One nation under Tea Party revolt

When peasants with pitchforks decide to revolt, it usually doesn't end well for the ruling class.

I predicted that Barack Obama's radical Marxist agenda would lead to a citizen revolution, the likes of which had not been seen in this country since 1776. I predicted that this revolution to take back our country would be led by a coalition of libertarians, conservatives, disgruntled Republicans, independents, taxpayers, small business owners, gun owners, patriots and Christians. That revolution now has a name: The Tea Party.

And who are these new revolutionaries? Many of them are re-enacting the '60's revolution. They have evolved from peace and pot to pitchforks, from tie-dye to torches, from denim to deficit and debt, and from communes to condos. Today the Holy Grail isn't Woodstock, it's Washington. Why the change? It's called financial responsibility. The "me generation" is now all about the grandchildren.

The remarkable Tea Party victories on Sept. 14 are yet more proof this is not business as usual. Entrenched incumbents and establishment D.C. insiders are being swept away like debris in a tsunami. Most importantly, it isn't only liberal Democrat scalps the Tea Party is taking. At the top of the list are the enablers -- big government RINOS (Republicans in name only). Exhibit A is Mike Castle.

The longtime Delaware Republican congressman and former governor is the kind of GOP insider that normally survives times of voter unrest. Political insiders like Castle have always known how to turn on the charm, raise lots of money and use that money on advertising campaigns to convince voters that "next time" they'll vote with the people. It's always "next time." Except for Castle, there will be no more next times. This citizen revolution sent Castle to the unemployment line.

Castle is a RINO whose votes gave bipartisan cover to big government expansion and an ever-expanding welfare state. Castle was the exact type of Republican fraud who through his compromise and "bipartisanship" (sellout) made fiscal conservatives and free-market libertarians fighting for the survival of our children and grandchildren appear as "extremists, radicals and nutcases." The reality is the extremists are those who have bankrupted our once great country and left us with more than $100 trillion in debt and unfunded liabilities.

It is the so-called "bipartisan moderates" who have sold out our children's future -- saddling them with unsustainable deficits and debt for decades to come, in order to bring home the bacon to their districts today. RINOs such as Castle and "blue dog Democrats" such as Nebraska's Ben Nelson are the problem, not the solution. How can you be a "blue dog" when you vote for bigger government, universal health care, cap and trade, stimulus, bailouts, earmarks and financial reform bills that demand banks give out small business loans based on affirmative action?

In the end I'm rooting (excuse the pun) for V.E.T.O. -- Vote Every one of Them Out. Republicans, Democrats, lawyers, lobbyists, union bosses, D.C. political insiders and incumbents of all stripes. It's time to clean house and throw all the bums out. If America is to be saved, it's necessary to throw out both the socialist, entitlement-addicted Democrats and the establishment Republican enablers like Mike Castle, Charlie Crist, Rick Lazio, Lisa Murkowski and Bob Bennett. The debt and deception stops here -- with the Tea Party.

The Tea Party candidates have been successful in primaries because they have been singularly focused on the most important and pressing issues our country faces today: the economy, jobs, government spending, government employees and the unchecked growth of the deficit and debt. These issues should have been Obama's only priority. Instead, we got a health care bill that will ultimately bankrupt the country, more government employees and a stimulus that only stimulated the ratings of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

But wait, Obama isn't done yet. He still has card check and cap and trade to ram through in the lame-duck session of Congress after his party loses in a landslide. And you wonder why the people are angry?

The peasants have awoken from a long slumber. The time for excuses and promises is over. All that is left is for the winners in November to deliver -- shrink government, cut government employees and pensions (as Cuba is busy doing right now), dramatically lower the deficit and debt, and dramatically reduce spending, while lowering taxes (as Canada has done for the past decade).

As Thomas Jefferson once wrote, "a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing. ... It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government."

Wayne Allyn Root (wayne@rootforamerica.com) is chairman of the Libertarian National Congressional Committee and was the 2008 Libertarian vice presidential nominee. He writes from Henderson.