9/12 Tea Parties Galvanized by Health Care Reform

From my report on the Wilshire tea party at Pajamas Media, "9/12 Tea Parties Galvanized by Health Care Reform":

Bill Whittle of Pajamas Media.

In Los Angeles, during what I thought was the keynote address on Saturday, Bill Whittle rallied the crowd to keep the momentum going. Grassroots citizens “need to run for office themselves,” was Whittle’s exhortation. He said that the only way Americans will preserve liberty is by taking it back themselves. Go to Washington and do your “tour of duty as a citizen legislator,” Whittle exclaimed! Then “come back home to your families and communities” to let other patriots steer the ship of state for a time.

It was a dramatic and powerful message. My sense is that Whittle captured the real nature of what we’ve seen in the protests this year. Whittle noted that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are brief documents, but members of Congress apparently hadn’t read them. And if they had, they failed to understand the simple call to freedom found therein — manifestos of liberty, painstakingly outlined by our nation’s Founders. In contrast, legislators can parrot by rote the nationalizing principles embodied in House Bill 3200, with its 1,018 pages of proposed bureaucratic tyranny.

So, yes, while only a few thousand were on hand in Los Angeles on Saturday, it’s clear that by now activists are heartened by a triumph of democratic significance. That is, people are making a real difference. After months of being smeared as “racist teabaggers” and “right-wing political terrorists,” the movement is now an unmistakable force with which to be reckoned.

Rosslyn Smith, commenting on the Washington protest at the American Thinker, suggested that “we are witnessing a very rare phenomenon, the genuine, broad based spontaneous political movement with no visible charismatic leaders.” But Ms. Smith’s only partially right. The “visible charismatic leaders” are the real people, drawn from all walks of life, who have rallied to the cause of freedom this year in record numbers. Many have told me personally that they’d never attended a protest or a town hall event in their lives. It’s hard to find a better testament to the enduring Americans values of freedom and individualism than that.

Congratulations to marchers nationwide who are revitalizing the American democracy.