TeaParty Declaration of Independance

Discussion in 'Freedom and Liberty' started by Seacowboys, Feb 24, 2010.


  1. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    We the People of the tea party movement define ourselves and our purposes.
    We the People of the tea party movement declare our independence from the "status-quo" in our political process.
    We the People of the tea party movement have names and faces; to see a tea party "leader", just look in the mirror.
    We the People of the tea party movement are going to take our country back to the vision and values of our Founding Fathers.

    On the one-year anniversary of our tea party movement, the Hartford Tea Party Patriots would like to thank each and every one of YOU for your dedication to helping us lead this movement.

    We are happy to present...

    DECLARATION OF TEA PARTY INDEPENDENCE

    I. As the course of human events winds its way through History, it has found some paths lead to Tyranny and some to Liberty. In seeking a path to Liberty, a great and powerful movement is now rising from every corner of our land. Created by the Will of the American People, it rejects unconstitutional domination by the Government that is supposed to be its servant. This movement has arisen, in large part, because our elected officials have failed us.

    For much of its history the United States has been a land of prosperity and liberty, sound policies such as fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and a belief in the free market have safeguarded this condition. In recent years however, Congress, the President, the Federal Reserve Board and the Courts have replaced those practices with profligate government spending and expansion of the government power beyond what is
    constitutionally permissible.
    This course, if not reversed, can only lead to economic collapse and tyranny.

    Therefore, Individuals acting through the Tea Party Movement, seek to restore the policies, which are proven to safeguard liberty and prosperity for all. We will organize, demonstrate and vote until this restoration has been achieved. We will stay focused on this goal and remain INDEPENDENT from any persons or political parties who seek to distract us from this end.
    Many seek to define this Movement, to use it, to lead it, to co-opt it, to channel it, to control it, to defeat it.

    WE WILL NOT LET THIS HAPPEN.

    The Tea Party Movement is in agreement with our Founders that the government that governs least governs best. We believe that Capitalism – NOT GOVERNMENT - is essential to the creation of wealth and a vastly reduced government provides the foundation for a thriving Capitalist system.

    The Tea Party Movement of America embraces and serves people of all races, creeds, religions, and political affiliations, and we declare ourselves to be independent of all those forces that seek to manipulate our actions or control our destiny.

    II. We Declare ourselves INDEPENDENT of the Democrat Party and its power drunk junta in Washington DC, which is currently seeking to impose a Socialist agenda on our Republic.

    We reject arrogant Left-wing politicians who furtively hide from public scrutiny, as they cut corrupt deals loaded with earmarks and pork in order to produce 2000 page pieces of legislation so purposely incomprehensible, they do not even bother to read them before foisting them upon us.

    We reject the endless creation of myriad federal government agencies that drown free enterprise and local control in the swarms of education, energy, ecology, and commerce bureaucrats who style themselves “czars” sent to harass us. We reject the creation of federal govern¬ment regulations and agencies which demand the States pay for unfunded Federal mandates.

    We reject a Democrat Party which refuses to give credence to our demands for just redress of grievances and which insults and seeks to demonize our legal right to peacefully protest the unjust laws it inflicts upon us.

    We reject a profligate Government that is spending TRILLIONS of dollars on worthless socialist schemes designed to bankrupt us and put the American people in a position of dependence on the State, as peasants begging for their very sustenance from self-styled “educated classes” and so-called “experts”.

    We reject a foreign policy which bows and scrapes and apologizes before the world for America.

    We reject an Attorney General of the United States who offers succor and rights to vicious terrorist murderers and seeks to protect them with a mock civilian trial when such enemy combatants, captured on the field of battle, should be tried in secure military courts.

    We reject the claims of an un-elected Federal Judiciary to violate the separation of powers by demanding its decisions be enforced by the other coequal branches of government, regardless of how unconstitutional the other branches of government may think those decisions are.

