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Beneath Astroturf, Grassroots Attempt to Push Through

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Was 9/12 An Inside Job?

If you are wondering how I got through the 3 main tea party groups without making any major mention of the 9/12 Project, it is because while I wouldn't call it "grass roots", they are at least decentralized in large part. Individual chapters do what they want to, some work with Tea Party Patriots such as the Suffolk County 9/12 Project which banned Libertarians and Campaign for Liberty members for discussing what they perceived to be "Liberal" subjects like corruption in the Food and Drug Administration and the Iraq War, perhaps others work with Tea Party Nation, I know one 9/12 Coordinator from outside Long Island who is a registered Democrat and Campaign for Liberty member, and is truly Liberty minded and anti-war. The organization itself does not appear to be under any central form of control, and on nationwide 9/12 forums there are neocons and there are libertarians, it all depends on who is running the local chapter.

The domain for the official 912 project website, the912project.com, was registered on February 7, 2009, indicating it wasn't quite as spontaneous as Glenn Beck would have people believe, and having 5 hours a week on Fox News and a nationally syndicated radio show to promote something is hardly "Grass Roots". Many chapters are basically politically active Glenn Beck fan Clubs. Glenn Beck often tries to refer to himself as Libertarian and talk about the constitution and about economics the way Libertarians do, but he also pursues Neocon foreign policy, supported the bailouts, and the patriot act. There are independent leaders of The 9/12 Project, but the Suffolk and Nassau County chapters get their news from Glenn Beck, and their Marching orders from GOP Controlled Tea Party Patriots.

Nobody is Perfect

Campaign for Liberty, of which I am a Proud and Active member, has made it's own terrible decisions. Campaign for Liberty was born out the of the Ron Paul campaign, just like the tea parties, and is very decentralized, but it's mission statement includes a non-interventionist foreign policy. Campaign for Liberty is technically a non-partisan organization, but is of course started by anti-establishment Republican, Ron Paul. Some Campaign for Liberty chapters have become Tea Party Patriots chapters (or vice versa). Recently Campaign for Liberty of Colorado offered to shell out $350,000 on a TV advertisement for pro-war candidate Ken Buck. The difference between Campaign for Liberty and the other groups? CFL Members from across the country came down on the Colorado chapter and forced them to revoke the ad, we self police.

You Can't Hijack That Which Is Yours

Much of the Tea Party movement has been hijacked, or at least lead astray from it's original intentions. Seeing as to how many of these organizations were formed with the specific intention of bringing the GOP back to power, perhaps hijacked is not the right word. Anybody in the know has to realize this. Ron Paul says "When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads.", and though he has appeared to keep himself clean, most politicians do not. Any political movement is going to gain the attention of politicians and this is simply to be expected. The only question is how strong are the convictions of the people in the lead, and what are their principles?

But They Backed an Independent!

Some would say that the NY23 election, involving 3rd Party Conservative Candidate Doug Hoffman was proof the Tea Party movement was real. And this gave me some hope as well, but if you understand New York Politics, it wasn't as big a deal as it seemed to be. New York State's "Conservative Party" exists only due to the election laws here. You see, to have permanent (4 year) ballot access in New York State, the party's candidate has to get 50,000 votes in the previous governors race, but that's hard work! But there is an easy way to do that, using a little gag we know as Cross Endorsement. Cross Endorsement is the practice where more than one party has the same candidate, for example, I mentioned earlier in the article, here in Suffolk County, the Republican, Democrat, Conservative, Independence, and Working Families Party, all cross endorsed the same incumbent candidates for at least 3 positions. So the voter walks into the voting booth, and if he or she isn't paying attention says "Wow, isn't Democracy Great? I have all these choices!" But upon closer inspection, there is only 1 choice, with 5 levers to pull for them. The Conservative Party, though it occasionally runs its own candidates, or cross endorses Democrats when the payoffs are worth it, lives only because of the Republican Establishment. Without cross endorsement, and GOP cooperation, there would be no Conservative Party in New York. The Conservative Party, therefor, is beholden to the GOP, and exists as little more as a mirage to give the voter the fale impression of choice.

And besides that, there was nothing to lose by backing Hoffman. As they all to often are, the Republican and the Democrat were exactly the same, lacking even the fake differences they normally try to portray, so much so that when the Republican dropped out of the race, she actually backed the Democrat. Hoffman on the other hand was the proverbial poster child of the Neocon GOP Establishment, a pro war, anti-gay, Neocon, who spoke of cutting spending without any specifics.

The Massachusetts election was much more telling. "This is it, this is our chance to stop Obamacare!", leaders proclaimed, and endorsements and support and donations rang out from leaders all over the country, knowing full well that even if Scott Brown did want to stop Health Care Reform, he had no such power to do so. Knowing full well, that Scott Brown has consistently voted for more spending and regulation in Massachusetts, including being one of the primary architects of that state's government run Health Care, commonly known as Romney Care.Knowing full well that Scott Brown was in favor of the unconstitutional "War on Terror" , and with little to no mention of his announcement on CSPAN the next day that "Now that we are past campaign mode"... "I think it's important for everybody to have some sort of basic plan".

Meanwhile, a true small government candidate, with real world business qualifications, existed in Libertarian Joe Kennedy. Multipartisan support rang out from all over the country for Joe Kennedy, and "The Boston Tea Party", where it all started, endorsed Joe Kennedy. But all of that was drowned out by Fox News, and establishment controlled "Tea Party" groups.

And In The End...

As long as the establishment has nothing to fear, then the establishment shall remain in power and nothing will change. The "Tea Party" as it began, was meant to provide that much needed opposition. Organizations like Tea Party Express, Tea Party Nation, Tea Party Patriots, and their splinter front organizations, took the wind out of the sails of that opposition, restoring the power to the two party establishment duopoly. And unless the American People, and the membership of these organizations rise up and demand independence, then Establishment Demopublicans will be replaced with Establishment Republicrats, nothing will change, the movement will die out and lose all credibility, and all the efforts of those members will have been for not.

I seek not to end the "Tea Party Movement", quite the contrary, I seek to restore it, to breath new life into it. I seek to do so, in order to force a true change in American Politics. For these reasons and others, I'm asking people all over the country to take to the streets on February 28th 2010, and take the Tea Party back from the establishment powers with a LiberTea Party, with the Rallying Cry of "Sarah Palin is NOT our Spokesperson! NO SOCIALISM! NO WAR! NO PATRIOT ACT!"

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Chris Cantwell is a Libertarian Candidate for the US House of Representatives in the First District of New York, he is also Director of Outreach for his local Libertarian Chapter, an At Large Committeeman for the NY Libertarian Party, a Campaign for (more...)
 
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