Last year on April 15th thousands of Americans all across this country gathered on the steps of city halls, capitol buildings, and in public parks to share their protest of the increased taxes coming to middle class Americans due to the stimulus package and other bills being passed on the Hill. Since many of those Americans could not get to DC to personally visit their congressmen they decided to call, email and protest in their neighborhoods in the hopes that their voices would be heard.
Did it work? Not completely. Week after week went by and bipartisan organizations along with many others gathered research, continued to protest and attended “town halls” that representatives had set up as a forum for voters to come and express their concerns. In those town halls it was determined by congressional staff who was and wasn’t allowed to question their elected officials. So when the tea parties and the townhalls failed to get Washington’s attention voters went to the polls. Chris Christie in NJ, Scott Brown in MA and Bob McDonnell in VA are examples of how when Washington doesn’t listen the people will show them what they think. In 2010 there has been a movement of some conservatives who are frustrated with the GOP and would prefer to create a 3rd party “Tea Party.”
Even though the NRCC and GOP made big mistakes in NY with endorsing Scozzafava over Hoffman we cannot let one example of a mistake ruin the chance of conservatism to take back the Republican party and take back the overly liberal House and Senate in DC. I’ll end with this brilliant thought from Ronald Reagan, “Our people look for a cause to believe in. Is it a third party we need, or is it a new and revitalized second party, raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people?”
We must and can raise the banner. We can transform the GOP and we can take our country back through exercising our rights of free speech and voting.
