,
68 tweets,
38 min read
Read on Twitter
"As long as there is liberty in America, there will be a tea party movement in America." dailysign.al/2z2yREK via @jennybethm @DailySignal
@jennybethm @DailySignal When millions of us first got involved in the tea party movement, we had many expectations that proved to go unmet and held many assumptions that we learned were wrong.
@jennybethm @DailySignal Let me put it bluntly: We were naïve. We believed the Republican Party would be a true opposition party and that Republican leaders meant what they said when they pledged to cut spending, repeal Obamacare, and build the wall (remember Sen. John McCain’s ad?).
@jennybethm @DailySignal When we started getting antsy about results after we helped deliver the historic 2010 win in the House of Representatives, and the seven-seat gain in the Senate (not to mention the massive number of state–level wins), we were told to be patient.
@jennybethm @DailySignal After all, Republicans only held one-half of one-third of the federal government.
When, in 2014, we helped the GOP recapture the Senate, we were told again to be patient about the lack of results because we still didn’t control the White House.
When, in 2014, we helped the GOP recapture the Senate, we were told again to be patient about the lack of results because we still didn’t control the White House.
@jennybethm @DailySignal But then, when, against all odds, we helped Trump win the White House while holding the Senate and the House, congressional Republicans didn’t even bother to try to send a fiscally responsible bill to Trump’s desk.
@jennybethm @DailySignal And who was it that single-handedly killed the repeal of Obamacare? None other than McCain.
I’m still angry about that and every other broken promise from the Republicans, who vow every election to do what their voters want and then fail to follow through.
I’m still angry about that and every other broken promise from the Republicans, who vow every election to do what their voters want and then fail to follow through.
@jennybethm @DailySignal Eventually, the grassroots began to realize that everything we thought we knew was actually wrong.
I remember thinking the problems our country faced were confined within the buildings that make up the Senate, the House, and the White House—in other words, our elected leadership.
I remember thinking the problems our country faced were confined within the buildings that make up the Senate, the House, and the White House—in other words, our elected leadership.
@jennybethm @DailySignal Years later, I came to understand that the problems may have started there, but have expanded outward, and now encompass the entirety of the federal bureaucracy: ....
@jennybethm @DailySignal ....the departments, agencies, offices, and bureaus occupied and staffed by faceless, unelected, and (most importantly) unaccountable bureaucrats whose attitude when encountering a superior with whom they disagree is, “I’ll be here after you’re long gone, buddy.”
@jennybethm @DailySignal Sometimes, it feels like we’re fighting the mythological Greek hydra: We cut off one head, only to find that two have grown in its place.
It’s upsetting. It truly is, and millions of Americans feel the same frustration and anger with the out-of-control spending.
It’s upsetting. It truly is, and millions of Americans feel the same frustration and anger with the out-of-control spending.
@jennybethm @DailySignal Overspending and the ever-increasing debt have created a crisis that threatens America’s future prosperity and security, and we will continue to fight for spending cuts and reduced debt every chance we get.
@jennybethm @DailySignal But we are also committed to other issues that threaten the very foundation of our constitutional republic. On these issues, we’ve had real success.
One example is the existential crisis of a radically out-of-control judiciary.
One example is the existential crisis of a radically out-of-control judiciary.
@jennybethm @DailySignal The judiciary has stolen authority and power from the legislative and executive branches that the Constitution never gave to the courts, and we are reaping the consequences of this at an ever-increasing pace.
@jennybethm @DailySignal Judges now rewrite statutes from the bench, use international law to make decisions, pervert and exploit the 14th Amendment, and have basically declared the Constitution unconstitutional. We have societal transformation without representation as a result of judicial tyranny.
@jennybethm @DailySignal Now, leading Democrats are pushing court-packing schemes reminiscent of FDR. They are demanding that the next Democrat president create new positions throughout the federal court system and on the Supreme Court that would be filled with supporters of their left-wing agenda.
@jennybethm @DailySignal Another example is the seemingly limitless waves of mass migration—mostly illegal—from third-world countries with people who do not share American values or views on limited government, and who have little to no loyalty to America.
@jennybethm @DailySignal Fundamental changes to our society are now happening and have been happening because we have de facto open borders—in large part due to activist judges. It’s all an ugly circle of rot.
@jennybethm @DailySignal So, beginning in 2013, we worked hard to block the Gang of Eight’s amnesty bill, and we’ve been working on border security and immigration reform ever since.
