Non-Partisanship, Tea Parties, and Independence
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009With the increasing attacks from reputable new sources like the New York Times and ThinkProgress.org, challenging the non-partisan and grassroots nature of the various Tea Parties, ReTeaParty.com and Free and Equal would like to both stress our commitment to non-partisanship and our independence from organizations under question. The following is a post written last month, following TaxDayTeaParties.com official partnership with Newt Gingriche’s organization:
In 1994, Newt Gingrich, along with several other prominent Republicans introduced their “Contract with America” after taking a majority control of Congress for the first time in 40 years. The Contract called for a renewed faith in Washington D.C., namely in the Republican Party, asking for Americans across the country to put their faith in partisan politicians.
Since 1994, America has witnessed an unprecedented increase in the size, scope, and power of the federal government. By 2000, 95 government programs that the Republicans contracted with America to reduce or eliminate were actually increased in size by 13%.
By 2008, following 8 years of a Republican administration, Americans had lost habeas corpus, deficits had ballooned, representatives continued to hand over authority to bureaucratic bodies not accountable to the American people, and messages from our political leadership had been reduced to partisan talking points.
With a new Democratic administration now at the wheel, Americans hoped for real change, and got it. Instead of a leadership that preaches about limited government, lower taxes, and balanced budgets, we have leaders that are more direct. The new administration openly calls for an expansion of government, increases in taxes, and deficit spending. In other words, the message changed. But the direction remains the same.
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