Indeed, indeed. Those involved in the TEA Party movement are still around. They were lambasted three years ago for being “amateurs”, thinking that holding clever signs would change things, that they were too white, too middle class, leaderless, and if the media and Democrats were to be believed, would soon go home to their living rooms and resume a more normal life of simply grumbling at their TV sets and wringing their hands. H/T to Instapundit for this:
AN A.P. REPORT ON THE STATE OF THE TEA PARTY: Dead it’s not — the tea party lives on in grassroots activists determined to see change. “Dead the tea party is not. Changed? Perhaps. But still very much alive, in the back room of a Jim’s Restaurant in San Antonio and many other places across the land. . . . Perhaps nowhere is the persistent power of the tea party more at work today than at the local and state level, where many grassroots activists have decided to shift the focus of their efforts. More tea party-backed candidates are running for county and state Republican leadership positions, with the aim of having a bigger say in the party’s agenda and direction.”
All is proceeding as I have foreseen.
And I see no end to it soon. Sure, there will be the rallies going forward, as Steve points out for one today in Manchester, NH and as I’ve posted here for next Saturday in Dover (sponsored by the Granite State Patriot Liberty PAC). But change, REAL change comes only after real hard works over a longish amount of time. In Glen’s second link, he outlines what the Utah TEA Party was doing in participating in personal democracy – moving the Utah Republican Party back to its roots of not just lip-serving for smaller government but actually making it happen. They did it rather quickly – but as I just told another activist concerning a different issue on the phone, be prepared for change to come slowly.