    We reject all acts that ignore or diminish the 2nd and 10th Amendments to the US Constitution and we seek to have all powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution to be reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

    III. We Declare ourselves INDEPENDENT of the Republican Party, which has in the past manipulated its Conservative Base to win election after election and which then betrays everything that Base fought for and believed.

    We reject the idea that the electoral goals of the Republican Party are identical to the goals of the Tea Party Movement or that this Movement is an adjunct to the Republican Party.

    We reject the Republican Party professionals who now seek to use the Tea Party Movement for their corrupt and narrow political purposes.

    We acknowledge that standing on our principles does not mean throwing out our common sense; we will NOT abandon our principles in the name of a nonexistent bipartisanship or a misguided devotion to an illusion of “pragmatism”, which disguises a desire to betray us in its name.

    We reject the scare tactics of the Republican Party, which seeks to herd us into voting for candidates who supposedly represent the “lesser of two evils” in the name of fealty to the principle of small government and then having to suffer such candidates as they betray that principle. We are not well served by parasites whose livelihoods depend on the very State whose power to reward or sanction we elected them to limit and proscribe.

    We insist that the Tea Party Movement does NOT consider the election of Republicans in and of itself to be necessarily beneficial to our goals.

    We demand the Republican Party understand that we reject its attempts to co-opt us.

    WE WILL WORK AGAINST THEM when they oppose our views by trying to force Repub¬licans In Name Only (RINO) on us. When Republicans are in accord with their Conservative Base as well as the Independent voters who align with it, IT WINS; when they are NOT in accord with the Conservative Base and the Independent voters who align with it, IT LOSES.

    We reject RINO money; we reject RINO “advice”; we reject RINO “professional experi¬ence”; we reject RINO “progressivism”; we reject RINO support of Big Government; we reject RINO back room deal making; we reject RINO pork spending; we reject false RINO profes¬sions of Conservative views and we reject the RINO’s statist subversion of the principles of small government for which the Republican Party is supposed to stand.

    Republican Party attempts to ignore the will of the Base, as it did in 1976, 1992, 1996, 2006 and 2008, resulted in disaster; when it embraces the will of the Base, as it did in 1980, 1984 and 1994, it wins historic victories.

    We demand the Republican Party recognize that while the Tea Party Movement cannot guarantee their aid will help them win elections, it is very likely WE CAN MAKE THEM LOSE if they are disdainful of our goals.

    IV. We Declare ourselves INDEPENDENT of the Media, which has proved itself to be anything BUT a fair and balanced enterprise and which focuses more on entertainment, fear mongering and shock value than investigation and unbiased fact.

    We reject the fiction that an unbiased media still exists; there is friendly media and there is unfriendly ENE-media. The Tea Party Movement refuses to give false credence to the self-aggrandizing, self-deluding lie that ANY PART of the Fourth Estate is free of the self-serving agendas of those who own them.

    V. We Declare ourselves INDEPENDENT of self-styled “leaders” who claim to speak for the Tea Party Movement. This movement is not a brand name to be used to sell product; nor is it a logo to be used to justify profiting off its name.

    We reject those who seek to personally capitalize on our popularity and momentum by trying to asso¬ciate with our cause.

    We reject the idea that the Tea Party Movement is “led” by anyone other than the millions of average citizens who make it up. The Tea Party Movement understands that as a Free People, we need to SAVE OURSELVES, BY OURSELVES, FOR OURSELVES.

    The Tea Party Movement is not “led.” The Tea Party Movement LEADS.

    VI. We are united in our common belief in Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutionally Limited Government and Free Markets. This threefold purpose is the source of our unity in the Tea Party Movement.

    We reject the idea that the Tea Party Movement must all be unanimous in our specific policy views in order to win. We recognize that the current situation requires we come together in confederation to achieve the MANY MUTUAL GOALS we all seek to accomplish.

    We recognize that the current situation requires that we concentrate on the many things we have in common rather than those few things about which we may disagree.

