One year ago, millions of people across the country attended a tea party. Three-thousand people came to the rally in Orange County at the Plaza of the Flags. Andrew Breitbart was one of the many speakers and he always refers to Orange County as “his first.”
No one realized at that time that the Tea Party movement would turn into a political force—a force that continues to build in numbers. The Tea Party movement is now vetting, running, and endorsing candidates across the country.
Marco Rubio, Chuck Devore, and Michele Bachmann have all tapped into the energy of the movement and are stronger candidates and house-hold names because of it. Scott Brown’s money bomb and ultimate win has direct ties to the Tea Party. In Orange County, alone, the OCGOP Central Committee elections in June have an average of 10 people in each AD district running for 6 spots.
In the 70th AD, we have 17 candidates. The outcome of the Tea Party movement, in my estimation, is that people are engaged; and an engaged electorate is an educated electorate.
It is no surprise that the press, until lately, had all but dismissed or disparaged the movement. Martin Wisckol, after last year’s rally in Orange County, had inaccurately reported that a “few hundred” people had showed up.
Upon reading that, he was asked for a retraction and correction. Martin’s inability to accurately report on the movement was again demonstrated in the OC Register’s front-page article on Sunday, “Tea Party Faces Growing Pains.” Any publicity is good publicity and the Tea Party in Orange County has never been on the front page, but I was left with a sense that Martin was trying to find one blemish on the x-ray that would diagnose a malignancy. Nonetheless, I can, to some extent, appreciate his confusion.
There are many communities, many groups, and many people volunteering their efforts to bring about principled governance—yet there is no leader. This leaderless movement is an anomaly, but the movement is far from dying. The movement will continue to grow as long as the principles of smaller government, free markets, and lower taxes are bastardized by this administration, or any elected official, (a.k.a Abel Maldonado), who continues to support the economic fallacy that raising taxes yields an increase in revenue. The new catch phrase among the Tea Party groups is “Remember in November.”
I can also agree with Martin that the OCGOP is isolated from the local Orange County Tea Party. I guess if the Citizen Power Campaign failed, the Tea Party Patriots are no longer needed or welcome? Is that why there is a OCGOP rally in Santa Ana and a Tea Party rally in Irvine?
If I could make a modest suggestion to the OCGOP: the tea party movement is a voting block.
Due to the increase in the decline to state and independent registered voters in our faded ‘red’ county, there is opportunity. But, if the Tea Party movement isn’t engaging with the OCGOP then that would lead me to preclude that something is wrong with the OCGOP? Perhaps an audit is in order? At the National level we have Jim Demint endorsing Chuck Devore and Rubio, but the NRSC is endorsing Carly Fiorina and Christ.
Perhaps the OCGOP is not listening to Demint and holding onto their establishment ties?
My background in business tells me that if something isn’t working in an organization or an assembly line, perform an audit, find the root cause, and fix it. The OCGOP is either not listening or not interested.
And in the ironies of all ironies, Martin Wiskol still couldn’t get the numbers right as he misquoted the time of the first year anniversary of the Orange County Non Partisan Tax Day Tea Party.
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