Who is the leader of the Republican Party? The Democrats would have you believe it was Rush Limbaugh. The Republican National Committee elected Michael Steele to lead, but after several missteps, he's faded from the public eye. The Senate Minority Leader isn't the leader. Neither is the House minority Leader John Boehner. Today, we found out who the leaders are in the Republican Party.
The leaders are the American people! Today, a Wednesday, the middle of the week, a work day, hundreds of thousands of people around the country showed up for the Tea Parties that were going on around the country. Parents pulled their children from school to get a civics lesson first hand. Men and women stayed home from work for the day to attend. Many unemployed men and women attended. The people stood up and took control, if only for a few hours. If the size of the crowds and the energy shown are any indication, there are many incumbents in Washington DC and in State Capitols that should be preparing to return to the private sector, and in some cases to the unemployment lines which they created.
They came out....excuse me, WE came out, en masse to protest the outrageous spending by the Obama administration and the Democrat led Congress that will be forced on our children and grandchildren and our great grandchildren. We were also protesting the coming excessive taxation.
I attended the tea party in Lansing, Michigan. According to the Lansing State Journal, there were 5,000 in attendance. In Utah, despite freezing rain, sleet, then snow, they held their party. In Cincinnati, there were thousands. In Atlanta, Georgia, over 15,000. All across the country, numbers were counted in the thousands. Birmingham, Alabama, New York, Sacremento and on and on.
These tea parties were a grass roots effort to begin with. Many politicians showed up and spoke at various tea parties. Some were impressive, such as Governor Rick Perry in Texas, others were listened to, but the comment I heard a couple of times was that some of the politicians speaking, were just jumping on the bandwagon. These were put together by the people, not by the politicians.
These politicians were listened to respectfully but the people were there to send a message to state and federal officials that the American people are fed up with the inexcusable actions that elected officials have taken to double the debt and to quadruple the deficit.
Republicans are not excused from their culpability here. They had the majority and they didn't reign in spending, but rather they added to it. They were booted out in 2006. Democrats that replaced them have made a bad situation even worse.
Todays Tea Parties, of which there were approximately 2,000 around the country, gave the sense that the people, the ones who have lent power to the government are taking back that power and looking to put people in office that are more interested in the success of this country than their own power. These tea parties were started by Americans that you don't see in the headlines. There are many politicians that are hitching themselves to this grass roots movement, but the people put this together and are making their views known loudly and clearly. This is not a protest against Democrats, or Obama, although it could have been because they have really overspent the past few months, but it's also about irresponsible Republicans such as Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins and Arlen Specter.
The people spoke today and what they are saying is we're not depending on the Republican party to find a leader. We're going to lead and you can join in. But we're going to watch you and won't leave you in office if you don't do the will of the people that put you there.
You're welcome to comment.
Brett
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