By Rebekah Rast
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The TEA Party movement will be in full swing today — all over the nation. From marching through downtown streets to rallying together in front of courthouses, the mission is the same. TEA Partiers don’t approve of where the federal government is leading America and are taking a stand against it.
Various TEA Party leaders spoke with Americans for Limited Government (ALG) about the movement and their plans for tax day.
What is your opinion of the USA Today op-ed by Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi, where they refer to the activists opposing healthcare (many part of the TEA Party movement) as “un-American?”
A. Henry Kriegel: “These people don’t know the history of this country. We are America’s 2nd Revolution and we honor the freedoms given to us that are inscribed in the Constitution. It’s the pot calling the kettle black. They are the ones who are un-American and have manipulated the democratic process.”
A. Mark Lloyd: “It is not un-American to speak out against an intrusive over-reaching big government and an administration that is bound and determined to take this country into a form of socialism, controlling every aspect of our lives and taking away our individual liberties as well as bankrupting my children, my grandchildren and future generations.”
A. Bradley Bentley: “The constitution is about freedom. It does not provide means of freedom for having entitlement to everything America wants to offer. It just provides these opportunities of freedom to go after what I choose. The American people have tried to get their representatives and their senators to do the right thing but they would not listen. Part of the TEA Party movement is staying active and staying strong and staying vocal in a positive way to force our representatives and hold them accountable. If they won’t listen we will work and actively remove them from office by running candidates that will oppose them and stand for what’s right.”
What are your TEA Party’s local plans for Tax Day?
A. Henry Kriegel: We are going to march to the library up Main Street to the courthouse. We will then go back to library where the staff of Senators Baucus and Tester will be. We will voice our dissent. “Since you ignored us over the months we are going to vote you out of office.” We expect around 700 to 1,000 people.
A. Mark Lloyd: We’ve got a tax day rally tomorrow evening here in town and we’ve got some local speakers and a get together. At our last rally we hosted here in Lynchburg we had around 500 or so and I can’t even start to tell you how many we are expecting. “I’m going to be speaking on how it’s time now for the TEA Parties to stand up and take the lead. Protests are great but all protests all the time, that’s not leadership and it’s now time for us to stand and lead.”
A. Bradley Bentley: “We are having a TEA Party in Lubbock, Texas, for the surrounding communities. We hope to draw 1,500 to 2,000 people. We had about 1,500 people here last year. We are meeting at Lubbock County Courthouse.”
Tell me about yourself. When did you get involved in the TEA Party movement? What does the movement mean to you?
A. Henry Kriegel: “I helped organize the movement in Bozeman last year. This is an opportunity to finally share with likeminded people the challenges our nation faces. This is a way to show my love for freedom. This is a way for us to show our defiance to our out-of-control government, which threatens our liberties.”
A. Mark Lloyd: “I got involved because I had to do something. I cannot and could not continue to just sit on the fringe of politics. My country is much, much too important. I see the TEA Party movement from the inside out as citizens actually becoming engaged and involved in government like I’ve never seen before in my lifetime. The future of the TEA Party movement is it continues to grow and the people wake up and become engaged and involved in their government. They actually do stand up and start to appreciate their liberties. Very often we don’t appreciate something until it’s taken away from us. And more people are waking up now to the fact, and more and more everyday are waking up to the fact, that our liberties are being stolen from us by the government and if we are going to have them it’s up to us to protect them and to reestablish a Constitutional government that doesn’t just make up the rules as it goes. We need to go back to what the Founding Fathers intended.”
A. Bradley Bentley: “We got involved last February after the election. We became aware the Obama Administration was taking over the country and I started to ask a few friends to gather with me and pray and see how we could get involved. And it grew from there. We had 1,500 people at the TEA Party. The TEA Party is an opportunity for American citizens to gather together to show a sign of force—vocally, visually and physically with our footprints on the pavement, just marching and showing that we are force to be reckoned with. We aren’t going to stop until they listen to us fully and we see results. We’re not a flash in the pan, we are here to stay and we will hope to bring our representatives, both congressman and women and their senators, and hold them accountable truly for what they’re doing when they turn their backs on us.”
Whether a TEA Party leader or part of the crowd, involvement in this movement is simply exercising America’s most basic right—the 1st Amendment. No other liberty so proudly demonstrates the democratic system that America was founded upon.
Rebekah Rast is a contributing editor to ALG News Bureau.
