Give all due credit to Rick Santelli. His rant inspired a movement. But words don’t wear boots.
More images like this one available at Doctor Bulldog: https://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/st-louis-tea-party-by-the-arch/
At 7:00 pm on February 20, Mike Leahy, Eric Odom, Jenny Beth Martin, Michelle Moore, Brooks Bayne, and a few others hijacked the TCOT conference call to answer Santelli’s call for a Tea Party in Chicago.
Two days after that, I posted this on Hennessy’s View: St. Louis Tea Party?
Who’s up for it?
I’m thinking March 14 before the downtown St. Patrick’s Day parade.
- Toss some tea into the Mississippi
- Run 3.2 miles
- Freeze for an hour
- Drink some Jameson’s and Mich Ultra
If Seattle and Chicago can find enough patriots to oppose Obama’s socialization plans, St. Louis sure can.
Track progress here, on Facebook’s #dontgo group, or follow #dontgoand #teaparty on Twitter.
And, Look! Someone’s written a recipe for a Tea Party.
How ’bout this;
Date: Saturday, March 14, 10:00 a.m. Friday, February 27, 11:00 AM Where: Steps of the Arch, Wharf Street Bring: 5-10 friends, signs, and tea (but not in bags) After Party: Everywhere.
Here’s what happened.
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Five years later, Democrats like Chuck Schumer consider the Tea Party the greatest threat to the political class. A lot of establishment Republicans feel the same.
They’re right.
Visibility was the Tea Party’s sole tool in 2009. Beginning February 27, at noon Eastern time, 50 tea party protests drew undue media coverage.
I say “undue,” because we dominated the national news on every network, talk radio left and right, and local news and talk in at least 50 major markets.
In St. Louis, between 1,000 and 1,500 people showed up on a cold day with snow flurries in the air. They came to the steps of the Arch with signs, flags, and even pitchforks, much to the dismay of the park rangers.
But visibility comes with a price. We were identified and vilified, by name, by association, by lies, and by innuendo. We were mocked and attacked, beaten, and stalked.
And we flipped 800 seats in Congress and state legislatures in 2010.
I said visibility has a price. But getting punched in the gut steels resolve.
We may not be as visible as we were, but we’re more effective at driving change than we were in 2009 or 2010. We may not be winning elections, but some of us getting better at winning little battles. As Marc Herr says, we’re creating Mrs. Powells.
Mrs. Powell was the woman who asked Benjamin Franklin, “What have you wrought us? A republic or a monarchy?” Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Mrs. Powell was, of course, a woman. As a woman in 1789, she could not vote, she could not hold public office. She couldn’t even own real property. How in God’s name could such a person with no rights keep a republic?
Because she had power. She all the power God gives to man. She had the power of persuasion, influence, and obstruction. And she used it throughout her life. Mrs. Powell kept her republic.
Have you?
Tonight, Michael Patrick Leahy led a few of us on a stroll down memory lane with one his patented, brilliant conference calls. He asked me what America will look like in 5 years from now.
My answer was simple: freer. I see a generation forming that believes in itself. It believes it alone has the power to make the world better. It distrusts large institutions–big banks, big business, big labor, and big government. It wants to be left alone to solve its problems. If the rest of us get some relief along the way, all the better.
This generation is a Hero generation, much like the WWII generation credited with saving our republic in the Depression and the big war.
If you want to be a Mrs. Powell, forget about your rights. Use your power. You can sharpen your power at Heritage Action Skills Training on the 5th anniversary of the first St. Louis Tea Party, February 27, 2014.
Click here for all the details and to get your free ticket. Only 48 tickets remain.