Berry Laker Op ed.
It has been a little over 48 hours since Rick Santelli from CNBC gave his Tea Party Rant. Since then I have seen less then ten conservative blogs (I follow 50 or more blogs and sites on a daily basis) followed up on leaders in our state party and seen very little on news of Rick Santelli. Talk radio did a good job commenting, playing audio and getting the word out. To those that reacted to Rick's Tea Party, thank you. To all those others I make the following comments.
Where are the leaders of the Right? Where are the so called republican leaders? Where are all those we look up to, follow and read on a daily basis? It seems some of the blogs that a lot of us hick, hay seed ,NASCAR conservatives living out in the heartland listen to and read are AWOL. We look to them for inspiration, guidance, and news that affects all of us that live in this God given country. Where are our government leaders? Where are the people who say they are the pulse and direction of the republican party? Where is Santelli on the
RNC website? Here is the
WRNC website. People are reacting to this now, today and our supposed leaders are missing the boat. Maybe they will pick up on this in April or May.
They talk about grass roots, they talk about conservative values, they tell us to join them to defend the American dream. They send us letters to contribute money. During the election we were told to organize, to unite, they said the left was better at getting their base mobilized. We should Twitter, Face Book or be on My Space. We needed to organize, we need to get off our butts to get our candidates elected. The republican party expected their base to follow like sheep but forgot to give the party of Ronald Reagan a candidate they could believe in. The era of Ronald Reagan is not dead, is not forgotten.
Conservatives were sold damaged goods. Conservatives were told to vote for moderates! We were told "we have to be inclusive". We had to open our party to groups and special interest to get candidates elected. We let ACORN take away some of our votes. When we did have a true conservative at the top of our ticket, Sara Palin was thrown under the bus by some our own so called people. He can play a guitar so he must be a good guy. No we can't bring up Hussein, Jeramiah Wright was off limits, we need to govern from the middle.
Hog wash! I am Conservative! I will not meet in the middle. I will not support empty suits. I will not support republicans in name only! I will not support candidates that say one thing and after elected cozy up with the left just for the sake of getting along, "I just want the democrats and the press to like me"! We can agree to disagree but the candidates we elect must stand on our beliefs not theirs!
We have a new President. Barack Obama is my President. I have the up most respect for him and for the office of President. Saying that I disagree with most if not all of his policy's. Enough said about the past.
Now to the future of the conservative movement. Rick Santelli's rant on Thursday was a shot heard around the world and I hear and see very little from the so called conservative leaders (even blogger's who the base believe in) of this country. Where are they on this? This has jazzed up the base. In a 24 hour period CNBC had over two hundred thousand online votes of people who would join Santelli at his tea party. Last time I looked, 93 % of the people were for Rick's party. The real people of this country are mad as hell and an opportunity is looking at us square in the face. Where are our leaders?
We have Rush, Shawn, Sara, Bobby and many others. We now have someone that tells the world our concerns, our pain, someone that gives us a voice with words we believe but do not have a public forum to move our beliefs forward. We hear you Rick Santelli and we know your right.
Do the movers and shakers of the right think this is a joke. Did our founders tell the few that participated in the Boston Tea Party your crazy, it's stupid, don't waste your time?
How can we sit back and let the federal and state governments destroy this great country of ours? We have the opportunity to take back our country and the people that give us direction are sitting in silence. Yawn.
I don't know Rick Santelli except for watching my stocks on CNBC. But I can tell you this, it struck a nerve. It boiled my blood against a party that is taking advantage of the people that work hard every day, pay there taxes, don't complain, give to people of need and pray to God that gave us this great country.
I am not involved in politics, I do not blog for my ego, I only pray that my children and grandchildren will not suffer for the greed that my generation perpetrated onto them. They will blame me for letting this happen. They will blame me for the debt they will pay. They will never forget that. I have the opportunity to give them their future they deserve and I cannot let them down. I do not want to see their future fail and God forbid do not want to take away their God given rights.
Why the silence of the right? I guess I now know who is really conservative and who just does lip service to the masses. I guess my disappointment is a continuation of last years election. Will the right ever learn? It looks like we start over with a conservative party that will take our beliefs forward. Looks like it may take longer then I thought. Will we, can we, ever be united? How long will the right be AWOL?
This is an opportunity we cannot let pass. I am only one voice but I will do everything I can to save this great counrty. I will tell my neighbors, my friends, my family. The Chicago Tea Party is for real and it is everyone's responsibility to take our counrty back.
Conservative leaders, blogs, friends and neighbors, don't sit back, spread the world and start a movement. We cannot let this pass.
See you in Chicago or maybe a Tea Party in every town in America this fourth of July.
