April 16, 2009 - 0:33 ET
This is what the tea parties are about:
It's about spending — too much spending, to be specific. The idea that a business is too big to fail is anti-American; we've always been for the underdog.
It's about putting my family — my children — under $12.8 trillion in debt; all it took was two presidents and six months.
It's about the idea that we're all socialists now.
It's about the idea that the government can force companies, banks and states to take money and the strings that are attached to it, that they didn't want.
It's about power — too much power going to federal government.
It's about corruption — too much corruption, in both parties.
It's about the rule of law — that no one is above the law: if you're here legally or illegally, it applies-never too rich or powerful.
It's about if you write the tax code you should pay your taxes.
It's about the Republic, not mob rule.
It's about the concept of free speech — we've been called insane, lunatics and worse, just for speaking out.
It's about the years of lies from both parties — a Republican Party that claims to be for small government but gives us Medicare Part D that's got $17 trillion in unfunded liabilities.
It's about hypocrisy — both parties claim to be the most ethical, but we get corruption and not one damn person in Washington to speak out against it.
It's about the media that gets into bed with one party and has moved so far left that it can't even begin to see we're not extremists, we're moms and dads who just want to have a Republic for our children; but they can't see it.
But I'm the extremist.
Bush and Obama spend or put us on the hook for $12.8 trillion, but I'm the extremist?
Cap and Trade without any plan on who pays the taxes or where the money goes, but I'm the extremist?
States are looking to apply retroactive taxes — that's like changing the rules in the middle of the game — but I'm the extremist?
Vilifying AIG executives, without any law being broken, just for accepting money they were owed, but I'm the extremist?
Bush and Obama have taken over and want to take over banks, car manufacturers and insurance companies, but I'm the extremist?
The politicians in the House and Senate stuff $20 billion in pork and earmarks into spending bills when we have to beg the Chinese to loan us that money, and I'm the extremist?
A Supreme Court justice and Harold Koh, who will help run the State Department, talk about trans-nationalism and by definition a diminished role for the Constitution, but I'm the extremist?
Politicians openly talk of the Fairness Doctrine — or its ugly twin, "localism" — and curtailing my free speech, but I'm the extremist?
Unions and big labor politicians want to take away the right to a secret ballot, but I'm the extremist?
I believe in the Constitution. I believe in the Founding Fathers. I believe in the American people. When did believing those things make someone — anyone — an extremist?
I'm not the extremist.
I learned something from a lawyer friend of mine who won lots of cases in front of judges and lawyers — I asked him how he won so many cases. He said it's easy: If the law supports my client's position I argue the law. If not, I argue the facts. If the facts don't support my client's position, I just attack the opposition.
They can't attack the message, so I guess they have to target the messenger.
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