dr. hfn
02-15-2010, 05:28 PM
Time for tea? What the Tea Party movements means in PA
By Patriot-News Op-Ed
February 13, 2010, 1:00PM
President Ronald Reagan asked us, “If not you, who? If not now, when?”
Is it possible that the Tea Party movement has awakened a sleeping giant — the American voter — to the realization that our government is out of control?
Our politicians have for far too long ignored our Constitution and passed laws denying us the freedoms that our ancestors died to enshrine in that document. Their reckless spending will bankrupt future generations of Americans. It is time to give these people a career change.
Already in New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts, entrenched politicians, handpicked by party bosses, are being shown the door by a suddenly awakened electorate. As Sarah Palin put it recently: “When you’re 0 and 3, maybe it’s time to stop lecturing, and start listening!”
Our commonwealth of Pennsylvania has, by far, the most expensive Legislature in the nation. Salaries, staffing, budgets and pensions have all grown astronomically. As a result, state legislators should be vulnerable to a Tea Party backlash.
Our Founding Fathers would have found it inconceivable that career legislators, educated by professors who see government as the solution to every problem, would someday rule our nation. The ideal of the citizen who left his plow to briefly serve his nation and then returned to his hearth and home has been forgotten. Many, but not all, of today’s legislators have as their highest priority, their own re-election, and the preservation of their perks and privileges.
It’s time to start electing people with a different set of priorities.
It’s also time to revert back to a government that is based upon the Constitution, with a strict interpretation as our Founding Fathers intended it and not the momentary whim of what nine robed justices see as right or wrong.
Our Constitution, and especially the Bill of Rights, was intended to protect us from our own government. Without it, we are naked to the predatory intent of that government.
Tea parties nationwide networking with one another and joining forces in a common cause, are rallying to this call.
No longer will we accept ever larger government, ever-shrinking freedoms and a staggering debt that can never be paid.
Nor will we accept the accompanying loss of jobs, foreclosure of our homes, hyperinflation, and property taxes that make a mockery of the idea of owning your own home.
Working within the Democrat and Republican parties, we will reclaim those parties for traditional American values and the policies our nation was founded upon as well as encourage independents to join in our cause.
The selection of candidates by the party political hierarchy in backroom deals has been taken for granted in the past, but it has been a disaster for the Republican Party in recent gubernatorial contests and will no longer be accepted by today’s more savvy electorate.
Yet again this year, Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate, Rep. Sam Rohrer, R-Berks County, has been discarded in a cavalier fashion by the party bigwigs in favor of their handpicked candidate.
Rohrer’s track record, almost without exception, indicates clearly that his highest priority is service to the people who elected him.
He has steadfastly opposed tax increases and championed the abolition of the property tax to fund schools in Pennsylvania and the reining in of bloated state budgets. Tossing aside candidates of this caliber can only accelerate the demise of the Republican Party in this state.
On Jan. 16, the anger of the common man was strikingly evident at the meeting of Berks County Patriots in Leesport.
A capacity crowd of 800 jammed the hall at Leesport Farmer’s Market, and several hundred more had to be turned away.
What started out to be a Berks County affair attracted citizens from Harrisburg, Carlisle, York, Dover, Hazleton and Orwigsburg. It is clear that the dam has burst.
Berks County Patriots planned another demonstration of their objection to backroom politics when they met with other tea parties from across the state at the Republican State Committee meeting Saturday at Harrisburg Hilton.
With all this in mind, the party bosses would do well to heed the voice of the people.
To ignore us is to join the side of politics as usual and bigger and more intrusive government.
RODNEY E. MILLER is vice chairman of the Berks County Patriots. He is a retired engineer who has championed the cause of conservative politics for more than 40 years.
EDMUND W. BENDER is a retired U.S. Army master sergeant and treasurer of the Berks County Patriots.
http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2010/02/time_for_tea_what_the_tea_part.html
By Patriot-News Op-Ed
February 13, 2010, 1:00PM
President Ronald Reagan asked us, “If not you, who? If not now, when?”
Is it possible that the Tea Party movement has awakened a sleeping giant — the American voter — to the realization that our government is out of control?
Our politicians have for far too long ignored our Constitution and passed laws denying us the freedoms that our ancestors died to enshrine in that document. Their reckless spending will bankrupt future generations of Americans. It is time to give these people a career change.
Already in New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts, entrenched politicians, handpicked by party bosses, are being shown the door by a suddenly awakened electorate. As Sarah Palin put it recently: “When you’re 0 and 3, maybe it’s time to stop lecturing, and start listening!”
Our commonwealth of Pennsylvania has, by far, the most expensive Legislature in the nation. Salaries, staffing, budgets and pensions have all grown astronomically. As a result, state legislators should be vulnerable to a Tea Party backlash.
Our Founding Fathers would have found it inconceivable that career legislators, educated by professors who see government as the solution to every problem, would someday rule our nation. The ideal of the citizen who left his plow to briefly serve his nation and then returned to his hearth and home has been forgotten. Many, but not all, of today’s legislators have as their highest priority, their own re-election, and the preservation of their perks and privileges.
It’s time to start electing people with a different set of priorities.
It’s also time to revert back to a government that is based upon the Constitution, with a strict interpretation as our Founding Fathers intended it and not the momentary whim of what nine robed justices see as right or wrong.
Our Constitution, and especially the Bill of Rights, was intended to protect us from our own government. Without it, we are naked to the predatory intent of that government.
Tea parties nationwide networking with one another and joining forces in a common cause, are rallying to this call.
No longer will we accept ever larger government, ever-shrinking freedoms and a staggering debt that can never be paid.
Nor will we accept the accompanying loss of jobs, foreclosure of our homes, hyperinflation, and property taxes that make a mockery of the idea of owning your own home.
Working within the Democrat and Republican parties, we will reclaim those parties for traditional American values and the policies our nation was founded upon as well as encourage independents to join in our cause.
The selection of candidates by the party political hierarchy in backroom deals has been taken for granted in the past, but it has been a disaster for the Republican Party in recent gubernatorial contests and will no longer be accepted by today’s more savvy electorate.
Yet again this year, Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate, Rep. Sam Rohrer, R-Berks County, has been discarded in a cavalier fashion by the party bigwigs in favor of their handpicked candidate.
Rohrer’s track record, almost without exception, indicates clearly that his highest priority is service to the people who elected him.
He has steadfastly opposed tax increases and championed the abolition of the property tax to fund schools in Pennsylvania and the reining in of bloated state budgets. Tossing aside candidates of this caliber can only accelerate the demise of the Republican Party in this state.
On Jan. 16, the anger of the common man was strikingly evident at the meeting of Berks County Patriots in Leesport.
A capacity crowd of 800 jammed the hall at Leesport Farmer’s Market, and several hundred more had to be turned away.
What started out to be a Berks County affair attracted citizens from Harrisburg, Carlisle, York, Dover, Hazleton and Orwigsburg. It is clear that the dam has burst.
Berks County Patriots planned another demonstration of their objection to backroom politics when they met with other tea parties from across the state at the Republican State Committee meeting Saturday at Harrisburg Hilton.
With all this in mind, the party bosses would do well to heed the voice of the people.
To ignore us is to join the side of politics as usual and bigger and more intrusive government.
RODNEY E. MILLER is vice chairman of the Berks County Patriots. He is a retired engineer who has championed the cause of conservative politics for more than 40 years.
EDMUND W. BENDER is a retired U.S. Army master sergeant and treasurer of the Berks County Patriots.
http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2010/02/time_for_tea_what_the_tea_part.html