The 'Express' is no 'Tea Party': Think 'Cannonball' vs Jefferson or Adams

Sept. 3, 2009 - PRLog -- By Publius IV

On Aug. 28, when the twin coaches of  the "Tea Party Express" left  the Capitol Building in Sacramento to launch a national campaign for smaller government,  thousands of  "Tea Party Patriots" stood their ground in the heat to rally against California's landmark cap-and-trade law.

To the handful of invited press, tour VIPs and organizers aboard the buses, the crowd of between 5,000 and 10,000 people on the Capitol steps must have looked like a grand send-off for the "Tea Party Express", sponsored by the Our Country Deserves Better PAC. (See www.ourcountrydeservesbetter.com).  

But the gala departure and the rally were actually two separate events. In a nutshell, California-based groups of  the "Tea Party Patriots," organized the Capitol rally, and the "Tea Party Express" crashed the party, politely.

The "patriots'" got a coalition of industries including agriculture, trucking, logging and mining firms to show up to protest AB 32, the eco-driven legislation that is killing the Golden State's economy. (By Sacramento Police Department count, 75 big rigs and 25 tractors, made a caravan that encircled the Capitol Building for much of the scheduled noon-to-5 p.m. rally). The non-profit, non-partisan "patriots" got the people to come.

Mason Weaver, a motivational speaker, who addressed the Sacramento rally post-Express, put out a clarion, conservative call: "Decide this day what nation you are going to have. Decide this day if you are free or slave; if you are independent or dependent. Decide this day, but act tomorrow."

The "Express" needed a high-energy launch to set the tone for its whistle-stop tour, which includes more than 30 towns in 15 states in 16 days, ending in Washington, DC on Sept. 12, 2009, the day after Patriots Day, which commemorates the terrorists' attacks that murdered more than 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11, 2001. The route traces a conservative tattoo on the belly of vulnerable Democrat Congressional races for 2010. The well-funded "Express" got the press to come.

Two political action committees (PACs) are the chief sponsors of the "Tea Party Express": The National Tax-Limitation Committee (NTLC)  and Our Country Deserves Better. (OCDB).

Lewis K. Uhler, is founder and president of NTLC, a leading taxpayer lobby with offices in the Sacramento-area and in Washington, DC. In 1990, Uhler co-authored Proposition 140, California's pioneering term-limits initiative.

The Hon. Howard Kaloogian, is chairman of the OCDB and served in California's assembly from 1994-2000. In 2003, he launched the historic Recall Gray Davis Committee, which ultimately led to the first recall of a statewide official in California's history.

With the help of the sponsoring conservative and taxpayers' PACs, the grassroots "patriots" got astro-turfed in Sacramento by paid Republican (GOP), political strategists.

Imagine Alexander Hamilton boarding Casey Jones' "Cannonball Express" to take the Revolutionary show on the road with entertainers. Meanwhile, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams are left in a scrub field to tout the merits of the Republic to a pitchfork-and-torch crowd peeved at politicians.

If 1776 was the birth year of America, then 2009 is the year of the modern "Tea Party."

The movement called "Tea Party" by one trinity--the media, elected officials and organized labor--seems to defy definition.  Is it a group of Republican (GOP) operatives disguised as disgruntled hecklers at summer Town hall meetings? Is it simply an "angry mob" of poster-bearing fundamentalists spitting into a Progressive wind? Is it a true "grassroots" movement of those with American values--liberty, private property, free-enterprise and a faith in Providence--resurrecting the voices of our first patriots?

When in doubt, try these classifications of "Tea Party"  linked to a pair of Founding Fathers:

1. "The "Tax Day Tea Party"  (April 15, 2009) was created by Top Conservatives on Twitter (TCOT), SmartGirl Politics and DontGo before the American Family Foundation (AFA) of Tupelo, MS, commandeered much of  registration database for its own purposes.(See www.afa.net).

Founded in 1977 by the Rev. Donald Wildmon, the AFA boasts a membership of 500,000, who support Christian-based family values, traditional marriage, and "promoting the centrality of God in American life." The annual budget in 2004 topped $14 million.

The core of the Tax Day Teaparty founders evacuated the "Tax Day" site to form the Tea Party Patriots (TPP), and keep the organization non-partisan and based on Constitutional ideals. The Tax Day site is a fundraiser for the AFA.

John Adams, a morally righteous patriot, known for his beliefs in Providence and the rule of law, may have joined the Tax Day Tea Party, initially.

2. "Tea Party Patriots" (February 2009), created by a "national coordinator team" based in California and Georgia,  promotes "fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government, and free markets."  (See www.teapartypatriots.org).

Leaders include attorney Mark Meckler of CA, Rob Neppell, and Jenny Beth Martin and Amy Kremer of GA. (Kremer is aboard the "Tea Party Express"). The "Tea Party Patriots" have no affiliation with the AFA and remain the largest organization supporting the Tea Party Movement.

Thomas Jefferson favored small government, agrarian culture and states rights. As an initial Democratic Republican, he may have joined this "grassroots" organization, which  relies on the independence of  volunteer local, regional or state leaders to pilot its course.

A shorthand description of "Tea Party" participants is that they are conservative adults, who simply cherish the idea of the American Republic as put to parchment in the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution of the United States.

When the "Tea Party Express" disembarks in Washington, DC on Sept. 12, thousands will be standing in the heat, again: This time, to honor those who died on U.S. soil in 2001, and who inspired millions of patriots to unite under the flag, faith and freedom that is America.

Perhaps the spirits of Adams and Jefferson will be standing with them.

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Contact: Karen Kenney, press release, at 818-881-7176.
Addtional web sites of interest include: www.freedomworks.org, www.the912project.com and 912DC.org