Ratigan’s Tea Party
Today the South Carolina Flag flies proudly off my front porch. Politics are relatively quiet, after all, it’s a Saturday and the fish are starting to bite! So, while browsing the Internet, I finally bumped into a video by a fellow named Dylan Ratigan. And what I found is worth documenting for the history of The Patriot’s Flag.
YouTube High Honors! This video earned 13 YouTube Honors from around the globe, including the #1 Most Viewed News/Politics video of the day. And it even became the 26th most popular clip on YouTube! When you see activity like this on YouTube, it captivates your interest to find out what it is all about.
I had not heard of Dylan Ratigan, he’s a host on MSNBC. And unfortunately for him, the first time I “hear” of him, he goes viral on the Tea Party Movement … which sort of ends his career with me. After watching this video clip, I’m totally amazed this person still has a job. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anything quite as unbelievable. Unbelievable because his view of the “Tea Party” is not at all what is happening. Take a look for yourself at his “view” … its astonishing.
Is it just “theatrics” for ratings, or was this fellow serious? Unfortunately I have it on good authority that he was quite serious, and thus believes what he was saying. But he must have gone to a different Tea Party than I did.
Last Night I Went to a Tea Party Meeting
As usual it was an exciting meeting. In three meetings we’ve gone from 55 people to 75 people to 150 last night. Our little room couldn’t hold all the people so 20 of them had to stand in the hallway to listen to the meeting. We knew from our first meeting we had a “chair” problem, so people brought their own lawn chairs for the 2nd and 3rd meetings.
Our Tea Party group runs perfectly … it is a productive form of organized chaos … no real leadership, just everyone pitching in with ideas and thoughts. We put the Core Values up on the white screen to stay generally focused then begin our discussions. I was asked to show the folks the new web page I’d built for them inside The Patriot’s Flag (you can see it too, click on the South Carolina flag to the upper right of this post). It was supposed to be a little 10 minute talk, but it almost didn’t happen. It seems I came with a little prepared speech, but everybody else also came with their own! Everyone seemed to have something to say. Watching this happen was thoroughly enjoyable on my part. It looked for a time like I might not even get to speak. But as I watched and waited my turn, I began to wonder about what I was experiencing.
150 people, some standing in the hallway in a (too warm) crowded room? And they certainly didn’t show up to hear me talk about a web page, and there was no “keynote” speaker of great renown. There were no give-a-ways, in fact we asked for donations. So why did all these people show up on a Friday night? Why is it that all of us could barely get a word in edgewise? The answer in the end was rather simple. These people, very simply, wanted to be heard and wanted to “do something” to try to change what they are seeing happen to their country. We didn’t need a “speaker” last night. We didn’t need a “program” or a give-a-way. What we offered (by accident, I think) was the opportunity to “speak out” and “be heard.”
How many meetings have you gone to where a person asks for volunteers and 4 people’s hands go up? That, in itself, is a rarity … not in our Tea Party meeting however, that’s was the norm. It is obvious people are “angry” and they are done sitting in front of their TV watching the world pass in front of them. They have gotten out of those comfortable chairs and have gone to the Tea Party to say … “OK Folks, THAT’S ENOUGH!” and “What are we going to do about it?” It is also obvious that most of the people in that room last night were far from “professional demonstrators” … many were “first time” activists. What I saw last night (again) was nothing but pure energy, perhaps born of anger, maybe fear, maybe a realization that our country truly is slipping from our common grasp, taken from us by the radicals from the 60′s that have somehow gained control of our lives. Whatever the driver, the result was concern and a wish to “do something about it.” That’s what I saw at MY Tea Party Meeting last night.
ENERGY This is why the politicians, at the same time both fear us and need us. In that crowded room last night was the ENERGY the politicians need to move forward with whatever agenda they may have. The Tea Party meeting is a source of ENERGY that can be given or withheld and will only be given with forethought and care. It is ENERGY that doesn’t belong to anyone or any party, it is ENERGY that only belonged to the people in that room last night … and most of them didn’t know each other! It is an ENERGY that is building noticeably in our little group … (55 to 75 to 150 people … growing with each meeting). And there is nothing driving this growth except a fragile email list and word of mouth. Yet it builds.
