The Lesson to Learn

“Congress shall make no law …abridging …right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Benjamin Franklin once wryly observed that in describing and defining a populist uprising it was only in the third person, their revolution, that such an event was illegal and should be dealt with harshly by the subject government. It was in the first person, our revolution, that such movements were legal and justified and thus by definition were to be embraced by the population at large.

The founders and the framers of the Constitution had seen the effects firsthand of a government attempting to thwart a revolution by the populace and insured, by the implementation of the Constitution,  that no such action would ever befall the citizens of their fledgling democracy. The hard fought lessons are there within our founding documents; we must, as history tells us, remember to learn its lessons or fall victim to those same lessons.

In was passes as the cockeyed world of political reality, the protests currently under way nationwide beneath the umbrella of “Occupy Wall Street” are endlessly labeled as either crackpot anti-Tea Party movements or heralded as true populist uprisings looking to shine the light on the inequities of the American capitalist society.

While there does indeed  exist  intelligent, supportive arguments on both sides of this nonsensical debate, there has been an almost complete absence by the body politic and the media as a whole shedding light on what should be the corollary argument to both sides. The current state of discourse on public policy has descended into nothing more than shrill shrieking blather on both sides and their co-conspiratorial media flacks; the commonality in this debate should be a point that reaffirms our unique solidarity as a nation and act as a fresh starting point in doing the peoples business.

To wit:

The rallies in support and opposition that are being held both in lower Manhattan and simultaneously nationwide are being held and therein lies the historically wonderful truth of America.

That fact does not seem to resonate with either the participants themselves or the electorate watching the events unfold on the televisions. These are not riots; the military has not been engaged to suppress the marches. Pundits are free to support or condemn the protests without fear of government retribution. The citizenry are free to publicly express their position on the issue without fear of disappearing in the night.

There are protests currently underway in Syria; they are marked by blood in the streets. The images from Libya show not a peaceful populace protest, but rather tanks and mortars in the streets.

The founding fathers gave us a most precious gift within the first amendment; the right to peaceably assemble and to petition the government for a redress of their grievances against that government.

“We the people” and “of the people, by the people, and for the people” are not simplistic slogans or mere political catchphrases. They are our birthright, and if we do not honor and protect them, and allow them to live and thrive, we shall surely lose them. We have evidence today around the world that speaking out can come with the ultimate price being paid; America will not join those ranks, but we must be ever vigilant to actively protect and exercise our freedoms.

If we do not, they shall surely perish from the face of the earth, and that must not be our epitaph to our posterity.

The Tea Party

“… and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…”

The current political playbook instructs readers that should you be a mindless incompetent who wishes to maintain your elected office, deflect examination of your record by turning the focus on a perceived greater threat to American democracy.

In short, spare no opportunity to demonize your political opponents’ as the cause for your incompetence, wrapping your arguments around such phrases as ‘crazy’, ‘unpatriotic’ and any other terminology that cannot be defended: the old canard of asking an opponent a question along the lines of when did they stop beating their wife?

It is that approach to political discourse that has framed the debates and discussions about the emergence of the Tea Party.

With all due respect to the members of that particular political faction, I believe that their rise as a political force has not been properly explained in a manner that can fit into conventional pop culture idiomatic form.

To wit:

The Tea Party of the 2010 elections are the Marx Brothers of their time.

This is not intended as a disparaging dismissal of the party, but rather a defense of their emergence to those who would dismiss them as merely an epithet.

The Marx Brothers, as opposed to their comedic contemporaries and progeny, did not choose to dismantle the societal norm; rather, they accepted the framework that was in place and simply acted within that given restriction. It is when by doing so that the entrenched interests took exception to their actions. They were not the revolutionaries looking to overthrow the status quo; they merely pointed out its absurdity by working within it.

This is where the Tea Party gets its strength and garners the harsh response by the political elite and their media flacks.

The congressional members elected as part of the Tea Party caucus did not undertake a military coup to obtain positions of power. They did not subjugate the United States Constitution; rather they directly followed it. They were legally placed on their respective ballots and by the electoral process rules in effect for all candidates won the election. There was no illegality, no subterfuge, no assault upon the Constitution.

So the question must be asked: what is the level of stagnation in the body politic when duly elected members of Congress can be ridiculed and labeled as crazy because they fairly brought their own ideology to government?

This is a dangerous trend that must be addressed by the American electorate. We must move beyond the entrenched two parties; the elevation to halls of power by the Tea Party is the definition that demonstrates that the nation has begun that necessary realignment away from an entrenched two party system.

Those who oppose the Tea Party have a simple solution – do what they did. If they can make a winning argument to win an election, that is American democracy in action.

Ridiculing the Tea Party is nothing more than a demonstration of ineptitude by their opponents.

Those who garner more votes win elections and are awarded the custodial and temporary positions pf power.

It is as simple as that

Let Freedom ring!