By Nancy Coppock
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas The first political party of the newly created United States of America was the Federalist Party. When its members fell into the ruling class ways of their previous colonial English overlords Thomas Jefferson led a grassroots campaign in opposition. The new republican political clubs grew and their popularity inspired the creation of partisan newspapers & pamphlets sponsored by subscriptions and/or patrons.
His vision coalesced around classical republican principles that included the appreciation that civil society was a fragile commodity and that men lusted after power.
Classical republicanism also taught that cultural stability was best served by men who sought to rise above self-interest and govern according to the merit of their ideas. These rediscovered beliefs were quickly accepted in part because the concept of a flawed human nature mirrored what Christianity already knew to be true about fallen nature of man.
There is a historical precedent for the Tea Party Movement and this is the subject of a short book Capitalism & a New Social Order: The Republican Vision of the 1790s.
William Safires novel Scandalmonger also covers this period of early American history and is the story of one of these partisan opinion writers James Callender and Jeffersons use of his writings in an attempt to destroy the character of Alexander Hamilton the author of the Federal Bank and a member of Washingtons Presidential cabinet.
Jeffersons republican revolution centered on the premise that regular men could see the needs and understand the remedies for their local communities better than an elected bureaucracy operating in a distant capital. The classical republican belief that participation in the activity of the state was the highest virtue of man was enhanced by the new form of liberty offered to mankind because of the success of the Revolutionary War.
A radical new definition of liberty was available to the American citizen the ability and responsibility to participate in the process of the State.
This new class of citizens were valued by their communities for their personal integrity and character as well as their entrepreneurial skills to produce goods
and services for others. Service to the community was the highest ideal or aspiration to fulfill the new definition of Liberty.
Therefore when the Federalist Party began passing legislation that the common citizens disagreed with these new republicans believed it was their duty to offer their own ideas to the ruling class much to the dismay of those in charge.
By the end of the 1790s the Federalist Party was dead and the revolutionary vision of the new age of republicanism became what we know today as the American Spirit.
Since that 1790s epiphany into the reality of human nature radicals have tried to rewrite the definition of American liberty to be the freedom to be as nasty as you want to be without consequences. However the threat to the preservation of our free civil society is the same as the failure of the 1790s which was:
Faith in an unchecked flawed nature to pursue righteousness coupled with the ruling class mentality of deferential politics and hierarchical values.
American liberty was never meant to become a passive citizenry and an oppressive ruling class.
Todays Tea Party Movement is a giant tent revival of the Spirit of American Liberty with a small remnant
* of believers calling us back to those classical republican principles that established what it means to be an American. The Tea Party Movement is comprised of local citizens who have formed political clubs in order to preserve the cause of liberty by being actively involved in the making and executing of political decisions of the State.
The mission of each of these local tea party groups is:
- Teach - To provide a venue for citizens to learn constitutional solutions to current political issues.
- Empower To assist Members to become influential members of the community; regarded as learned citizens and defenders of liberty and freedom.
- Act - To create a fully engaged citizenry well-schooled in the Founding Documents of The United States of America empowered to act in the governing of the Nation and State by exercising their power as the sovereign of these United States.
When my father read the 1994 Contract With America he believed it was the responsibility of the grass roots to spread the information to those not paying
attention to politics. He organized a rally in his area with the goal to get people personally involved in supporting the Contract.
He asked people to come out from behind their locked front doors to make a statement in their neighborhood even in the form a political sign in their yard. He had faith that the infectious nature of increasingly involved neighbors would spread to bring about a precinct victory and possibly ignite neighboring precincts.
**
The source of American liberty is spiritual in nature. The Tea Party movement is about reacquainting ourselves with the philosophy of classical republicanism which appreciates that civil society is a fragile commodity that all men lust for power and that we must choose to rise above our flawed human nature if we are to pursue what is truly good for the long term success of our free civil society.
And finally that we must renew ourselves in the unique aspects of our national heritage by practicing and defending the American ideal of Liberty the steady and continuous participation as individuals in the decision-making policies of the State.
This is the Mission Possible: of the Tea Party Movement.
Nancy Coppock is the President of the Bryan/College Station Texas Tea Party.
References:
Appleby Joyce
Capitalism and a New Social Order: The Republican Vision of the 1790s. New York University Press 1984.
Safire William Scandalmonger. Simon & Schuster 2000.
* Remnant according to scripture God always saves a remnant of believers from the brink of cultural destruction so that they may be a guide to the people in national repentance and return to the commandments and worship of Him.
** My Dad actually had a heart attack and died while in the process of conducting that rally. In our last conversation I broke into tears as I told him how proud I was of what he was doing. So the spiritual and the political are forever linked in my mind and I can say that I knew what my father was about. Although we are physically separated we are united in passion and purpose in our love of God and this nation
