Declaration of Tea Party Independence
I. As the course of human events winds its way through History, it has found some paths
lead to Tyranny and some to Liberty. In seeking a path to Liberty, a great and powerful
movement is now rising from every corner of our land. Created by the Will of the
American People, it rejects unconstitutional domination by the Government that is
supposed to be its servant. This movement has arisen, in large part, because our elected
officials have failed us.
For much of its history the United States has been a land of prosperity and liberty, sound
policies such as fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and a belief in
the free market have safeguarded this condition. In recent years however, Congress, the
President, the Federal Reserve Board and the Courts have replaced those practices with
profligate government spending and expansion of the government power beyond what is
constitutionally permissible.
This course, if not reversed, can only lead to economic collapse and tyranny.
Therefore, Individuals acting through the Tea Party Movement, seek to restore the
policies, which are proven to safeguard liberty and prosperity for all. We will organize,
demonstrate and vote until this restoration has been achieved. We will stay focused on
this goal and remain INDEPENDENT from any persons or political parties who seek to
distract us from this end.
Many seek to define this Movement, to use it, to lead it, to co-opt it, to channel it, to
control it, to defeat it.
WE WILL NOT LET THIS HAPPEN.
The Tea Party Movement is in agreement with our Founders that the government that
governs least governs best. We believe that Capitalism – NOT GOVERNMENT – is
essential to the creation of wealth and a vastly reduced government provides the
foundation for a thriving Capitalist system.
The Tea Party Movement of America embraces and serves people of all races, creeds,
religions, and political affiliations, and we declare ourselves to be independent of all
those forces that seek to manipulate our actions or control our destiny.
II. We Declare ourselves INDEPENDENT of the Democrat Party and its power drunk
junta in Washington DC, which is currently seeking to impose a Socialist agenda on our
Republic.
We reject arrogant Left-wing politicians who furtively hide from public scrutiny, as they
cut corrupt deals loaded with earmarks and pork in order to produce 2000 page pieces of
legislation so purposely incomprehensible, they do not even bother to read them before
foisting them upon us.
We reject the endless creation of myriad federal government agencies that drown free
enterprise and local control in the swarms of education, energy, ecology, and commerce
bureaucrats who style themselves “czars” sent to harass us. We reject the creation of
federal government regulations and agencies which demand the States pay for unfunded
Federal mandates.
We reject the endless creation of myriad federal government agencies that drown free
enterprise and local control in the swarms of education, energy, ecology, and commerce
bureaucrats who style themselves “czars” sent to harass us. We reject the creation of
federal government regulations and agencies which demand the States pay for unfunded
Federal mandates.
We reject a Democrat Party which refuses to give credence to our demands for just
redress of grievances and which insults and seeks to demonize our legal right to
peacefully protest the unjust laws it inflicts upon us.
We reject a profligate Government that is spending TRILLIONS of dollars on worthless
socialist schemes designed to bankrupt us and put the American people in a position of
dependence on the State, as peasants begging for their very sustenance from self-styled
“educated classes” and so-called “experts”.
We reject a foreign policy which bows and scrapes and apologizes before the world for
America.
We reject an Attorney General of the United States who offers succor and rights to
vicious terrorist murderers and seeks to protect them with a mock civilian trial when such
enemy combatants, captured on the field of battle, should be tried in secure military
courts.
We reject the claims of an un-elected Federal Judiciary to violate the separation of
powers by demanding its decisions be enforced by the other coequal branches of
government, regardless of how unconstitutional the other branches of government may
think those decisions are.
We reject all acts that ignore or diminish the 2nd and 10th Amendments to the US
Constitution and we seek to have all powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution to be reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
III. We Declare ourselves INDEPENDENT of the Republican Party, which has in the
past manipulated its Conservative Base to win election after election and which then
betrays everything that Base fought for and believed.
We reject the idea that the electoral goals of the Republican Party are identical to the
goals of the Tea Party Movement or that this Movement is an adjunct to the Republican
Party.
We reject the Republican Party professionals who now seek to use the Tea Party
Movement for their corrupt and narrow political purposes.
We acknowledge that standing on our principles does not mean throwing out our
common sense; we will NOT abandon our principles in the name of a nonexistent
bipartisanship or a misguided devotion to an illusion of “pragmatism”, which disguises a
desire to betray us in its name.
We reject the scare tactics of the Republican Party, which seeks to herd us into voting for
candidates who supposedly represent the “lesser of two evils” in the name of fealty to the
principle of small government and then having to suffer such candidates as they betray
that principle. We are not well served by parasites whose livelihoods depend on the very
State whose power to reward or sanction we elected them to limit and proscribe.
We insist that the Tea Party Movement does NOT consider the election of Republicans in
and of itself to be necessarily beneficial to our goals.