@jennybethm @DailySignal In 2014, Tea Party Patriots produced “The Border States of America,” an hourlong documentary about the crisis on our southern border. Perhaps Paul hasn’t seen the film, but more than a million of his fellow citizens have.
@jennybethm @DailySignal We continue to stand for a secure border, and we are proud to have helped elect and now work with a president who catapulted border security to the top of his agenda.
@jennybethm @DailySignal Later that year, when opponents of Obama’s terrible Iran nuclear deal were disorganized, it was left to us to organize the opposition rally on the west face of the U.S. Capitol. So we did
@jennybethm @DailySignal Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Donald Trump—both of whom were running for the GOP nomination for president—spoke at that landmark rally.
@jennybethm @DailySignal In the fall of 2017, we led the effort to put together a nationwide coalition of individuals, organizations, and small businesses to support the first successful tax reform in more than three decades.
@jennybethm @DailySignal To help educate our fellow citizens, we produced and aired a television ad featuring Arthur Laffer explaining how Trump’s proposed tax reform plan was similar to the successful Reagan tax reform that Laffer helped author more than three decades ago.
@jennybethm @DailySignal In 2017 and 2018, we strongly supported the confirmations of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Our activists came to Washington, rallied, and worked with allied groups to lobby their senators in support of those nominations.
@jennybethm @DailySignal In 2018, we helped over 500 high school student leaders organize walkouts to stand for the Second Amendment in order to counter the liberal voices in their high schools.
@jennybethm @DailySignal And, earlier this year, in honor of our 10th anniversary, our grassroots activists hosted “Stop Socialism Choose Freedom” rallies in more than 400 events around the country.
@jennybethm @DailySignal For 10 years now, Tea Party Patriots and its affiliated Super PAC and foundation have worked to organize, educate, and mobilize our fellow grassroots activists in support of constitutionally limited government.
@jennybethm @DailySignal We hold weekly conference calls with hundreds of local group leaders, and nearly every week Congress is in session we air a Facebook Live broadcast where we share important political and legislative news with our activists and answer their questions about the topics of the day.
@jennybethm @DailySignal We publish op-eds and guest columns on a weekly basis, and I long ago lost count of the number of TV and radio appearances I’ve done to comment on the issues of the day.
@jennybethm @DailySignal Our issues are many: Tax reform. Intellectual property rights. Health care freedom. Border security and immigration reform. Fourth Amendment protections for privacy rights.
@jennybethm @DailySignal First Amendment protections for speech, press, and religion. The Second Amendment. Term limits. An end to Common Core. The Iran nuclear deal. The threat from China. Judicial nominations.
@jennybethm @DailySignal That’s a wide variety of issues—far broader than what Paul and others may be aware of that the tea party is concerned with. What do they all have in common? They’re all manifestations of our determination to support a constitutionally limited government.
@jennybethm @DailySignal We have always fought, and will always fight for spending cuts and debt reduction, for fiscal responsibility—note, here I am going to embrace the healing power of “and”—and we have also ratcheted up the fight to protect and defend our Constitution, the foundation of our republic.
@jennybethm @DailySignal There are more fires burning than we realized when we jumped into the ring 10 years ago, but far from giving up or dying out, we’ve actually taken up additional issues that will make it easier to achieve other goals like fiscal responsibility.
@jennybethm @DailySignal For instance, there’s no way to cut spending if we have open borders and “free” health care for illegal immigrants—or for everyone, for that matter.
@jennybethm @DailySignal Think of America as a house with some serious issues. Some drywall must be replaced, some beams are rotting, and it needs a new roof. We have to address these serious problems as soon as we can, but at the same time, we must fix the foundation to keep the house from collapsing.
@jennybethm @DailySignal Our Constitution is our foundation, our bedrock, and right now in 2019, it is being severely neglected. Unless we change that, the America set forth by the Framers will be gone, and overspending will be the least of our worries.
@jennybethm @DailySignal Over the years, we’ve heard stories from volunteer activists about pouring money and unimaginable amounts of time into their groups. People lost relationships with friends and even family. It’s not something that any of us take lightly.
@jennybethm @DailySignal I’ve never once heard an activist suggest we give up, or that we must be “dead” because we lost a fight.
@jennybethm @DailySignal I honestly can’t comprehend this line of thought because when Paul or others claim the tea party is dead because we’ve lost some legislative battles, the logical conclusion to that thought is defeat and surrender.
