Moreover, these states also suffer the greatest casualties from gangs, drug trafficking and human trafficking.  If it’s this easy for thugs to illegally cross the border undetected how much more is it for terrorists who plan for years their strategies?

We must deal swiftly and resolutely with the border issue for our security and economic survival.  However we also need to figure out what to do with those illegal immigrants who have come here just to work and have been here for many years.  Many of them have raised families, which adds to the economic burden but must be acknowledged.

The crime of illegally immigrating to the United States must be punished, and it can be done in a humane way using common sense and justice.  Here’s my simple idea:

1. If you’ve been here for less than 10 years with no criminal history you get deported with an option to return legally.

2. If you have been convicted of any felony you get deported and refused re-entry permanently.

3. If you’ve been here for longer than 10 years with no criminal history you are given temporary transitional visas under the following guidelines:

• You must acquire legal residency within 5 years
• You’re wages are garnished for back taxes of $4,000 per year, split evenly between the state and federal government (that would be equivalent to what they would have paid in federal taxes if they earned about $27,000 annually)
• Any felony conviction results in immediate deportation with permanently refused re-entry

I’m sure this plan is not perfect, but let’s bring some sanity to this problem and solve it!
 

My dear young friend, It’s not a “bubble” it’s a value system.  If someone is Republican they might be either liberal or conservative.

If you are liberal you believe that the federal government has the primary responsibility to protect you and provide for your needs.  They believe we are protected by government regulations, and we are provided for by taking money out of your paycheck and giving some of the money you’ve earned to other people.

If you are conservative you believe that the federal government’s responsibilities are outlined and limited to what is in the Constitution and the subsequent Amendments.  Specifically:

• Protecting citizens God-given rights (on-going)
• National Defense (on-going)
  
• Establishing Federal Courts (done)
  
• Copyright Protection (on-going)
  
• Establishing a national set of weights and measures (done)
  
• Establishing Post Office (on-going)
  

Everything else should be taken care of by the individual citizen or the state government.

The problem with getting outside a “bubble” is that requires destroying the bubble … and that bubble can never be restored.

If you think that you should make the decision about who to help with your money and how much you should give them, then you my young friend are not liberal, you are conservative.

The Second Amendment reads, “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

Thus our right to keep and bear arms is not to hunt or to keep thugs from stealing our stuff … it’s to have citizens armed with weapons and able to form militias to protect our State from oppressive governments!

Funny how it seems to get back to an out of control Federal government usurping the rights of individuals and States.

These people are either woefully ignorant, or disingenuous at best.  The Tea Party supports the 10 Amendment, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”  In other words the Federal governments powers and authority are limited to those few and specific things assigned to it.

A simple way to understand this is that your problems and needs should be handled as close to you as possible.  You are responsible to provide and protect yourself.  In some instances that job will be too big for you.  At those times those things should be handled by your family, then your community, then your State, then the Federal government.

Today we’ve turned that on it’s head and look to the Federal government first to fix our problems and provide for us.

The Tea Party is not for Anarchy, it is for each person and entity assuming its proper role and authority.
 

The principles of the Constitution are based on, or inspired by Biblical principles, Biblical principles reflect the character of God.  Many people won’t understand this but let me explain rationally and equivocally using one characteristic of God as an example.

God is love.  God wants us to love others as He does.  Life experience and logic tell you that if you kidnapped someone and forced them to “love” you, that would not be true love.  Love requires choice not force or coercion.

One application of that Biblical principle based on the character of God is that in America you have freedom of religion (not freedom “from” religion).  Each person has the right to choose to worship or not as he or she chooses. 

Why?  Because God loves you, He will not force you to love Him.

Moreover, the application of this Biblical principle is an example of America’s supremacy over many other nations.  In many nations today you do not have the freedom to exercise religion, or your choice of which religion to practice is forced upon you.  As I write this article there is a Christian father in Iran who is facing execution because he refused to renounce his Christian faith and return to Islam.

Thus The Tea Party, like our Constitution is not trying to establish a religion, it’s trying to protect everyone’s rights by relying on the wisdom of our Founders who based our laws on Biblical principles.

The bottom line is that if you are an Atheist, Muslim, Pagan, Christian, Agnostic, et.al … you have the Liberty to hold and express those views because that is your God-given right protected by our Constitution.

When it comes to our Libertarian friends two issues jump out at me right away; Morals matter and Religion matters.

While we share many concerns with Libertarians, especially when it comes to the economy, what distinguishes Tea Party members is that it is not ONLY about the economy.  Our Founding Fathers were clear, in order for this nation to survive it must by lead my moral people held accountable by moral people.

Character matters.  Social issues such as abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research are important.  What is taught to our children in schools about tolerance, sex and history are important.  And maintaining a strong military is essential.

We cannot be scared away from acknowledging the fact that America is a great, prosperous, tolerant, generous, law-abiding nation because she was founded on Biblical principles.  To the degree that we stray from that will erode our national character and benefits.
 