We demand the Republican Party understand that we reject its attempts to co-opt us.
WE WILL WORK AGAINST THEM when they oppose our views by trying to force
Republicans In Name Only (RINO) on us. When Republicans are in accord with their
Conservative Base as well as the Independent voters who align with it, IT WINS; when
they are NOT in accord with the Conservative Base and the Independent voters who align
with it, IT LOSES.
We reject RINO money; we reject RINO “advice”; we reject RINO “professional experience”;
we reject RINO “progressivism”; we reject RINO support of Big Government; we
reject RINO back room deal making; we reject RINO pork spending; we reject false
RINO professions of Conservative views and we reject the RINO’s statist subversion of
the principles of small government for which the Republican Party is supposed to stand.
Republican Party attempts to ignore the will of the Base, as it did in 1976, 1992, 1996,
2006 and 2008, resulted in disaster; when it embraces the will of the Base, as it did in
1980, 1984 and 1994, it wins historic victories.
We demand the Republican Party recognize that while the Tea Party Movement cannot
guarantee their aid will help them win elections, it is very likely WE CAN MAKE THEM
LOSE if they are disdainful of our goals.
IV. We Declare ourselves INDEPENDENT of the Media, which has proved itself to be
anything BUT a fair and balanced enterprise and which focuses more on entertainment,
fear mongering and shock value than investigation and unbiased fact.
We reject the fiction that an unbiased media still exists; there is friendly media and there
is unfriendly ENE-media. The Tea Party Movement refuses to give false credence to the
self-aggrandizing, self-deluding lie that ANY PART of the Fourth Estate is free of the
self-serving agendas of those who own them.
V. We Declare ourselves INDEPENDENT of self-styled “leaders” who claim to speak
for the Tea Party Movement. This movement is not a brand name to be used to sell
product; nor is it a logo to be used to justify profiting off its name.
We reject those who seek to personally capitalize on our popularity and momentum by
trying to associate with our cause.
We reject the idea that the Tea Party Movement is “led” by anyone other than the
millions of average citizens who make it up. The Tea Party Movement understands that
as a Free People, we need to SAVE OURSELVES, BY OURSELVES, FOR OURSELVES.
The Tea Party Movement is not “led.” The Tea Party Movement LEADS.
VI. We are united in our common belief in Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutionally
Limited Government and Free Markets. This threefold purpose is the source of our unity
in the Tea Party Movement.
We reject the idea that the Tea Party Movement must all be unanimous in our specific
policy views in order to win. We recognize that the current situation requires we come
together in confederation to achieve the MANY MUTUAL GOALS we all seek to
accomplish.
We recognize that the current situation requires that we concentrate on the many things
we have in common rather than those few things about which we may disagree.
We are the Tea Party Movement of America and we believe in American Exceptionalism.
We believe that American Exceptionalism is found in its devotion to the cause of Liberty.
We believe that Liberty is based in rational self-interest, in freedom of thought, in free
markets, free association, free speech, a free press and the ability granted us under the
Constitution TO DIRECT OUR OWN AFFAIRS FREE OF THE DICTATES OF AN
EVER EXPANDING FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WHICH IS AS VORACIOUS IN
ITS DESIRE FOR POWER AS IT IS INCOMPETENT AND DANGEROUS IN ITS
EXERCISE.
We believe that either fate or history has chosen this Country to be a beacon of freedom
and prosperity to the whole world because of America’s belief in and vigorous defense of
political and economic Liberty. The United States has been the instrument of Liberty
against the many tyrannies that have threatened the people of this world.
The Tea Party Movement rejects the idea that America has to apologize to a far guiltier
world that has been largely unappreciative of the sacrifices made on their behalf by the
brave and noble members of our Armed Forces, whose sacrifice and patriotic service in
our defense makes all else possible.
The Tea Party Movement rejects the imposition of “transformational change” performed
on our Nation by smug elites who call themselves the “educated class”.
The Tea Party Movement understands that our Nation is NOT the same thing as our
government and that America is much more than simply a militarily and economically
powerful State.
The Tea Party Movement sees America as something exceptional, as something unique,
as something that came into existence to fulfill the hope of all previous generations that
longed for freedom.
It came into existence because it is more than simply a country with land and population
and riches and armaments. America came into existence because LIBERTY is an eternal
concept in the mind of both God AND Man.
The United States of America came into existence because Mankind needs freedom the
same way it needs food and air and property and security and love.
And what is freedom other than the RIGHT to be free of the tyranny of Government and
the elitist, self-styled aristocrats who seek to run it at our expense and to our detriment?
The Tea Party Movement will fight this danger to our Liberty as long as its members
have breath in their bodies.
When America didn’t exist men and women were compelled to invent it, BECAUSE
MANKIND CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT FREEDOM AND STILL BE FULLY
HUMAN.