    We are the Tea Party Movement of America and we believe in American Exceptionalism.

    We believe that American Exceptionalism is found in its devotion to the cause of Liberty.

    We believe that Liberty is based in rational self-interest, in freedom of thought, in free markets, free association, free speech, a free press and the ability granted us under the Constitu¬tion TO DIRECT OUR OWN AFFAIRS FREE OF THE DICTATES OF AN EVER EXPAND¬ING FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WHICH IS AS VORACIOUS IN ITS DESIRE FOR POW¬ER AS IT IS INCOMPETENT AND DANGEROUS IN ITS EXERCISE.

    We believe that either fate or history has chosen this Country to be a beacon of freedom and prosperity to the whole world because of America’s belief in and vigorous defense of political and economic Liberty. The United States has been the instrument of Liberty against the many tyrannies that have threatened the people of this world.

    The Tea Party Movement rejects the idea that America has to apologize to a far guiltier world that has been largely unappreciative of the sacrifices made on their behalf by the brave and noble members of our Armed Forces, whose sacrifice and patriotic service in our defense makes all else possible.

    The Tea Party Movement rejects the imposition of “transformational change” performed on our Nation by smug elites who call themselves the “educated class”.

    The Tea Party Movement understands that our Nation is NOT the same thing as our government and that America is much more than simply a militarily and economically powerful State.

    The Tea Party Movement sees America as something exceptional, as something unique, as something that came into existence to fulfill the hope of all previous generations that longed for freedom.

    It came into existence because it is more than simply a country with land and population and riches and armaments. America came into existence because LIBERTY is an eternal con¬cept in the mind of both God AND Man.

    The United States of America came into existence because Mankind needs freedom the same way it needs food and air and property and security and love.

    And what is freedom other than the RIGHT to be free of the tyranny of Government and the elitist, self-styled aristocrats who seek to run it at our expense and to our detriment?

    The Tea Party Movement will fight this danger to our Liberty as long as its members have breath in their bodies.

    When America didn’t exist men and women were compelled to invent it, BECAUSE MANKIND CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT FREEDOM AND STILL BE FULLY HUMAN.

    To this goal we mutually pledge to each other, as our Founding Fathers did over two centuries ago, our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.


    February 24, 2010
     
  2. Brokor

    Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

    I can write a better one.
     
  3. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    Broker, I am sure you would be quite the soldier in any man's army but only you can choose what you will fight for. I have participated in these events and saw first hand, the first time in my life, people gathering for the cause of liberty without the happy horse-shit flag waving we all put up with before we send our children off to die for the price of Halliburton stock. When someone finally shows me something better, I'll join that fight too. We expect a degree of corruption of principal and limited usurpation and lots of criticism, but we will continue to speak out.
     
  4. SLugomist

    SLugomist Monkey++

    Props to the Hartford Tea Party. Great article, could use some polishing, more details on why the dems have failed, and why the repubs have failed the people. It’ll turn into a great political speech.
    "This movement has arisen, in large part, because our elected officials have failed us."
    They are failing us as we speak and have failed in so many ways, educate the people on these and you’ll win them over.

    "This course, if not reversed, can only lead to economic collapse and tyranny."
    The tyranny from the republicans with their patriot act, immunity for companies that spy on citizens, endless alphabet agencies, their war on " you name it", more like war on personal freedoms.
    The economic collapse from the democrats, with their entitlement society and protections and bailouts for big corporations, and a government department of "you name it".

    "Therefore, Individuals acting through the Tea Party Movement, seek to restore the policies, which are proven to safeguard liberty and prosperity for all." ADD, "regardless of Race or Religion." Sorry but the electorate need to hear that.

    "We believe that Capitalism – NOT GOVERNMENT - is essential to the creation of wealth and a vastly reduced government provides the foundation for a thriving Capitalist system."
    I’m a bit more liberal on this. But I agree that government should stay out of the markets, all of them.
    But, How do you keep company X from having slave wages and hours, etc. Child labor laws. Etc.
     
