Cal, I really appreciate your column regarding the Tea Party’s lack of visibility on local issues. And, yes, you are on target, more than you suspect, with regards to local relationships and self-preservation. Further, you will get no argument from me that the nanny-state disease has spread to the nanny-city and the nanny-neighborhood.
However, I can’t completely accept your challenge or premise without first putting this all in perspective.
First, there are four or more tea party groups within the Fayette-Coweta area. Each is doing its very best to get information out to the public and to keep issues and topics focused on the fundamental principles that our country was founded on.
There are more issues and topics than any group, or group of groups, could possibly keep track of. There is an avalanche of legislation threatening the way of life most Americans enjoy.
You must remember, the Tea Parties are all volunteers who have turned the entertainment TV off and committed our time to making a small difference. Most of us still have families to raise, clients to serve, businesses to run, elderly parents to tend to, churches to praise in, and a host of other activities each and every day. There are only so many hours for us to breathe and it is apparent that the political establishment enjoys that we are but working class citizenry.
Given the monumental uphill battle that we patriotically charge up, please don’t lose sight of the recent accomplishment that a local tea party was front and center on.
While all of the establishment money and establishment officials backed and supported two incumbents, the Fayette County Tea Party drove home a significant victory.
Further, they were able to get a school board member re-elected in spite of the lies and false allegations he was assaulted with.
And yes, the Fayette County Tea Party was an outgrowth of FAYCOG, but perhaps FAYCOG was just a bit ahead of its time; the principles remained as it spun out the active tea party group.
All politics is local. Many have heard me plead and beg that they start regularly attending school board and commission meetings.
It used to be that we voted in officials, then trusted them to do the job they were hired to do. As Reagan said, “trust, but verify.”
It is my opinion that we can no longer afford to sit on the sidelines. When elected officials are watched and monitored, they tend to be more transparent. Peachtree City and Fayette County get away with exactly what the public lets them get away with.
But most important, the tea party movement is focused on state and national issues so that we can continue to live in the type of local community that we choose to.
If PTC becomes the nanny-city where tax rates exceed their IQ, then the smarter ones can move to another locale by choice. We can move from city to city, state to state, and go where the function of government suits our preference.
But if we let the federal government make rules for all of the land that every community must abide by, then competition between the states and various locales means nothing.
So, please, send some eyes, send some money, send some hands, and send some faith. We can use it all.
Pat Hinchey
Fayetteville, Ga.