@jennybethm @DailySignal I would like someone to show me a list of political movements that get 100% of what they want at all times, forever. I find it interesting that literally since the beginning of the tea party movement, we have been proclaimed “dead” by various allies and opponents alike.
@jennybethm @DailySignal Did anyone declare it was the end of MoveOn.org when Trump was elected in November 2016? Did anyone say the AFL-CIO was done for when Trump upset Hillary Clinton?
@jennybethm @DailySignal And what about Planned Parenthood, or AFSCME, or NextGenAmerica, or the Human Rights Campaign Fund, or a hundred other liberal organizations I could name, each and every one of which was stunned and disappointed when Clinton lost to Trump? Was it “the end” for them?
@jennybethm @DailySignal The left has wanted socialized medicine in this country for decades, and every time it lost a big fight (think Hillarycare in the 90s) it didn’t lament its own demise and give up. It regrouped and came back again, and again, and again—and it’s still chipping away at our freedoms.
@jennybethm @DailySignal Losing some battles doesn’t mean it’s over unless you believe it’s over, and we know it isn't close to over. We might be a little scrappy compared to, say Planned Parenthood ($500 million a year from taxpayers), but David was scrappy, too, and look how that turned out for Goliath
@jennybethm @DailySignal The long march of progressivism through our institutions started 100 years before the tea party movement was born, and we understand that it’s not going to turn around overnight. Are we to be held to some standard that no other political movements are held?
@jennybethm @DailySignal Here’s the thing: We are willing to put in the years that it will take to fix the foundation and fix the walls and the roof, so why not let us? Why not support us in that effort, instead of recklessly deeming one of your greatest allies to be flatlined?
@jennybethm @DailySignal The patriotic Americans who make up the tea party movement love this country. We also love the Constitution, and we are law-abiding people. We choose to work within the system that our Founders left us to effect change, even though it takes longer than a revolution.
@jennybethm @DailySignal We are very much the anti-Antifa. We don’t take over the streets of cities, impose lawlessness and mob rule, or crack the heads of people who disagree with us. We do it the right way, which takes longer. We accept this reality because these are the rules of life and politics.
@jennybethm @DailySignal There are still millions of Americans who squeeze out whatever time they can from their packed schedules of full-time work, full-time families, businesses they run, grandkids they babysit, and more, in order to volunteer for the tea party movement.
@jennybethm @DailySignal It can be demoralizing to see allies proclaiming your work is dead and meaningless, instead of acknowledging losses and moving on, living to fight another day.
@jennybethm @DailySignal And whether you continue to falsely claim the tea party movement is dead or not, we are not going away. Like Winston Churchill, we will “never, never, never give up.”
@jennybethm @DailySignal Over the coming weeks, months, and years, we will continue to stand for personal freedom, economic freedom, and a debt-free future.
@jennybethm @DailySignal We will work to ensure our elections are fair and the results are respected. We will work to register people to vote, to volunteer as poll workers, and to work as Election Day poll workers.
@jennybethm @DailySignal Should the left continue down the path toward impeachment when there has been no recommended indictment against the president, we will stand for our nation’s president against impeachment.
@jennybethm @DailySignal We will work to stop the rise of the socialist tide in America, and we will urge our fellow Americans to choose freedom and free markets. We will continue to stand for free speech, the right to bear arms, property rights, and the other rights listed in the Constitution.
@jennybethm @DailySignal We will continue to work toward a debt-free future, including building an electoral mandate to rein in “mandatory” spending and stop government overspending.
@jennybethm @DailySignal We will work to have more constitutional originalists confirmed to the federal bench, which means electing presidents and senators who will nominate and confirm originalists.
@jennybethm @DailySignal We will also work to pass legislation to reform the judiciary and restore the balance of power between the three branches.
@jennybethm @DailySignal We will work to ensure members of Congress live under the same rules they pass for everyone else, to amend the Constitution for term limits and a balanced budget, and to secure the border.
@jennybethm @DailySignal As long as there is liberty in America, there will be a tea party movement in America. Sam Adams started it in Boston in December 1773. Our Founding Fathers passed it on to the next generation. The torch of liberty continued passing from one generation to the next.
@jennybethm @DailySignal This generation’s tea party movement intends to pass the torch of liberty to our children and grandchildren so they, too, can be free to pursue their American dream.