To this goal we mutually pledge to each other, as our Founding Fathers did over two
centuries ago, our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
February 24, 2010
Today, Wednesday February 24th, 2010 at 10:00am this document is being released, simultaneously across the country. Our goal is to have it reach from shore to shore and border to border in a matter of a few hours. To reach every newspaper, TV, and radio outlet. To flood every email box, with it’s message.
Video: Dump Dodd Rally at Dodd’s CT Science Center Fundraiser
Video: Dump Dodd Rally at Dodd’s $500 a plate CT Science Center Fundraiser.
July 4th ReTea Party in Hartford
The Capitol, Hartford, Conn.
12 noon – 3pm
Our grievances with the state of government in Washington, DC go well beyond one administration, a few policies, specific politicians, or a particular political party. The fuel behind our passion derives from the bipartisan destruction of our individual liberties, disrespect for our economic, social, and political well-being, and the shredding of our constitution.
To reclaim our independence and American civic traditions, the following are four key principles and positions that we must demand from our representatives.
PRINCIPLES
Bailouts, Taxes, and Spending Responsibility
There should be no taxpayer bailouts of corporations, and government should never grant private organizations license to commit criminal or fraudulent acts. We must also seek greater transparency of the Federal Reserve System through investigation, evaluation, and audit of its relationships with banking, corporate, and other financial institutions.
Respect the Integrity of the Constitution
We believe that the Constitution was instituted to restrain the arbitrary exercise of government power and to safeguard liberty. A government that routinely disregards the Constitution for the sake of political expediency cannot long remain a defender of the rights of its citizens.
Reducing the National Debt
We believe that there should be no increase in the national debt. The burden of debt placed on the next generation is unjust; it has greatly diminished the power of our dollar and threatens to undo decades of economic progress.
Individual Freedom
We must protect the privacy and civil liberties of all persons under US jurisdiction. We must repeal or radically change the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, and the FISA legislation. We must reject the notion and practice of torture, eliminations of habeas corpus, secret tribunals, and secret prisons.
http://connecticut.reteaparty.com
http://www.freeandequal.org
5,000 attend Hartford Tea Party
A week ago organizers estimated the Hartford Tea Party would host about 1,000 protesters. Today their expectations were shattered when 5,000 angry patriots flooded the north lawn of the State Capitol to vent their frustration over bailouts, taxation and a distinct socialistic direction the country has taken.
Pictures and video are streaming in from attendees and can be found at the bottom of this post.
The Huffington Post took the citizen reporter route in an attempt to cover all the tea parties across the country and asked volunteers to submit twitter, written and visual reports of their local events. Here is my report:
Hartford, CT – Jon Searles
Normally a decidedly blue city, Hartford Connecticut took on a red hue Wednesday as 5000 self described conservatives converged on the north lawn of the State Capitol to express outrage over runaway spending, bailouts and excessive taxation from Federal, State and Local Governments. Self titled a “Tea Party” this gathering was among thousands of similar events staged across the country in an effort characterized by participants who say they are fed up with both major political parties.
Capitol Police who observed the event provided an attendance estimate of 5000 but generated some controversy of their own when they were observed videotaping the crowd for about an hour. Following the recent revelation of a Department of Homeland Security report which has been reported on talk radio to characterize conservatives as threats some attendees questioned the purpose of this taping.
Signs carried by the crowd were as diverse as the people carrying them. However, with messages such as “T.E.A. Taxed Enough Already” and “Forget the Tea Pass the Tar and Feathers” the message from the crowd was anything but diverse. Loud cheers came from the crowd every time one of the radio hosts, political activists or fellow citizens who took the mic denounced government bailouts, intervention in the markets and taxation leaving little room to misinterpret the reason so many turned out at lunch time on a work day.
One of the organizers identified as Rick reluctantly volunteered as a grassroots organizer when other leadership failed to surface. He jokingly wondered when he’d be receiving his check in response to claims by some media outlets that the Tea Parties were a product of the RNC or other national Republican organizations. There was a variety of material being passed around from multiple organizations including the Campaign for Liberty and Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations but the lack of State or National Republican representation at the event gave credibility to the grassroots claim. Organizers were deliberate in their exclusion of politicians and candidates from the microphone citing a desire to prevent a genuine citizen movement from being hijacked by the agendas of the same politicos who brought on the need for protests.
Pictures and video:
RadioViceOnline:
http://radioviceonline.com/photos-and-video-from-the-hartford-tax-day-tea-party/
Jim Banks:
http://community.webshots.com/album/571109957HEFTWj
Hartford Courant:
http://www.courant.com/video/?slug=hc-tea-party-wn
Hartford Tea Party – It's Official!
Are You TEA’d Off?
