Saturday, November 10, 2012

No Retreat, No Surrender.





Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Tea Party Movement,

The results of the past elections have been  disappointing to say the least.  Many of us are trying to deal with this and to make some sense of what happened.  In the last few days many have reached out to me.  I have taken angry phone calls.  I have held trembling hands.  I have suffer through reading many emotional e-mails.  Many, many people have worked very hard to achieve a goal that has eluded them.  It is natural for people to respond to this disappointment with a profound sense of loss. 

At this time it is very hard to be clearheaded but that is exactly what we need to do.  I agree with many of the assessments of what has happened in our movement.  I have seen many of the same problems and voiced many of the same concerns.  Personally, I have felt we have been too close to the Republican Party and have said so often.   Our work must continue without regard to the occupant of the White House or any other office.  Our goals are much loftier than the election of any politician.  Our movement is so much more than the just a political party. 

There are two theories that are emerging at this time.  The first contends that we are hopelessly out of touch.  That such a flawed politician was able to win the election over our opposition is proof that we must be totally wrong.   Our values and principles are quaint relics of the past. Those that think so predominate much of the Media Misinformation Complex.  They eagerly encourage us to take our gloves and balls and go home and leave the important politics stuff to them.  

The second theory says that it was not the message but the messenger.  If only we had better candidates or if they had fought harder we would be on the winning side.  If we had spent our precious resources on this state instead of on that city we could have should have won.   We needed more attack adds and sharper quips then we would have shown them that our ideas are better.  This theory contends that to beat them we have to adopt their worst traits and be even more   

I see this as a long struggle.  I know that it won't ever be easy.  I know that I don't know, can't know, what will happen from here.  But I can say that I still believe in the heart of our movement.  And I am wounded by the pettiness of our squabbles.  I love our Nation because of the radical principles that it was founded on.  And I am fully aware of how we often have failed to be true to those principles.  We have an immense history to live up to.  The Great Man said:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure.

I believe that we can remain dedicated and that we can endure.  

I pledge that I will continue this struggle until we win or I end. 

No retreat, No surrender. 

 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Remember what General McAuther said: I will return

and another famous general said: don't give up the ship

Anonymous said...

Why was a general on the ship?