GOP and Tea Parties

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I was born and raised 30 minutes from the location of the first tea party. The one that happened back in 1776 that is. We all know the history, fed up with taxes being shoved down their throats a group of true Patriots dumped barrels of tea in Boston Harbor in protest. The water is still murky brown from that…but I digress.

Back in February a small group of people across the country got together in the same spirit to protest the stimulus package, big government and the ballooning deficit. . This idea caught on and April 15th numerous protests all over the country were held protesting tax rate hikes and future taxes that could be levied.

Numerous candidates from the GOP showed up at the April 15th rally’s to show their support for a smaller for fiscally conservative government and share their ideas on how the party should move in the future. It was great; most American’s agreed that something needed to change.

Then the protests continued, City and County commission meetings were protested regardless of which party held the majority. Marches and protests were staged again and again. Even the major news networks stopped covering them.

In August, the Tea Party registered and became an official political party in Florida and the chairman Fredric O’Neal has stated that the Tea Party Candidates will run against both Democratic and Republican candidates.

How does that help? Who does that help? The original Tea Party in Boston was backed up with action. People didn’t riot and storm the capital building; they formed a government for the people and tried to diplomatically resolve the issues they had.

So where do we go from here? Another party is registered with a lot of Republican ideas and values. Are we going to meet them head on with clearly presented ideas and solutions, or revert to their protesting and be the party of people red faced on street corners?

I hope for the latter.