The tea party is me

The first red flag was in 2008 when I saw David Letterman interview Barak Obama. I noticed that he spoke very moderately, but what he was saying was not moderate. OK, I voted against Jimmy Carter both times and even though he was a disaster, I lived through it. I regard President Clinton as a successful Democrat in many ways, although in foreign policy (My strength) I felt that he was dangerously aggressive with international treaties. But I lived through him as well. President Obama began doing many things that worried me, but I could live with. Then came Health Care. From what I could see, the resistance to Health Care was just as intense as the resistance to President Regan’s attempt to modernize Social Security back in the mid-1980’s. The resistance was just as intense as the resistance to President Clinton’s attempt at national Health Care. And President W. Bush failed with a similar amount of resistance when he again attempted to modernize Social Security. The final straw was when Nancy Pelosi said that “we have to pass this bill so that you can find out what is in it.” I called the offices of both Senators for my state. (And my representative in Congress) This was the first time in my life that I had ever called a political office before. I told them that I was 51 and never been politically active. I had never sent money to ANY campaign. I told them that if they passed this bill with all of the resistance that I am seeing, I WILL become active and I will send money to your opponents. And I have: In 2010 I sent $100.00 to Congressman Joe Walsh’s campaign and another $100 to the RNC. Sorry, this is not much, but it was a start. If millions of others did as I did and became active? It would not take that many new people to have a strong impact. This year, I have sent another $150.00 to Congressman Joe Walsh’s campaign even though he is no longer my representative. I have sent another $150.00 to the RNC. I have also joined the NRA even though I have NEVER and still to this day, do not own a firearm. I calculate that I have spent about $500.00 in 2012 so far. This is not very much, but certainly more than ever in my life. This is the tea Party. Not all of it, but I am certain that most of the members of the Tea Party were relatively inactive in politics until the past few years. I am one of them. If we have half a million people do what I have done, we are talking $250,000,000.00. This is not an inconsiderable sum. And this is what is happening, just maybe not this big. We need to win this election so big that we can reverse all the damage just from the past 3 years. I want to avoid passing or repealing laws just so that our population can find out what it does. However, this is where the republic is in danger. It may come to that. This is why I have become much more involved. I have to. We will not be able to recover if President Obama becomes re-elected. The situation is that extreme. Makes sense with our President being as extreme as he is. And he saved us from a financial brink? And he did this without a budget? President Obama CANNOT run our economy better than we can. And we in the tea party are the ones who will stop him if that is possible. Joe Citizen