Patriots on the Take
In reply to Don Omey’s well written letter to the editor of the Alamogordo Daily News of May 2nd, 2010. Published May 19, 2010. I would like to make a few comments.
First, with a few exceptions, I agree and support the mission statement of the Otero Tea Party Patriots. What American wouldn’t want to “preserve the spirit of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights”, and want “limited [but adequate] government, [smart] spending, [equitable] taxation, advancing a [smartly] regulated market economy, holding elected officials accountable for their decisions and having them be responsive to their constituents.”? Also, your objectives of educating the public on these issues, and teaching the public how to become citizen lobbyists are commendable.
My concern is that your education of the public and teaching the public how to become citizen lobbyists is not in the interest of American citizens but rather for the interests of your financial backers: Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works, the principal organizers of the Tea Party Patriots movement and the Tea Party Express. These two lobbyist-run think tanks are well funded and provide the logistics and organizing for the Tea Party movement from coast to coast. The Tea Party Patriots is not a grass roots populist organization, but a top down astro-turf temple to conservative interests.
Tea Partiers seem convinced that our Constitution and Bill of Rights are under attack by liberals. Liberals are accused of wanting to take our own guns away, that we are socialists or even fascists. Vicious verbal attacks on President Obama and liberals are part of our daily lives. Militias are suddenly forming all over the country. There has been a 244% increase in right wing militia groups since Obama was elected, and an increased domestic terrorism presence in the US. Tea Partiers and others on the right are just now beginning to distance themselves from the violence and racism that has characterized the opposition to health-care reform and everything the President, our President, has tried to accomplish.
You, the Tea Party Patriots, with support of your backers, have erected a wall between conservatives and liberals. My wish is that you will consider helping Americans reach the right amount of government and the right amount of taxation for citizens and the right amount of regulation of the corporations who are really the ones driving this country into a hole. Then we will have reached the goal of a humane general welfare of the majority.