I understand the strategic need to use the Republican Party to get candidates into office.  However, some well-meaning GOP’ers simply can’t wrap their conditioned mind around the concept that we are not a “plank” of the GOP, we’re not a bunch of disenfranchised members of the Republican Party, and we’re not capable of being bullied by their usual tactics!

Let me state our relationship with the Republican Party plainly and clearly:  Like it or not we live in a two party system.  The Tea Party is strategically using the GOP to get conservative candidates in office.  We are doing that by replacing Liberal Republicans then winning elections against the other party.

Allow me to share two quick stories to illustrate this point.  My first meeting as a leader of our local Tea Party was in a friend’s house with about 20 other people.  As I shared this concept I was met with some blank stares and some confused people nodding their heads.  When this concept was applied to voting I asserted that I would not vote for a candidate who was not conservative simply because he/she had an “R” after their name.  There was a group gasp followed by days of angry and concerned calls and emails.

Several months later I was having a breakfast meeting with the Chief of Staff for my local Congressman.  He patiently explained to me how we needed to put up more liberal candidates in some areas so that we could win those seats to ensure a larger voting bloc in the house … blah, blah, blah.  I chuckled and told him, “That’s not the way it works anymore.  Here’s how it works.  You put up conservative candidates and we will vote for them and they will win.  You put up RJINO’s and we will not vote for them and you will lose.”

The GOP thinks the Tea Party is a fringe of the Republican Party that they can use.  They have it backwards.  The Tea Party is a distinct voting bloc that is resolute.  They are not using us, Rather we are using them!

This is epidemic when it comes to the Tea Party.  Liberals believe the Tea Party is just a fringe wing of the Republican Party.  Republicans think it’s the embarrassing Constitution carrying, Bible thumping element of their political party.  Libertarians and Independents are just as confused.

This week I will post a new article each day that briefly explains the differences.  I will provide clarity to the muddy waters by describing how and why the GOP, Libertarians, Anarchist, NRA and Christian labels can’t possibly summarize what the Tea Party is about.

Hold on … I’m about to offend just about everybody … that is, everyone who’s not truly a Tea Party member.
 

But they have a crusade.  They’re true believers and will stop at nothing to get their point across.

Yesterday they stormed the Port of Longview which “plays an important role in economic development by creating jobs in manufacturing and international trade. It develops infrastructure to support these jobs at its marine terminals and industrial property, creating a positive economic ripple that strengthens the local community.” (Port of Longview website)

They held six guards hostage for hours, vandalized thousands of dollars worth of property, and dumped needed and valuable grain.

Who were these terrorists?  Radical Muslims?  Eco-Terrorists?  Tea Party?  No … it was the International Longshore and Warehouse Union!

• Of course no arrests were made!
  
• No mention of this domestic terrorist incident in the national news! (here’s a local report)
  
• No condemnation by any politicians!
  

In fact it’s only aluminum foil-hat-wearing basement bloggers like me reporting on this.

If this act of terrorism was carried out by any other group it would be national headlines.  If it was the Tea Party demands for arrests and federal indictments would be immediate.  I would have to go into my bomb shelter and lock the bank vault security door behind me.  Other conservatives would be rounded up and sent to Guantanamo Bay (or did Obama shut that down like he said he would during his campaign … oh no, he didn’t.  Yet another lie, but I digress)

These domestic terrorist organizations we call Unions have free reign to do and say whatever they like because they give money to politicians in both parties … it’s as simple as that!

Perhaps our war on terrorism needs to shift focus from the middle east to DC.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure." -Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address (1863)

Back in the later 1800′s, America was wrought with Civil War. However, as famous as the war was, it didn’t come about until the last straw broke the camel’s back. The tension had been building up for decades, in the era we now refer to as the Antebellum. What were those tensions? Slavery, mostly. Other issues were mingled in as well, such as disputes over economic policy and other social policies, but they’re seldom heard of today. The war was fought between North and South.

Today, in 2011, we are in what I would call the Second Antebellum. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the tension between the Left and the Right. Politicians, companies, and citizens alike are engaged in politics much more than ever before. (Sadly, this isn’t reflected at the voting booths, but I digress.) What exactly is driving the wedge once again between Brothers and Countrymen? Let’s take a look at a few main points of heat.

Republican and Democrat are fairly old terms, yet the modern meanings are pretty new. America has mostly been a two party country (despite the Founding Fathers’ warnings) but those two parties have evolved. In the beginning were the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans. Today we have Republicans and Democrats. Like back then, there are a myriad of smaller parties, as today include the Independent Party, the Green Party, the Socialist Party, etc., and back then there were Quakers and Jeffersonians. All parties had differing views on social, economic, and military policies. But they still were more similar than different.

