"Don't Tread On Me"

Some political pundits and individuals in the "drive by media" are already predicting that the Tea Party's impact on the country's political discourse is beginning to fade. They point to the lack of support for the this year's tax day rallies sponsored by the Tea Party last week. These same individuals say that the Tea Party's impact won't be as influential in the 2012 presidential election as in last November's midterm elections.

It is funny to watch the political establishment in both political parties as they gleefully make these predictions almost as if they are counting the days until the "regular folks" like us just go back to where we belong, out of the mainstream and out of the policy debate.

You see the political establishment in our country truly believes they are smarter, more well rounded in their philosophy, and more worldly than the rest of us. Only they know what is best for not only the direction of this country, but even for us in our lives. Like somehow a piece of paper from Harvard or Yale gives them the right to have dominion over us like shepherds herding sheep. A funny thought when you think of the path this country has taken since Franklin Roosevelt's brain trust.

This pompous/arrogance which continues to drive much of the policy coming out of Washington D.C. specifically on the left should fire up any Tea Party sympathizer. This Washington D.C. arrogance reminds me of Ben Franklin's speech during the Constitutional Convention of 1787. In his speech Frankly vehemently opposed compensation for elected leaders and perhaps gave us one of the greatest warnings of any founding father that resonates in today's modern Tea Party movement. In opposition to the compensation of elected leaders Franklin stated,

"And what kind are the men that will strive for this profitable pre-eminence, through all the bustle of cabal, the heat of contention, the infinite mutual abuse of parties, tearing to pieces the best of characters? It will not be the wise and moderate; the lovers of peace and good order, the men fittest for the trust. It will be the bold and the violent, the men of strong passions and indefatigable activity in their selfish pursuits. These will thrust themselves into your Government and be your rulers.—And these too will be mistaken in the expected happiness of their situation: For their vanquished competitors of the same spirit, and from the same motives will perpetually be endeavoring to distress their administration, thwart their measures, and render them odious to the people."

Sound familiar when you examine the deep emotions and factors that have spawned the current Tea Party movement in this country. Have our elected leaders become our "rulers"?

When one considers what is at stake in the upcoming 2012 presidential election, there is no time to sit back and become complacent in our victories. The 2011 midterm elections was just the first step in a long, difficult road in taking back our country and restoring the true republican principles that our nation was founded upon.

Remember my Tea Party friends, great moments in history require the participation of great people. And despite how we are depicted by the mainstream and the elites in this country that is what we truly are. If the founding father's had enough faith in us to protect the ideals upon which this idea of America was built than it is our duty to fight and protect them for future generations.