An open letter to the Tea Party:
How far we’ve come since Rick Santelli encouraged the creation of a new Tea Party to oppose “the government's support of fiscal irresponsibility”.
Capped off with the historic beating the Democrats took in the House of Representatives, we’ve had success after success with our movement and put the fear of the people back into our politicians. They understand that they will not get away with totally ignoring the will of the people, no matter how many agenda driven, policy parroting mouthpieces they have in the national mainstream media and no matter how hard they work to smear us.
With this success in mind, we cannot allow our movement to be used by those who lose site of what it is that we stand for. That is: individual liberty, private property rights and the opposition to a massive, out of control government who thinks the only way it can feed its ravenous fiscal appetite is through a tyrannical, confiscatory tax policy.
I now believe some who have appointed themselves “leaders” of our movement have done just that. Not only have they lost site of those principals, they’ve blatantly tossed them aside and sided with tax-mongers on the left. Here’s a quote from Jamie Sanderson, Former Democratic Party chairman of Georgetown County about the recent Amazon tax bill and the Tea Party’s involvement:
"Tea party or no tea party, it's about not selling out the state at thrift-store prices. The state has already cheapened itself enough by having one of the lowest corporate tax rates, being against working people and maintaining profits for big business. So, what else could it do? Give away free land? Even more tax breaks? Please. Go somewhere else, then. It seems to me they weren't dedicated enough to begin with, only contingent on getting a sweet deal.
What was done protected government. It protected sources for revenue. It protected what Republicans can't lie about anymore.”
That’s right… it protected GOVERNMENT.
By the way: his claim that this was a vote against “maintaining profits for big business” is laughable. After all, all those advertisements against the tax deal we saw on the television from “Main Street Alliance for Fairness” were bought and paid for by Walmart, Target, Bestbuy and other “mega-mart” retailers. This group was successful in misleading people, including the choice of their organization’s name. They are not a local group or alliance for local small businesses as their name suggests. For the past year, they’ve been waging an anti-Amazon campaign across the country. And they’ve succeeded. We’ve just treated this high-tech business the same way liberal states like California has.
Furthermore, his statement about “sources of revenue” simply illustrates the left’s mindset: businesses are purely considered sources of tax revenue for the government. The economic security, growth and prosperity of the communities they move in to mean little to the left. They can be allowed to operate as long as they provide cash flow for the tax collectors and a steady revenue stream with which they can fund their entitlement programs (and buy votes in the process).
These past few weeks, the self appointed “Tea Party” leaders encouraged us to help them. Face it: you’ve been duped, Tea Party. Why the “leaders” of the Tea Party committed to such a cause, I’ll never understand. Why they actively worked to keep our state at an economic disadvantage against other states, I’ll never understand. Why they sided with the left on this anti-business stance, I will never understand.
Think about it… you’ve just taken a stand FOR taxes. After screaming and yelling our heads off about spending and taxation for two years, we’ve just sided with the left on taxes. Should we also agree with Mr. Sanderson that our Corporate Tax rate is too low? Perhaps we should agree with his insinuation that we should drop our right-to-work status because it means our position is “against working people”? I would remind Mr. Sanderson that it’s hard to be against working people when the people aren’t working. And it is his position that just prevented 1200 people from working.
I know the leaders of the Tea Party painted this as “standing up for local business” and “no more secret deals with businesses” but that’s not what this was about. Amazon does not compete with local business. People who shop online are not the same customers who shop downtown or locally, now or after Amazon opened up shop here.
The sales tax exemption was only for five years. The benefits not only included the added jobs, but the added cash flow those employees would have brought to the community. More money for the local restaurants from lunch breaks, increased traffic for gas stations, money from shipping truck maintenance for local garages… the local economic impact of a large distribution center are nearly immeasurable.
As members of a movement, we must not lose site of our goals and principals. Private property rights, a free market and LESS government are among the most important principals. We cannot allow those who would appoint themselves as our leaders dupe us again. The real power of the Tea Party is the fact that it is a genuine grass roots movement. We have no one telling us how to think or what our principles are. We are not motivated by special interest groups nor are we susceptible to their influence. Politicians know this and are very aware that our motivations are genuine and that we will not rest until we are sure they have listened and that if they do not listen, we hold them accountable. Republican or Democrat… they will be held accountable.
I intend to use my blog to help anyone who would listen understand conservative principles and how they are what have made our country the freest and most prosperous civil society the world has ever known. As citizens of the United States, we have a lot of power so every political stance we take should be measured against these principles so that tragic mistakes like this Amazon debacle are not repeated.
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