Happy New Year, 2012!

Happy New Year, Tea Partiers!  Hope you enjoyed your holiday.  But now it’s back to work.  We’ve gone over the other side of the precipice now and we’re into 2012, a crucial election year that will decide whether America will remain a free, federated republic or transmogrify into a socialist welfare state.

Most people don’t have a problem with the socialist welfare state, you should realize, and we have our work cut out for us convincing how bad it really is.  They’re not going to hear from the Mainstream Media, who are simply the socialist propaganda machine.  They’re certainly not going to hear it from the Democrat side of the aisle, nor even from the GOP seats, who are so worried about the bunch in the middle that they’ll say and do anything to get elected.

What are the Tea Party’s resolutions going to be for this new and crucial year?  It ought to be obvious by now that staying inside and working the phones for candidates alone isn’t going to work.  Most tea parties chose to be good little lambs and we here in New Jersey found ourselves re-districted even further than we were.  Well, it worked out well where I live; I have a Conservative representative once again.  But parts of Morris and Bergen Counties were usurped.

The first New Year’s Resolution tea partiers have to make is to make yourselves known.  For those in colder climates, once the weather gets warm enough, you have to get back out on the street.  The OWS is trying to steal our thunder (stealing; doesn’t that figure?); well, we’ve got to take it back.  So that’s New Year’s Resolution No. 1:

1.       Rallies

2.      Letters to the editor

We all need to start writing regular letters to the editor.  That’s something I haven’t done heretofore, but am resolved to do this year.  Start out writing a letter to the editor once a week.  You might find you like it and start building up from there.

3.      Merchandising.

We need to start branding to help get our message out.  That’s what my company does.  That’s what the Morristown Tea Party does.  There are all sorts of merchandise you can hawk.  You don’t even have to put a price tag on them.  Have a donation can.  You can donate the proceeds to the military charity of your choice:  The VFW, the Wounded Warriors Project, the USO.  That way, it’s not “political.”  But make sure the merchandise says “Tea Party” on it, or has something to do with promoting conservative American values.  Find a willing merchant who will allow you sidewalk space and start talking the people up.  Smile, be friendly, and don’t be afraid.

4.      Flash mobs.

Organize flash mobs.  Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays are coming up.  Get a group together to sign “Happy Birthday” to Washington.  If you have a friend or family member who’s tall and strong as Washington was, dress ‘em up to make an appearance with you.

5.       Parades.

This was something the Tea Parties did well in 2010 and 2011.  Keep up the good work.  If I wasn’t already in a marching band, I’d join you.  Just remember to carry the American flag properly.

We’re not going to win this battle with polite silence.  We need to be politely noisy.  We need to illustrate the contrast between us and the OWSers.  The tea parties were three years ago and people have already forgotten.  All they do remember were the early, disorganized tea parties running around.  We’ve got to undo that first impression.  Now the only picture people have in their heads are these rotten OWSers and pusillanimous pundits sticking up for them.  “Well you know,” the pundits whine, “they do have a point.”  Never mind that they defecated on police cars, rioted, and set up tents for an encampment.  How anyone has any sympathy for these low-lifes is beyond me.

We had a point, three years ago.  We need to remind them.  We must make clear, with facts and figures, how much trouble our nation is in, thanks to entitlements, and yes, crooked financiers in bed with crooked politicians of both stripes.  Hold up signs for all to see showing them the U.S. Debt Clock, the worst points of Agenda 21, the voting records of the most liberal politicians.  People have their heads stuck in the sand.  They won’t look unless you get the facts in front of their faces.

My own mother pooh-poohed the Tea Party revolution until she happened to glance at an issue of Rush Limbaugh’s newsletter that we were saving for my nephew when he came home.  Tell Mom something, and she’ll brush it off.  When she read the facts about the financial crisis, she couldn’t believe her eyes, what she was reading.

“I hadn’t realized what was going on!” she cried, calling me up.  “These things that these politicians and bureaucrats have done, that are here in this Limbaugh Letter, are just terrible.  We can’t keep letting them get away with this!”

There’s another idea for the New Year, a belated Christmas present.  Send a friend or relative a gift copy of The Limbaugh Letter, The Blaze, or the National Review.  Reading is believing.

Make 2012 the year you not only make your voice heard, but you get your family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers to join the chorus.