Declaration of Tea Party Independence
I. As the course of human events winds its way through History, it has found some paths
lead to Tyranny and some to Liberty. In seeking a path to Liberty, a great and powerful
movement is now rising from every corner of our land. Created by the Will of the
American People, it rejects unconstitutional domination by the Government that is
supposed to be its servant. This movement has arisen, in large part, because our elected
officials have failed us.
For much of its history the United States has been a land of prosperity and liberty, sound
policies such as fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and a belief in
the free market have safeguarded this condition. In recent years however, Congress, the
President, the Federal Reserve Board and the Courts have replaced those practices with
profligate government spending and expansion of the government power beyond what is
constitutionally permissible.
This course, if not reversed, can only lead to economic collapse and tyranny.
Therefore, Individuals acting through the Tea Party Movement, seek to restore the
policies, which are proven to safeguard liberty and prosperity for all. We will organize,
demonstrate and vote until this restoration has been achieved. We will stay focused on
this goal and remain INDEPENDENT from any persons or political parties who seek to
distract us from this end.
Many seek to define this Movement, to use it, to lead it, to co-opt it, to channel it, to
control it, to defeat it.
WE WILL NOT LET THIS HAPPEN.
The Tea Party Movement is in agreement with our Founders that the government that
governs least governs best. We believe that Capitalism – NOT GOVERNMENT - is
essential to the creation of wealth and a vastly reduced government provides the
foundation for a thriving Capitalist system.
The Tea Party Movement of America embraces and serves people of all races, creeds,
religions, and political affiliations, and we declare ourselves to be independent of all
those forces that seek to manipulate our actions or control our destiny.
II. We Declare ourselves INDEPENDENT of the Democrat Party and its power drunk
junta in Washington DC, which is currently seeking to impose a Socialist agenda on our
Republic.
We reject arrogant Left-wing politicians who furtively hide from public scrutiny, as they
cut corrupt deals loaded with earmarks and pork in order to produce 2000 page pieces of
legislation so purposely incomprehensible, they do not even bother to read them before
foisting them upon us.
We reject the endless creation of myriad federal government agencies that drown free
enterprise and local control in the swarms of education, energy, ecology, and commerce
bureaucrats who style themselves “czars” sent to harass us. We reject the creation of
federal government regulations and agencies which demand the States pay for unfunded
Federal mandates.
We reject a Democrat Party which refuses to give credence to our demands for just
redress of grievances and which insults and seeks to demonize our legal right to
peacefully protest the unjust laws it inflicts upon us.
We reject a profligate Government that is spending TRILLIONS of dollars on worthless
socialist schemes designed to bankrupt us and put the American people in a position of
dependence on the State, as peasants begging for their very sustenance from self-styled
“educated classes” and so-called “experts”.
We reject a foreign policy which bows and scrapes and apologizes before the world for
America.
We reject an Attorney General of the United States who offers succor and rights to
vicious terrorist murderers and seeks to protect them with a mock civilian trial when such
enemy combatants, captured on the field of battle, should be tried in secure military
courts.
We reject the claims of an un-elected Federal Judiciary to violate the separation of
powers by demanding its decisions be enforced by the other coequal branches of
government, regardless of how unconstitutional the other branches of government may
think those decisions are.
We reject all acts that ignore or diminish the 2nd and 10th Amendments to the US
Constitution and we seek to have all powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution to be reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
III. We Declare ourselves INDEPENDENT of the Republican Party, which has in the
past manipulated its Conservative Base to win election after election and which then
betrays everything that Base fought for and believed.
We reject the idea that the electoral goals of the Republican Party are identical to the
goals of the Tea Party Movement or that this Movement is an adjunct to the Republican
Party.
We reject the Republican Party professionals who now seek to use the Tea Party
Movement for their corrupt and narrow political purposes.
We acknowledge that standing on our principles does not mean throwing out our
common sense; we will NOT abandon our principles in the name of a nonexistent
bipartisanship or a misguided devotion to an illusion of “pragmatism”, which disguises a
desire to betray us in its name.
We reject the scare tactics of the Republican Party, which seeks to herd us into voting for
candidates who supposedly represent the “lesser of two evils” in the name of fealty to the
principle of small government and then having to suffer such candidates as they betray
that principle. We are not well served by parasites whose livelihoods depend on the very
State whose power to reward or sanction we elected them to limit and proscribe.
We insist that the Tea Party Movement does NOT consider the election of Republicans in
and of itself to be necessarily beneficial to our goals.
We demand the Republican Party understand that we reject its attempts to co-opt us.
