The Great Conservative Mistake...can it be undone?

Over the past few years as the Tea Party emerged and began to engage politics, we began to see the words and phrases like Constitution, unalienable rights, and personalities like Jefferson and Madison bandied about. People would rally at their State Capitols, local court houses, and even Washington DC while carrying signs about the need to get back to the Constitution. These were thrilling times, a raw, We the People moment in history was at the forefront. Sure, most of the attendees were affiliated with the Republican Party; that was simply unquestionable. Most would also identify themselves as “conservative” in their ideology.

But, for a moment, sadly a brief moment, they were autonomous, free from the shackles of standard status quo politics. And they scared the crap out of the DC’vers for this brief moment; they resembled the rabble rousers of 1775 – 1776. They were unafraid and unashamed of their allegiance to transcendent truth.

But then it happened.

I heard it first appear on Laura Ingraham’s radio program when she called for a “Code Red” rally in DC. It was at that time I knew the fix was in. One of the two-party machine apparatus was not going to sit idly by and risk the end of their hold on power. There would be no need for a direct frontal assault on the Tea Party, no, a better, more palatable plan was launched…Operation Assimilation. The rally was being billed as an opposition to Obamacare rally. But was it really? The invited guests that day were Representative Michelle Bachman, Representative John Boehner and a list of numerous other republican Congressman, operatives and celebrities would speak to the masses.

Like I said, the fix was in.

That day, supported by other national talk shows, the Tea Party began the process of being assimilated into the Republican Party to become the party’s newly acquired grassroots ground game for the 2010 elections and this election. And boy were they successful.

All the energy and commitment to the Constitution and principles that defined our founding generation disappeared from the Tea Party. The new call of the Tea Party was to get more republicans back into power. The Republican Party apparatus, campaign strategists and other professionals knew how to speak to the Tea Party and motivate them to their side. And the Tea Party, searching for acceptance in the world of politics took the bait, believing, naively, that they were the vanguards and could change the party from “inside.” What they didn’t realize was that there simply was no way to do this. It was the Tea Party that was targeted for assimilation, not the other way around. Remember the Moral Majority? Who became the assimilated? The Republican Party or the Moral Majority? I think you understand the point.

So, how did this happen? How did a once vibrant, principled movement devolve into just another arm of the RNC? This is the question I hope to answer and to provide solutions to those who care to employ them.

The Tea Party was just a group of average citizens who were political novices when they entered the field of professional politics backed by million dollar political consulting firms. It was inevitable, the Tea Party was going to be coopted, and it was just a matter of time before it did. Sure, we warned people on our program, as did others, to steer clear of party politics, to give up on the idea of transforming the RNC, even at the local level. But most didn’t listen.

Even the national groups like Tea Party Nation, Tea Party Patriots are now nothing more that campaign arms of the RNC. Sadly, even Glenn Beck has switched back to Republican Party politics even as he tries in vain to shout that he’s not.

Like I mentioned, this was inevitable. The dishonesty of both parties is brazen. The RNC knew that all it needed to do was pretend to align itself with the “values” of the Tea Party, and the politically naiveté of the average Tea Party member would drive them right into their waiting arms. And it worked as well as the paid political consultants predicted it would.

In a phrase, the Tea Party got bamboozled and rolled by the RNC.

Yet, we’re beginning to hear the rumbles of dissatisfaction, of disillusionment and of disagreement. And this is a hopeful development in my view. Perhaps the RNC overplayed its hand. Perhaps the formerly politically naïve are gaining some political savvy.

Perhaps?

Why else do shows like ours, The Forgotten Men, and the Mike Church show continue to grow and add listeners every week? How else do you explain the growth of organizations like The Tenth Amendment Center, Liberty Classroom.com and Restoring Freedom.org? These are the evolution of what I like to call the Liberty Movement.

The Liberty Movement is the Heir Apparent of the Tea Party…it’s time to move on and relinquish control of the Tea Party to the RNC; they won.

Let the Tea Party continue to join forces with the RNC; many Tea Party faithful, committed to “reforming” the RNC and somehow hold on to their principles will eventually realize the futility of their efforts and come on home to the Liberty Movement.

The Liberty Movement will be the true home of conservatives and interestingly enough, it will be home for principled progressives. Why? Many of you will naturally ask, aren’t progressives our mortal enemies? They are only mortal enemies if you believe in status quo politics. If you’re willing to expand your thinking on the role of government in the lives of a free people, and when progressives are willing to expand their thinking about status quo politics, why wouldn’t we link arms with them?

