By Guest Blogger John Burns
There’s been much ado recently about the decline of the Tea Party Movement. Pundits opine that we’re losing momentum, losing support, losing steam; “they just peaked too soon.”
Not True. Not by a long shot.
Years from now, historians will look back at the Tea Party Movement and divide it into two primary eras. Tea Party 1.0 was about the birth of the first massive, spontaneous grassroots movement in a generation. It was about rallying the troops and waking up America to realize that the inmates are running the asylum; that the first Manchurian Candidate became the first Manchurian President; that government programs and government spending were poised to destroy our children’s future. Tea Party 1.0 was the start of what I believe will prove to be the 4th Great Awakening in America. Tragically, we learned that rallies alone could not stop the powerful river of socialism from surging through our nation and our communities.
We recognized that a new focus was needed. Whereas before we would protest and rally, now we will activate, organize, and build.
This is not the beginning of the end for the Tea Party Movement, but merely the End of the Beginning.
Tea Party 2.0, is characterized by the swift march of Tea Party Patriots into political activism on a permanent basis. Tea Party 2.0 is an unstoppable freight train. Patriots will be just as active on November 3rd as they were on November 2nd. Because, win or lose, we’re fighting to WIN…permanently. Sure, this will take a number of years. But the election of Barack Obama and the hegemony of socialists in our government were not suddenly achieved overnight. After the protests and turmoil of the ‘60s, liberals marched into institutions of higher learning and bureaucracy, and they are now running them. Today, we are living in the world they built. Tomorrow, they shall live in ours.
In St. Louis we’ve just started organizing Block Captain Teams, which are similar to precinct captains, except that the teams don’t rely on a party for their strength, energy, or legitimacy. The teams are decentralized and don’t rely on a pecking order. Anyone can be a leader. And whereas precinct captains are only active during the campaign season, Block Captain Teams are in the field year-round. Anyone can become a Block Captain overnight, and anyone can start a Block Captain Team and start making a difference immediately. The Teams have many projects, including voter registration, Liberty Evangelism, activist trainings, candidate trainings, petition drive projects, volunteering with various candidate campaigns, and on and on.
BUT THIS IS THE KEY: Whereas in the past we were content to win a given election (a mere battle), now we’re focused on winning the war. The war doesn’t end on November 2nd, and neither will our volunteerism. Win or lose November 2nd, we’re still fighting come November 3rd, December 3rd…until we restore the US Constitution, kick every socialist out of office across the nation, and restore the culture of liberty that our nation was founded upon.
The mistake of the ’94 revolution was thinking that after we had taken the “beaches” of Congress we had won the war. But Eisenhower didn’t stop at Normandy, nor shall we at Scott Brown, Chris Christy, or Rand Paul.
We’ve recognized that no one is coming to save us. Many would-be leaders are overly concerned about preserving small fiefdoms of power or rearranging deck chairs on the titanic. So, we must rise up and save ourselves. We didn’t ask for this war, and we didn’t start it. We will, however, finish it. And that may mean time sacrifices and fewer vacations and hard work. But the salvation of our nation and the restoration of US Constitutional government (unabridged and without disclaimers) is worth the sacrifice. There are millions of noble servicemen and women who understand this all too well. Patriotism demands service and this is our duty: to fight until we win.
So, maybe the pundits are right. So far as it constitutes the first incarnation of this massive social movement, maybe the Tea Party is in decline or dying. Maybe the Tea Party 1.0 is over. But the social movement, the 4th Great Awakening has not and will not die. Tea Party 2.0 and the era of the Block Captain, has begun.
Tomorrow: “What is a Block Captain Team and How Does it Work?”
• www.BlockCaptains.com
• Facebook Profile: “Block Captains”
• Titter: BlockCaptains