  5. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    I think supply and demand will cover that. Accepting low wages and long hours is a choice, not an indenture.
     
  6. Brokor

    Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

    Well I don't have time right now to explain, but it lacks refinement and clarity. The declaration is riddled with opinionated statements and does not focus on the facts enough to be effective. That said, I will try to get around to explaining this in detail, most likely this weekend since we may have snow days.

    I have two essays due by Friday, and I should not be spending time here when I must get to work. I respect your insight, Seacowboys -and I appreciate your response, even though you show me more credit than I am due. ;)
     
  7. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Truly, it is more of a manifesto than a declaration. But the roots are there to expand on in some ways, and rub out the noise. Needs work by a proper wordsmith, Jefferson style.
     
  8. Brokor

    Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

    I took out most of the contradictions to the declaration, edited and corrected the fragmented sentences and grammatical errors, and eliminated some of the unsupported, opinionated statements which only served to weaken the effect of a declaration.

    It still needs to be further revised, but I feel that the Tea Party itself and its platform may need even more revision (or in the least, the mind which created this to begin with).

    One of the greatest contradictions within this declaration is the claim that the Party is demanding sovereignty from political parties such as the Democrats and Republicans, but also states that they 'embrace and serve' all parties.

    Another failure was the inability to distinguish between the free market and capitalism; these are not one and the same, especially when considering the biased focus (leaning to the right) of the declaration. The Republicans have long been in league with corporate empires, and one would argue that this declaration is in desperate need of objection toward corporations and their limitless power, especially the corporate charter, and the personal rights they have assimilated. The corporations themselves wage a far greater risk to liberty than any political party ever could; it is their influence and power which has a stranglehold on our country, in league with the private banks, who have become masters of the creation of money.

    The central focus of this "declaration" is political status, it is not in support of liberty, freedom, and individual property rights. I would eliminate 2/3rds of this declaration myself, and try to focus on REAL issues instead of deluded visions and hopes of achieving a third political party to take the place of all others. All of the "Democrat" protests were based on political perceptions and the attempt to place all the blame on the left, while the objections to the "Republicans" was limited to stating how different they were to the Tea Party Movement.

    I cleaned it up as best I could, but it is inherently choppy and doesn't project a clear message to informed, non major party members. At best, it serves only to congratulate its own members and cite contempt for the Liberals while keeping a very weak base of argument on anything else.

    See attached .pdf file for revisions:
     

    Attached Files:

  9. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    [applaud]Broker!
     
  10. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    +1, we have a wordsmith!! [beer]
     
  11. Brokor

    Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

    Actually, I also missed a huge mistake near the end: "...and the ability granted us under the Constitution TO DIRECT OUR OWN AFFAIRS..."

    The constitution does not grant powers, privilege, or rights to the citizenry. The constitution is a delegation of power FROM the People, TO their government -it is a well outlined, limiting document established to keep government in check. The Bill of Rights (first ten amendments), which was later added, are NOT original, inclusive facets of the constitution and are frequently misinterpreted to be not only declarative, but also that it delegates rights TO the People -when this simply is not the case at all. The People are sovereign (no power greater and belong to no authority), and the government which is established BY the People must SERVE the People or become utterly null and void. The Bill of Rights only enshrines the most basic rights of the People for all to bear witness -it does not issue these rights, or any other. Government is not the Issuer of rights. This task was reserved to that which created the universe itself, and is beyond the grasps of men and their greed or power.
     
  12. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Well, even the founders didn't get it right on the first try, took months of word massage before all could buy into it. We'll cut you some slack there.
     
  13. BAT1

    BAT1 Cowboys know no fear

    We definitely have our work cut out for us. We have to beat the TV.
     
survivalmonkey SSL seal        survivalmonkey.com warrant canary
17282WuJHksJ9798f34razfKbPATqTq9E7