Ask yourself this; if federalism truly defined the relationship between the States and the federal government, what’s wrong with progressives controlling 25 States with highly progressive politics? And what’s wrong with conservatives controlling the State Houses of 25 States desiring very limited government? What’s wrong with that?

The real problem is when progressives or conservatives demand control over the federal government and then try to force their ideology on all 50 States when perhaps a full half of them don’t want it. So, before you read this and say, “but Mark, Obama is a communist and we have to get rid of him!” Step back and re-read the previous paragraph.

What is wrong with the 50 States operating as the people of those States desire to operate? How can it be defended that a political party in power must regulate the activities of a State if the people of that State don’t want to be regulated by them? Please, I beg you to consider this question.

And this is precisely why we need to identify who the real opponent is…it’s not the progressive who may end up being our allies.

No, the real opponents we need to focus on are the DC’vers in both the RNC and the DNC. And they do an incredible job of getting the focus off themselves. These are the real enemies of liberty. The outright lies and corruption in both parties are staggering and have brought a once great Union to its knees. We are on the verge of utter economic collapse, societal unrest, and an outright takeover of the States by the so-called federal government in cooperation with corporate interests.

We either accidently or naively gave them this power, we must now take it back and take it back we will! They do not have the consent of the governed now and therefore, lacking that consent, we have the unalienable right to take it back from them. Do you believe that? Do you believe that if we organized, really organized in our States that the States could rescind the power from DC whether or not it was delegated or usurped? Do you believe a properly called Article V Amendment Convention could dramatically “alter or abolish” the current so-called federal government? Were the Framers and Ratifiers just nutcases to put Article V in the Constitution? Do you believe the non-delegated power they’ve usurped is rightfully ours (We the People) and we can take it back from them? If you don’t…then all hope is lost and we are but serfs and all we have left to do is prepare for hardship to follow.

However, if like many across this Union, you’ve come understand that you’ve been part of the mess created by the DC’vers by:

1. Voting for DC’vers who could care less about their oaths and are not noble people but generally dishonest and corrupt people; or

2. You realize now that you failed to keep liberty a central feature of government by failing to learn about the role you play in safeguarding it; or

3. You’ve come to realize that you’ve been infected by partisan republican or democrat politics.

Then flee and reject your current involvement in the partisan and collusive politics of national elections and join the Liberty Movement. You won’t regret it.

Very soon, there will be a new political organization that will take the battle to the doorsteps of the DC’vers…not by a rally begging them to honor their oaths. That’s a 100% failed strategy.

No, this new organization will be a political mobilization movement to take back the power they’ve either been granted by We the People in error or usurped by the DC’vers. This new organization will not be about trying to influence federal politics and persuade them to obey the Constitution. Instead, it will offer the average citizen the opportunity to turn the tables on the DC’vers using the very words in the document that began the Union…the Declaration of Independence.

Breathe in these words afresh! We’ll be asking you to re-embrace them, to act on them.

“The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

These words are merely campaign props for the DC’vers, but they will be the marching orders for this new organization.

We’re often asked, “Mark, what can we do?” Well after months of praying and thinking, we’re going to provide that answer…soon. And if we all execute well on this, truly commit to the unalienable rights Jefferson so eloquently penned above…the tyranny of so-called federal government over our bodies at the airport, our property from the IRS, the abuses of the EPA, DOJ, and USDA, the NDAA, and a $16 Trillion debt and $105 Trillion in unfunded liabilities will be ended.

Just as the average citizens in 1775 faced down a tyrannical government in King George, so must we, only this time, there are 535 of them and millions of bureaucrat’s in DC. Only this time, we’ll use arguments and the power of organizing instead of muskets. Just as one man, William Wilberforce brought massive change to Great Britain over the deplorable practice of slavery, so will the Liberty Movement persuade the governed to rescind their consent to the anti-constitutional government located in DC.

This is not about taking up arms, it’s about using the very Constitution they despise to restore federalism. And it will be us, the People operating through our State governments that will bring an end to federal tyranny…but it will take you jettisoning your old assumptions about politics and getting back to the foundational beliefs that started the United States. They resemble nothing of what we have today.

Stay tuned…the beginning of the end is near.