds like a great Plan! The Bible for the churches and the Constitution for the States!!

[Sandy McCorvey]

I, for one, stand with you, Billie. I, for one, stand with each of you. I, for one, refuse to sit down and shut up. I, for one, refuse to be intimidated. I, for one, refuse to allow our beloved country to be "transformed" and no longer be a Republic. I, for one, will be there on April 15th to stand up for my country. We don't need a third party - we need Constitutional patriots to run within our current parties. Dennis, that was an excellent analogy - they can't defeat us because this not an "organization." The collective actions of each of us make up this movement - this amazing group of "We The People." I, for one, will not be ignored. I, for one, will remember in November. I hope each and every one of you will stand up for America and take our country back. No more fence sitting. We have to choose. I, for one, choose our Republic.

[Vince Curcio]

I'll be there along with my friend the "Patriot Man" who will be in full uniform. I predict a better turn out than last year. Let's all be there with a friend and in the words of that infamous moden day patriot "Larry the Cably Guy" LETS GETTER DONE!!!

[Valerie Sawyer]

John, have you not been paying attention to what is happening right here in FL in our senate race? Charlie Crist is the GOP "darling" but Marco Rubio is now beating him in the polls by 32 points because Rubio has the backing of the Tea Party. The Tea Party will bring VOTES to the GOP - THAT will be their reason for listening to us and changing.

[Dennis J. Fleming]

The Tea Party movement needs and has coordination. The movement doesn't need a formal structure and leader. Candidates that want to be elected will learn they need the votes of Tea Party supporters. The parties will bring forth candidates that will get the votes of the Tea Party or they will not be in power.
Also, consider a hunter attempting to kill the snake. The hunter will strike at the head. Have you ever attempted to kill a snake without seeing its head? If the Tea Party doesn't have a head the “other side” will not know where to strike. They will be continually frustrated in their attempts to destroy the movement since there is no head upon which they can unleash their blows. I like to compare our movement to an anthill. The collective efforts of every ant doing what they do results in a successful colony.

Dennis Fleming

[John Guy]

No Third Party? Sooooooooo we vote on the GOP ticket? Not! The GOP isn't a heckuva lot better than the Democrats. No leader? Did we have leaders in pre-1776? Sure did. You cannot have hundreds of organizations trying to fight this war against too much government without it being organized....without leadership. That's exactly what the Socialists want.

Let's go one step further. Let's say a Third Party isn't your goal. Then it is obvious, at least to me, that you have to have the GOP change to get what we want. Otherwise, we are spinning our wheels. Why would the GOP listen? I cannot think of a single reason. Again, just my opinion....and a couple of hundred of my clients/business owners that have more at stake than most.

[Helen Rose Chestnut]

Valerie, I was writing my comments without reading yours yet. I could not believe we were thinking the same thing at the same time. WOW

[Helen Rose Chestnut]

Any talk of a third Party frightens me. We must infiltrate the Republican Party because a Third Party would surely give power to radicals. Nothing would please them more than to divide and conquer. There is nothing wrong with the principles of the Republican Party. What happened to the R Party is that Rino's(Democrats in Name Only), have left the Democrat party and joined the Republican party. As the number of RINO's has grown in the R Party they have tried to change the direction and principles of the party. What the conservative Republicans need and would welcome is for the Tea Party members to join with them in the fight to take their party and country back.

[Valerie Sawyer]

The last thing we need to do is become a third political party. And we don't need a head. Our strength - America's strength - is in its grassroots. "We the People" do not need someone at the top to tell us who to vote for and what to believe. We already know those things. We just need info. The individual tea party groups are doing just fine as they are, autonomous bodies working together loosely. If it wasn't a successful formula, it would have fallen apart long before now and we would not have seen the successes we have seen. We do not want to become the very thing we are fighting against - a top-heavy, union-style group. That's the problem with the country now - there are too many of those types of groups. That is not what the founding fathers envisioned for our country.