Fast forward to the later 1900′s. Democrats were the party for "the little guy" and Republicans were for "big business." Socially, while there were still differences, they were pretty similar. They differed mostly on economic terms. That changed, however, mostly around the turn of the century. Today, Democrats and Republicans are completely polarized. They truly are the Left and the Right; as far as is the East from the West. The Left praises Woodrow Wilson and Fraklin Delano Roosevelt, while the Right praises Ronald Reagan and Andrew Jackson. I say Left and Right, because even though the dichotomy is there, many of the Right are leaving the Republican Party, and even some of the Left is leaving the Democratic Party. This is largely due to the recent officials of the parties, Like Bush and Obama, who have deviated from the parties’ beliefs and become elitists. The true polarization is between Liberal Progressives, and Conservative Traditionalists.

Liberal Progressives believe that the Founding Fathers, while good men, were only good for their time, and that since the times have changed, that their antiquated guidelines need to be changed. They believe that they were just mere Theists. Woodrow Wilson was the first to radically change the role of government. In 1913 (the same year the Federal Reserve was formed… more on that in a later post) he centralized the government, using religious analogies such as tithing the government, etc. Later, FDR brought in the entitlement doctrine, with the New Deal. Basically, (and this belief persists today, but in a larger, more grotesque form) we came to believe that we, as Americans, are the best (Nationalism, warnings from the Founding Fathers, examples from Hitler?) and that we deserver a happy life, and that the government should be the one to provide a safety net for us all. Sounds great at first; who doesn’t want to be happy? Aye, but that’s the problem. We traded freedom for free stuff. And we did it at the expense of our countrymen. A near-foolproof way to test the Constitutionality of the things the government "does for us" is the "Ayn Rand test." Ayn Rand was the mentor of Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve. Ayn Rand’s famous test was to simply ask one question: "At whose expense?" Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, government officials’ office redecoration, pretty much anything. At whose expense? I certainly don’t like having my wages garnished so children can learn at the level of the lowest common denominator, or so illegal immigrants can get free social services, or even for social services themselves!  The government has assumed the role of the Church, and of charities. Instead of people giving out of the kindness of their hearts, the government plays Robin Hood and STEALS. Keyword=steals. Regardless of one’s position, one does not deserve free stuff at the expense of those who have earned it. Key point coming up, ready? "For we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Notice how we’re not entitled to happiness? We’re entitled to the freedom to pursue it, ourselves. Freedom means inequality. Not like many of you are thinking, but rather its equality and inequality at the same time. We are all born equal, but the choices we make and the talents we are given make is, by nature, unequal. If one man is a hard worker, and is skilled in auto mechanics, and works up to the near-dead American Dream, he is unequal to the lazy man works at McDonald’s because he has no skill nor desire to learn one. See my point? They both had the same opportunity from birth; this isn’t a caste system.

The problem lies therein. Entitlement. Americans have come to think everybody owes them something. All we are owed by our government is for it to protect us from enemies, and uphold our rights. I could go into how entitlement manifests itself into modern day issues, such as taxes, social services, abortion, immigration, etc. but it’s a broad, deep topic that I intend to cover at a later time.

The dichotomy, therefore (after a rather lengthy prologue,) is very large. It permeates into every aspect of our daily life. Today, as I write, our Dollar is being diluted even further (.03 cents on the original Dollar as of 1913,) prices of everything, in consequence, are going up dramatically, our nation is over $14 trillion in debt (over $64 trillion in obligatory spending,) and the rate of disapproval and suspicion of our government is at a near-alltime high. Utah is starting to move back to the Gold standard, and Wisconsin is saying "enough is enough, we just don’t have the money" and we all know what happened in Wisconsin.

America, we are broke. We have been borrowing and abusing our credit rating for decades, and the Ponzi scheme is coming undone. Information about central banking fraud (JpMorgan-Chase, Banf of America Merrill Lynch, etc) is coming into light, our money is fake (and just as in Monopoly, the rules state that if you run out of bills that you may simply write the added amount on a piece of paper… Bernanke must have loved that game as a child,) hyperinflation is appearing increasingly imminent, and the officials in government, who are supposed to represent us, are whining about a few billion dollars. This country, as it stands, is going to Hell in a handbasket.

But the Founding Fathers were smart, and foresaw this archetypal event. They’ve given us the means to change it all: the voting booth. We don’t need vigilantism (Anonymous….) because the tools were given to us! All that is missing is the unity. The like-mindedness. With the populace in such political disarray, nothing’s going to get changed. We will go through hyperinflation, China will take our place as the host of the reserve currency, and our level of power will be taken away. The time to act is now, America. The Tea Party aims to get the job done. We exist to bring together the voice of the people, instead of in an ignored cacophony, as one booming voice. Smaller government, fiscal responsibility, taking care of our own country before others (as is the duty of any sovereign country,) and an honest economy. I’m sure that regardless of where you lie in the political spectrum, you want all of those things. It’s time to go back to what made us great to begin with: the Constitution.