How the Tea Party is being co-opted by those it's fighting against

In his latest essay "A Warning To The Tea Party Nation", Chuck Baldwin signals both profound encouragement about the Tea Party movement... and a caution about how it is being quietly taken over by the very sort that the Tea Party began in opposition to.

Here's a clip, beginning with a comparison to the "Republican Revolution" of 1994...

Spurred mostly by the election of Bill Clinton in 1992, a host of young, energetic freshman Republicans marched into Washington, D.C., determined to return a burgeoning and out-of-control federal leviathan to the constitutional precepts of limited government. I'm talking about then-freshman House members such as Helen Chenoweth, Steve Largent, Bob Barr, Joe Scarborough, Sonny Bono, John Shadegg, J.C. Watts, etc. These young conservatives went to Washington, D.C., determined to reduce the growth and size of the federal government.

The vehicle used to transport these young conservatives from grassroots activism to US House and Senate seats was the highly touted "Contract with America" (CWA), which was orchestrated by House Speaker-to-be, Newt Gingrich. The CWA included a promise to the American people that if they would give the GOP a majority in Congress, they would eliminate up to 5 federal departments--such as the Departments of Energy and Education--and many federal agencies.

Obviously, not only did the GOP-controlled Congress not eliminate a single federal department or agency--or even shrink the size of the federal government at all--it expanded the size and scope of the federal government at every level. And there is one reason for it: Big Government neocons posing as champions of conservatism co-opted and destroyed the Conservative Revolution of 1994.

If one wants to put names to these treasonous wretches (and I do), I'm talking about charlatans such as Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott. Anyone who thinks that Newt Gingrich is a real conservative or that he will do anything to reduce the size and scope of the federal government needs to speak with any of those Republican members of the freshman class of 1994. (Sadly, too, some of the members of that great freshman class went on to become Big Government toadies themselves. Such is the power of that Putrid Province by the Potomac.)

The Tea Parties of 2010 remind me very much of the Conservative Revolution of 1994. And if the Tea Party Nation is not very careful, they will succumb to the same fate. The signs of a silent takeover of the movement are already appearing.

My gut feeling is that we're going to be watching the Tea Party wax brilliantly throughout 2010 and it's going to no doubt be a factor in winning a bunch of seats in Congress for the GOP. And then come this time in 2011 the Tea Party will be a fast-fading memory: its purpose as a ready-made vehicle for the Republicans fulfilled. That's if the Tea Party continues to make the mistake of hitching its wagon to "stars" like Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and the like. The Tea Party is supposed to be a movement about an idea: that government must be limited by the Constitution in deed as well as in word. That's a different thing than being led around by ideologists who have proven well enough that they have not this country's best interests in mind.

On a related note, my good friend Danny de Garcia II out of the Big Island of Hawaii has in the past 12 hours started up what he calls a "conservative splinter" faction of the Tea Party...

The Coffee Party is born! Here's the official (well as official as a political party less than half a day old) description of the Coffee Party...

The TEA Party has been hijacked by big government, pro-globalist, pro-finance oligarch, pro-war, pro-police state, anti-liberty candidates and spokespeople who are interested only in putting the American people BACK TO SLEEP with their tranquilizing chamomile tea of propaganda.

We on the other hand are awake, we realize that the TEA Party movement began with a distrust of big government, a desire to repeal the USA Patriot Act, to end the Federal Reserve, to stop the illegal wars and to return America to a land of the people, by the people and for the people. Americans drink coffee more than their British cousins because after the Boston Tea Party, they learned to live without Tea. Well, it's time to switch from the tainted TEA and get a dose of reality.

The TEA Party was fathered by men like Ron Paul who believed in a return to the Bill of Rights and Constitution, not phonies who want to expand the powers of the state. Now, "TEA Party" candidates are opposing Ron Paul and others and replacing the message with a false revival that promotes totalitarianism. As any REAL conservative knows, our question is not one of left or right, but up or down - up to liberty, or down to the ash heap of liberty. Join the Coffee Party!

I love it! :-) And if you want to join the Coffee Party too, here's the Coffee Party's page on Facebook. I was member #6 ("I am not a number, I am a free man!!") 'Twould be great if this thing cracked double or even triple digits by the end of the weekend! :-)

Categories: chuck baldwin, coffee party, constitution, danny de garcia ii, government, politics, republicans, tea party, united states