(Taxed Enough Already)
STOP
Wasteful Spending of
YOUR Hard-Earned
Tax Dollars!
Join the Hartford Tea Party
at the State Capitol
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
12:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Bring Your Signs & Flags
Invite Family & Friends
“by the people, for the people”
For Updates and Information Visit:
www.hartfordteaparty.org
Here is a print quality version of the above flier for distribution:
http://brainflation.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/teapartyflyer12-2.pdf
Stamford Tea Party, a great success.
The Stamford Tea Party went off as planned yesterday. I was not in attendance this time.
Here is some of the coverage:
Tanya Bachand has always been interested in politics, though she viewed it as largely a spectator sport. “I never felt compelled to get off my couch … and do something,” said the 34-year-old attorney from Wallingford.
But as she grew increasingly alarmed by the billions of dollars the federal government was spending on bailout and stimulus packages, Bachand was driven to act: She recently joined a burgeoning grass-roots political uprising known as the Tea Party movement.
The tea bags that dangled from Kort Walsh’s hat danced in the morning breeze Saturday as more than 200 angry taxpayers gathered in front of the Ferguson Library to protest bailouts and President Barack Obama’s $3.5 trillion budget.
“I’m in complete and total distress over what is happening,” said Walsh, a 20-year Stamford resident. “Everything that was promised is now 180 degrees from what is happening.
“Not a single campaign promise has been fulfilled, from staffing to transparency to earmarks. (Obama) goes beyond socialist. He’s a Marxist.”
Demonstrators wearing pig costumes and Revolutionary War garb lightened the mood at a gathering in front of Ferguson Library but the protesters conveyed a serious message of frustration over government bailouts on Saturday.
Touted as a “tea party,” the demonstration featured Constition-themed chants, signs and three-cornered hats as approximately 100 people convened in front of the library.
Photos:
http://community.webshots.com/album/570720131diegss
The biggest party yet is rapidly approaching on April 25th. Currently parties will be held in New Haven, Hartford and Norwich. Bring everyone you know.
Keep an eye on taxdayteaparty.com for more info. Oh, don’t forget. When the government says the party is canceled it’s nothing more than a challenge to bring twice as many people.
Stamford Tea Party – This Saturday, March 28th!!
Stamford Tea Party Protest
“In 1773, a small group in Boston met to discuss taxes, monopoly and tea… “
Start Time: Saturday, March 28 at 10:00am
End Time: Saturday, March 28 at 12:00pm
Where: Stamford, CT @ 96 Broad Street (Starbucks/Library location), the corner of Broad and Bedford.
Ridgefield Tea Party
While the media was busy covering the Working Families Party/Acorn door to door bus run at just about 2 reporters for each protester average Americans like you and I were down in Ridgefield spreading the gospel of personal and corporate responsibility with all the temporary pain and hardship that entails.
The Tea Party was a smashing success with over 200 in attendance. Here are a some videos and photo galleries of the day’s events.
Something to consider for Tea Party protesters such as myself is whether the stimulus monies earmarked for Acorn paid for the bus, signs, letters stipends and other materials used for the door to door class warfare protest… irony… hypocrisy? Maybe just a lack of freedom principles.
http://community.webshots.com/slideshow/570623932wgWpof
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0NmpJ9qVWY]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni8KqRD0WVk]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_AQrXZ_xNA]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baJ9H6Et84c]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yamcoOqAmww]
http://www.jasetaro.com/blog/2009/03/21/scenes-from-the-rebellion-ridgefield-tea-party/
Reminder: Ridgefield Tea Party this Saturday!!!
In 1773, a small group in Boston met to discuss taxes, monopoly and tea…
Are You Opposed to the So-Called “Stimulus” Bill?
Do You Believe the “Mortgage Bail Out” Rewards Bad Behavior?
Are You Willing to Make Your Voice Heard?
You are invited to attend a “tea party” being held in downtown Ridgefield, CT to make your voice heard. We want to encourage other like-minded citizens to oppose giant government programs that will reach deep into our pockets, creating huge economic burdens for ourselves and our children.
Just as a few patriots did in 1773, we are protesting an irresponsible and unresponsive government. We plan on a cheerful, constructive demonstration. Please join us!
WHERE: Ridgefield, CT. The corner of Main Street and Bailey, near Town Hall. (Public Parking is available off Bailey and also off Prospect St. one block away)
WHEN: Saturday, March 21st at 10:00 a.m.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED: Your voice, a good attitude and a desire to have your views heard.
This peaceful protest is being organized by local residents and is permitted in the town. Let your fellow citizens know your views and meet other like-minded people who want responsible government.
Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their country.
Ridgefield Tea Party on March 21st.
There will be another Tea Party demonstration in Ridgefield on the 21st.
Details here:
http://brainflation.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/march-21-2009-rally0001.pdf
