Evolution into a Tea Party Member
Not one person in the Tea Party Movement woke up one day and said. “I need to be a part of the Conservative Movement.” Tea Party members have a lifetime of experiences that have allowed them to answer the clarion call for a return to Constitutional principles when that call resounded through the land.
The Tea Party member has known for a long time that something was going very wrong in this country, yet they trusted their government’s system of checks and balance to keep us on an even keel. They trusted their political party to be working in the best interest of all Americans. They believed the judicial system dealt out justice fairly. Most importantly, they believed in and loved this country.
I was no different. But, over the years, we saw things that made us stop and think – that’s just not right. My evolution began in college when I took a Women’s Study class. The things that were being taught in that class were anathema to me, yet I said nothing. Follow that with a Social Works class, where I sat there thinking, “these people really need to get jobs”…yikes! But, I needed good grades from the professors so I conformed and spouted their answers. Most in the classes were in agreement with the professors…I was a member of the minority, wasn’t I? What could I do?
I once called in a fantastic story to a news department only to be told they did not do stories on the police because they needed stories from the department regularly and they did not want to offend them. I realized at that point, how we were being fed only the news a small group of people wants us to hear. I said nothing, but the incident continued to linger in my subconscious.
I saw the text books changing to ‘global’ in the schools. I saw teaching become a profession and not a calling. I saw the Pledge of Allegiance removed from the schools. I saw ‘daycares’ move into the schools for student’s children. I saw principals who wanted everyone to ‘feel good about themselves’ but didn’t care if the students learned. I saw police officers needed in the schools. I saw violent students being moved from school to school. The school system was crumbling even as it demanded more and more money to fill its insatiable appetite. And, I said nothing because I thought, “what can one person do?”
I knew there were illegal aliens in the country, but that was remote from the Midwest. Then, they started slowly moving in here too. English as a second language needed to be taught in the schools. Jobs that teenagers used to do were going to the illegal aliens. I started to learn more…..I joined a couple of online groups, I battled with the pro-illegal crowds on the internet boards and I found there were many, many people who thought like me! What a relief, after all the years of waiting for someone else to do something – I was finally doing something about issues myself. I was on my way to being a Tea Party member! I called Congressmen, I emailed them, I wrote them letters and I signed petitions!
Then, in December of 2008 I received a fateful email about a new site being formed to resist the progressive movement. I looked at it and I thought about it. I knew in my heart that the ‘hope and change’ was going to be bad for America. But, I hesitated. What repercussions could come from this? I was living a nice life and did I really need to do this? Would it affect my career? I thought for two days on the issue and it finally came down to ‘if not now, when?” I took the leap and landed directly into the lap of what eventually became the Tea Party Movement. The former political neophyte can now spout statistics and data that will back down progressives in every debate. I finally found the voice that had been stifled for years and I found like-minded people who found their voices too!
It has been a wonderful, frustrating, enlightening and hard working 3 years since I became a part of the movement and every second has been worth it. We all have stories about how we evolved to this point, what’s yours?
Excellent inside look at just how you became a tea party conservative, and how you avoided falling into the progressive educational indoctrination taught in our schools today. i can certainly relate, as i went back into college last year and could not believe that there was so many students admitted into college who couldn’t write a proper sentence, yet could quote progressive planks in Liberal ideology such as parroting the Social Justice fraud mantra of the past 20 years.
Thanks for sharing such a well-written account that will help many other’s, especially the younger generations to understand what the Tea party is really all about and how they are being manipulated by progressive indoctrination in our schools today.
Dang, I will put my glasses on next time so I can see that my I’s were not capitalized, shame on me.
Great insight. A hallmark of every Tea Party member is they came to this decision by choice, based on the content of their character.
Unlike libtards, who like to say they ‘own” the black vote, the hispanic vote, and every other minority class vote who can’t think for themselves. Who, for the most part, threw away their character in favor of a couch-potato state.
I became a tea partier on tax day, 2010. That was the day I mailed off a $7000 check to the IRS with a payment agreement on the remaining $7000. My husband makes a modest income (by any standards) and we are faithful charitable donors, and yet the IRS found a way to slam us for over 10 grand anyway. I cried as we raided our children’s college fund to pony up. Then I went to the CVS, bought poster board and markers, hastily made a protest sign and headed to the nearest Tea Party event. That was the day I became a tea party member. Its been full steam ahead ever since.
Interesting choice of words for your title, since many Tea Party members are in denial of the fact evolution happens. Such anti-science sentiment is harmful to our country, humanity and the planet. It is shameful that so many Americans are so misinformed about this subject. It is just as ridiculous and just as wrong as if half the adults in this country insisted the earth is flat in spite of all evidence to the contrary.
This describes me to a great detail. I don’t have a college education but I hve come to the same realization as the author. I hve gone through the same process of going from couch potato complainer to activist for the conservative cause.