And that seems the model for this populist movement. That what the Tea Party Movement is all about and that’s why the progressives like Ratigan cannot fathom the depth of commitment involved. A few folks get together because they are concerned, others show up, all want to be heard, all are concerned something is terribly wrong. I saw it at 912 in Washington, DC (documented here) … two of us walking up to the train station … that became 30 of us at the ticket counter … 300 of us on the platform … 3000 of us climbing up the stairs to exit on Pennsylvania Avenue to join with 1,750,000 of us! And that is what is happening across this nation. And our little … growing! … group merges with the two groups near to us on April 15th, then further merge in DC on Sept 11 and 12. No wonder the progressives are losing their sanity as Mr. Ratigan obviously has. This phenomenon coming at them is beyond any proportion I’ve ever seen. I’m just thankful that I’m a part of it that is “going after them” and that it is not “coming after me!”
So people like this fellow, Dylan Ratigan, come along and try to explain it away by concocting ideas that were not remotely in on our minds last night. In fact, we listed our concerns and they were these: (1) FairTax or A Fair Tax, (2) Tort Reform, (3) Term Limits, (4) Fixing Education (thank you Glenn Beck!), (5) Illegal Immigration, (6) States Rights, (7) Too Much Government, (8) Speak English! Now there’s a real threatening list of concerns … and they don’t exactly match up with what Mr. Ratigan said do they? Why do they fear the Tea Party Movement so much they must blatantly lie about it? Could it be our little list of concerns last night could be seen as a “radical threat” to the progressives and raving madmen like Mr. Ratigan? Has common sense become that strange to the “MAINstream Media?” I guess so.
Mr. Ratigan’s Tea Party is not My Tea Party!
The Bottom Line
If anybody ever tells you they “heard it on MSNBC” … it is time to break out in laughter. And if you haven’t been to your local Tea Party meeting yet, you don’t know what you are missing. Go! Be with folks who think like you do … you are far from alone in these thoughts. There are millions like you. Turn off the TV… go meet them! It is the best sanity check there is! And a wonderful way to spend a Friday evening.
Recent Posts, References and Updates
Interesting numbers on Tea Party Demographics:
From The Catholic Thing
A recent poll, commissioned by the National Review Institute and conducted by John McLaughlin and Associates, dispels the claim that the Tea Party is a backwoods fringe movement. Whatever else we might think of it, Catholics should understand it accurately. The poll reveals that Tea Party participants represent a cross section of America, including American Catholics. (In my next column, I will look specifically at what it discovered about the differences between church-going and nominal Catholics.)
Most surprising – 26 percent voted for Obama, 25 percent are registered Democrats, 36 percent are college graduates, 26 percent are urbanites, and 40 percent make over $60,000 annually.
The movement is not an angry-male thing: 50 percent are women. Religious affiliations also reflect America: 60 percent Protestant, 28 percent Catholic, 2 percent Jewish. Sixty-nine percent attend religious services regularly. On the abortion issue, 68 percent are pro-life, 26 percent pro-choice. Here are some of the other findings:
· 62 percent are Republican, 25 percent Democratic, 10 percent Independent
· 16 percent are liberal, 19 percent moderate, 64 percent conservative
· 26 percent are urban residents, 41 percent suburban, 29 percent rural
· 16 percent live in the East; 19 percent in the Midwest, 45 percent in the South, 21 percent in the West
· 81 percent are white; 16 percent non-white
· 36 percent are college grads, 16 percent have post-graduate degrees, 29 percent have some college, 16 percent are high school graduates
· 57 percent are over 55 years old, 26 percent are 41-55; 9 percent are 26- 40
· 33 percent approve of Obama’s job performance; 66 percent disapprove
This is not the profile of isolated extremists but of Americans from all walks of life who are educated and informed on the issues confronting their nation.