My Message to the Tallahassee Tea Party

Tallahassee Tea Party,

Tomorrow may be a historic day in Florida, and particularly in Tallahassee. There are many big primary races on both the Republican and Democrat tickets. There are also many non-partisan local races that will be DECIDED tomorrow – by this time tomorrow night we may know who our next Mayor, City and County Commissioners, and School Board members will be.

While many statewide races are simply primaries tomorrow, the local races will mostly be OVER tomorrow. So, if you haven’t yet voted via early voting or absentee ballot, you must vote tomorrow at your local precinct.

Many people have asked me “Who is the tea party endorsing?” This question has been posed in races for Governor, US Senate, state representatives, mayors, etc. My answer has always been: “The tea party should not endorse candidates.” This movement is BIGGER than that. It’s the same reason the tea party movement should not be its own political party – why would we want to confine a movement to a party? The Goldwater Conservatives of the 1960s voted for a candidate, but they took over a party. They were bigger than one man. We must seek to be bigger than the candidates and parties that are offered to us and hold them accountable on a case by case basis.

Tomorrow, and in November, I believe the tea party movement will demonstrate its impact – and no single person or cluster of a few leaders at the head of a party (whether it be the GOP, the Dems or a local or statewide or national tea party coalition) should decide for individuals who they should support.

The entire point of the tea party movement is that we, as individuals, have taken it upon ourselves to be more ACTIVE…to be more ENGAGED…and to make our voices HEARD.

I have been so encouraged by many of you who first become more ACTIVE during the first round of tea parties in early 2009. In the past year and a half, you have also been more ENGAGED – at rallies, on the phone calling your representatives, and more recently out working for individual candidates that YOU personally believe in. We can’t all agree on every candidate or race. There are many fine people running (and quite a number of not so fine running as well). But the pure fact that we are part of a movement that shares the founding principles of individual liberty and limited government and the ideas of personal responsibility, is a testament to how powerful this tea party movement has become.

So, thank you, thank you, thank you. Keep up the fight. I believe tomorrow is going to be a HUGE day in Tallahassee. And I think from tomorrow through November we will have plenty of good candidates to get behind as we seek to send Tallahassee and Washington a message…that we the people are more ACTIVE than ever, more ENGAGED on the issues, and that we will in fact be HEARD.

GO VOTE!