What are the T.E.A. Parties really about?
This is a question that I am asked on a daily basis by Republicans, Democrats, candidates, district chairmen, and reporters.
More on that later...
As a history buff, I have always viewed the North Dakota's Non-Partisan League (NPL) as the prototypical model of how a disenchanted and disgruntled group of citizens can and should organize to have their grievances addressed. It is the template for effectively changing the political climate, especially in small states like North Dakota.
While the NPL's goals were socialistic in nature, their tactics were a model of effective grassroots organizing and politicking.
A few months ago, I got my hands on a copy of a book written in 1961 by one Lloyd Omdahl. The name of the book is "Insurgents." The book is about how conservative Republicans pushed the socialistic NPL out of the Republican Party in the 40's and 50's (with the help of NPLers that no longer wanted to be listed as Republicans anyways).
In his book, "Insurgents", Mr. Omdahl was able to project a credible and empathetic explanation of how a coalition of conservative Republicans, the Farmers Union, and liberal NPLers worked cooperatively to realign North Dakota's political system. Because of this, Mr. Omdahl should understand what the T.E.A. Parties represent - even if he doesn't want to admit that history is repeating itself.
In his recent column, Mr. Omdahl tries to define what he thinks the modern T.E.A. Parties are about. He, predictably, misses the mark - which is what generally happens when someone tries to explain something that he/she is not involved in. (This may explain why he was able to write a 258 page book about the realignment of North Dakota's political parties, but can only write 600 words to blankly dismiss the whole T.E.A. Party Movement.)
Beyond trying to re-write history, Mr. Omdahl simply does not understand the context of the T.E.A. Party Movement. (He doesn't seem to understand that T.E.A. is an accronym for Taxed Enough Already.)
Recently, I attended a conference in Dallas, Texas of T.E.A. Party organizers from about two-dozen states (not the for-profit one in Nashville that Sarah Palin spoke at). Most of the attendees had intentionally avoided [Republican] party politics for one reason or another.
In general, T.E.A. Party participants are predominantly libertarian with a distrust of the direction the Republican Party has been going. These participants have avoided the Republican Party for many reasons.
The T.E.A. Party Movement is not a single issue group. It is not just about taxes. It is about taxes, spending, national debt," free trade vs. fair trade", wars, and most importantly The Constitution.
It is a Leaderless Movement - anyone who claims to be a leader of the T.E.A. Parties, whether nationally or locally, probably is not.
It represents Conservative Americans - there are Democrats who are involved in T.E.A. Parties, but admittedly because there are so few conservative Democrats left that segment's involvement in the Movement is marginal at best.
It is made up of both religious and non-religious conservatives - however, the focus is almost entirely on fiscal matters and Fiscal Conservatism. The divisions within the T.E.A. Party Movement nationally have been about how much religion should be involved. The vast majority of T.E.A. Party participants, in my experience, want the Movement to focus on fiscal issues and leave the social issues to the existing groups that already address those topics.
Just as Mr. Omdahl's "Insurgents" and the Republican Organizing Committee worked to realign and redefine the political lines in North Dakota - the modern T.E.A. Parties represent an "embryonic conservative populism" that seeks to strengthen America by keeping politicians accountable to the people.
The relationship between the Republican Party and the T.E.A. Party Movement is a tenuous one because it is based on holding Republicans to the values they claim to stand for within the party platform.
Any "trouble" the North Dakota's T.E.A. Partiers may cause for Governor Hoeven's Senate campaign stem from the pursuit of accountability.
Participants of the T.E.A. Parties in North Dakota understand that under Governor Hoeven's leadership the state's budget has more than doubled and revenues have skyrocket. While taxes have been reduced, those reductions have not been proportional to the increases in the overall economy and the subsequent state spending increases - all during a time of nearly-stagnant overall population.
In fact, it could be argued that the T.E.A. Partiers are actually going easy on Governor Hoeven as they have not asked him to explain how doubling the state budget in 10 years prepares him for tackling the federal financial situation. Without that line of questioning, Mr. Omdahl will be better positioned to claim the T.E.A. Parties are "Republican Pep-Rallies" than to say they are "making life miserable for Governor Hoeven."
Policies do matter, and it is important that the voters make sure their elected officials understand that.
To sum it up - accountability is the overriding goal of the T.E.A. Party Movement - accountability of government to the people, and accountability of Republicans to the people who have voted for them.
Dustin Gawrylow, Executive Director
North Dakota Taxpayers' Association
Office Phone: (701) 751-2530
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