Dana Loesch has a long piece about the Tea Party activists and somber reflections the day after several primaries did not swing the Tea Partiers’ way.
Here’s my contribution:
If you really want to change the GOP to reflect smaller government, conservative principles, you had better get over any instant gratification/revolutionary impulse you have. This is politics. Sometimes the votes go your way, sometimes they don’t, but if you give up and go home when things don’t go your way, the entrenched interests within the party won’t take you seriously and won’t listen to you. That old greybeard whose “turn” it is to run? He’s attended meetings, held party office, hosted fundraisers, and contributed to the local party for 30 years. He’ll be here in 2010, 2012, 2014. If you’re only going to be here in spring and summer of 2010, what impact will you make beyond what he has done for a lot of candidates for a long time? You’re a pup, albeit a loud member of a pack of pups.
If you want to change the GOP, you’d better get your arse to the local party meetings, to the local fundraisers, and to the local campaign offices of candidates you support. Politics is work, not a hobby. If you want change, you have to work for it, not just tailgate at a semi-annual protest.
My advice to the Tea Party is to stay focused entirely on reducing government spending and entitlements. Don’t get distracted by immigration, the war on terror, or anything else.
I saw a video of a Tea Party congressional candidate the other day. He was talking about the importance of standing up for Christianity and that this is a Judeo-Christian country, yada yada yada.
I thought, “Jeez, man. Leave me out of your culture wars; I want no part of them. Just balance the federal budget.”