Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Helping the Mad Hatters Understand the Tea Party Phenomenon


In April, a large number of well-attended Tea Parties drove the media mad. The movement has grown, and we can tell that these displays matter because the Mad Hatters aren't ignoring them.

* On air personalities with maturity-levels rivaling Beavis and Butthead could not resist the juvenile references of calling the attendees "Teabaggers," which according to the Urban Dictionary is a sexual act. Gee, weren't they clever?
* Other alleged reporters sought to portray the attendees as uncontrollable nut jobs who didn't realize all this spending was good for them.
* A Hollywood celebrity joined in the fun, labeling attendees small-brained, delusional people with a racist vendetta.

As you can see, far from ignoring you, they've put your Tea Parties in Gandhi's ridicule stage... verging on the attack and burn stage.

Your Tea Parties are driving the media mad as a hatter. But if these rallies keep building, someday the Mad Hatters will be building monuments to you.

Here at DownsizeDC.org, we are opposed to Random Acts of Liberty. By Random Acts of Liberty we mean those tactics which require a great deal of energy, but have no future plan -- big ideas that don't build into something else. Schemes of this sort are as common as sand, and they can suck a movement dry.

But frankly, we're encouraged by the Tea Party movement. The size, the repetition, and the critical response to it, all indicate effectiveness. And more and more Americans will feel comfortable considering our ideas, not to mention associating with them, as these movements grow larger. Success breeds success.

Indeed, the tax parties are growing and spreading, and the folks coming out are getting signed up to join various groups -- to keep working after the big event is over. This is a huge key: Getting folks involved... Growing armies (Sound familiar?).

Obviously, we'd like to grow the Downsize DC Army. And there have been a lot of requests for Downsize DC materials for these protests.

I am pleased to announce that we've created two simple flyers. Both can be printed on 8 1/2 x 11 paper, and are available at our website in pdf.

* One flyer, which we released a few months ago, is a general Downsize DC flyer, inspired by the mood of the April 15th Tea Parties. It has a simple, but nice graphical flair. It comes "two-up" on a page (every sheet you print is actually two); just cut each page in half.

* The other handout is full page sheet -- an introduction to both the Read the Bills Act and Write the Laws Act.

* In addition, you can order The Downsize DC Vision, our 16 page, color, glossy report (every new donor receives one). We can rush a package of 45 Visions to you in Priority Mail box for $99. If you want to order a stack, please contact us at Feedback@DownsizeDC.org

And if what we're offering here isn't what you're looking for, perhaps you can come up with materials of your own. If you do, please share them with us at the Feedback address.

In April, I was privileged to speak at one of these Tea Parties. It was Americana. Despite the smallness of the city, about 400 attended. They were polite and personally upbeat. They were not partisan, rather they cheered when I and other speakers scorned the major parties by name.

The assembled crowd seemed to love my talk, and one of the attendees invited me to the event I'm attending Thursday. The title of my presentation was, "A Three Trillion Dollar Federal Budget Cannot Possibly Be Constitutional."

I will give this same speech at the events I'm doing Thursday and Saturday. I'll point out that Congress has power to allocate funds or pass binding laws in 22 different areas, 20 of which are listed in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. This is the doctrine of Enumerated Powers.

A bill to require Congress to state where it gets the authority for any bill the body votes upon has been introduced by Rep. John Shadegg. It's called The Enumerated Powers Act, and today's Educate the Powerful action item is to send a message to your Representative and Senators to join Mr. Shadegg in sponsoring this bill.

* On Thursday, July 2nd at the Cadiz, Ohio courthouse, starting at 6:00pm.
* Then again on Saturday, July 4th at a rally that runs from 1:00 - 4:00pm in Pontiac Park, Defiance, Ohio.

Source: DownsizeDC.Org

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