WE WILL WORK AGAINST THEM when they oppose our views by trying to force
Republicans In Name Only (RINO) on us. When Republicans are in accord with their
Conservative Base as well as the Independent voters who align with it, IT WINS; when
they are NOT in accord with the Conservative Base and the Independent voters who align
with it, IT LOSES.
We reject RINO money; we reject RINO “advice”; we reject RINO “professional experience”; we reject RINO “progressivism”; we reject RINO support of Big Government; we
reject RINO back room deal making; we reject RINO pork spending; we reject false
RINO professions of Conservative views and we reject the RINO’s statist subversion of
the principles of small government for which the Republican Party is supposed to stand.
Republican Party attempts to ignore the will of the Base, as it did in 1976, 1992, 1996,
2006 and 2008, resulted in disaster; when it embraces the will of the Base, as it did in
1980, 1984 and 1994, it wins historic victories.
We demand the Republican Party recognize that while the Tea Party Movement cannot
guarantee their aid will help them win elections, it is very likely WE CAN MAKE THEM
LOSE if they are disdainful of our goals.
IV. We Declare ourselves INDEPENDENT of the Media, which has proved itself to be
anything BUT a fair and balanced enterprise and which focuses more on entertainment,
fear mongering and shock value than investigation and unbiased fact.
We reject the fiction that an unbiased media still exists; there is friendly media and there
is unfriendly ENE-media. The Tea Party Movement refuses to give false credence to the
self-aggrandizing, self-deluding lie that ANY PART of the Fourth Estate is free of the
self-serving agendas of those who own them.
V. We Declare ourselves INDEPENDENT of self-styled “leaders” who claim to speak
for the Tea Party Movement. This movement is not a brand name to be used to sell
product; nor is it a logo to be used to justify profiting off its name.
We reject those who seek to personally capitalize on our popularity and momentum by
trying to associate with our cause.
We reject the idea that the Tea Party Movement is “led” by anyone other than the
millions of average citizens who make it up. The Tea Party Movement understands that
as a Free People, we need to SAVE OURSELVES, BY OURSELVES, FOR
OURSELVES.
The Tea Party Movement is not “led.” The Tea Party Movement LEADS.
VI. We are united in our common belief in Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutionally
Limited Government and Free Markets. This threefold purpose is the source of our unity
in the Tea Party Movement.
We reject the idea that the Tea Party Movement must all be unanimous in our specific
policy views in order to win. We recognize that the current situation requires we come
together in confederation to achieve the MANY MUTUAL GOALS we all seek to
accomplish.
We recognize that the current situation requires that we concentrate on the many things
we have in common rather than those few things about which we may disagree.
We are the Tea Party Movement of America and we believe in American Exceptionalism.
We believe that American Exceptionalism is found in its devotion to the cause of Liberty.
We believe that Liberty is based in rational self-interest, in freedom of thought, in free
markets, free association, free speech, a free press and the ability granted us under the
Constitution TO DIRECT OUR OWN AFFAIRS FREE OF THE DICTATES OF AN
EVER EXPANDING FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WHICH IS AS VORACIOUS IN
ITS DESIRE FOR POWER AS IT IS INCOMPETENT AND DANGEROUS IN ITS
EXERCISE.
We believe that either fate or history has chosen this Country to be a beacon of freedom
and prosperity to the whole world because of America’s belief in and vigorous defense of
political and economic Liberty. The United States has been the instrument of Liberty
against the many tyrannies that have threatened the people of this world.
The Tea Party Movement rejects the idea that America has to apologize to a far guiltier
world that has been largely unappreciative of the sacrifices made on their behalf by the
brave and noble members of our Armed Forces, whose sacrifice and patriotic service in
our defense makes all else possible.
The Tea Party Movement rejects the imposition of “transformational change” performed
on our Nation by smug elites who call themselves the “educated class”.
The Tea Party Movement understands that our Nation is NOT the same thing as our
government and that America is much more than simply a militarily and economically
powerful State.
The Tea Party Movement sees America as something exceptional, as something unique,
as something that came into existence to fulfill the hope of all previous generations that
longed for freedom.
It came into existence because it is more than simply a country with land and population
and riches and armaments. America came into existence because LIBERTY is an eternal
concept in the mind of both God AND Man.
The United States of America came into existence because Mankind needs freedom the
same way it needs food and air and property and security and love.
And what is freedom other than the RIGHT to be free of the tyranny of Government and
the elitist, self-styled aristocrats who seek to run it at our expense and to our detriment?
The Tea Party Movement will fight this danger to our Liberty as long as its members
have breath in their bodies.
When America didn’t exist men and women were compelled to invent it, BECAUSE
MANKIND CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT FREEDOM AND STILL BE FULLY
HUMAN.
To this goal we mutually pledge to each other, as our Founding Fathers did over two
centuries ago, our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
February 24, 2010
