Now is the Time for Candidate Training and Grassroots Training

As I survey the current landscape of the tea party movement, I am growing more and more convinced that this is a Valley Forge moment for the movement, and I blogged on that very topic a few weeks ago. The time to get trained and equipped for the upcoming political battles is now. Now is the time to gain greater knowledge of how systems work and how to make the most meaningful interventions into those systems to change them for good. American Majority has been doing candidate trainings and grassroots trainings for several years now, and we’re gaining more and more momentum because I believe that’s what most of the people in the movement want. Protests are good because they bring people together, but protests are just starting points. In and of themselves, protests change nothing.

One of the things the movement wants, and needs, is more educational training.  American Majority is increasing its intensity this year, with an increased number of trainings and the new American Majority Mechanics Program. I’m also excited about what American Majority will be announcing next week in conjunction with The John Hancock Committee for the States, RedState and Smart Girl Politics.

Another pressing matter for the tea party movement is focus. I have been advocating, and will continue to advocate, that the tea party movement stay very focused on the issues of limited government and fiscal responsibility. We must stay focused on returning the government to “We the People,” and tell the political class and the crony capitalists that this is our government, not yours. To help achieve those ends, we have to demand and implement greater accountability and transparency at all levels of government. The issues of birtherism, trutherism, and all the other fringe topics should be adamantly dismissed out of hand because those issues do not belong in credible political movements, which I believe the tea party movement has the potential to be if enough people are serious about it.

I’ll close with this thought. The Reverend John Witherspoon, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, said this when he urged the delegates at the 2nd Continental Congress to sign the Declaration of Independence: “There is a tide in the affairs of men, a nick of time. We perceive it now before us. To hesitate is to consent to our own slavery.” I believe we have such a moment before us, and if the tea party movement will get serious about focus, and throw itself into the moment, not being distracted by absurd issues, or lead astray by those opportunists seeking to make money off the movement instead of investing in it, the tea party movement can bring about the greatest political change since the founding of this country. But it will require discipline. It will require the grassroots training and political training. And quite frankly, it will require determination and perseverance. I’ve no doubt there will be tough times ahead, but if the movement will endure through those hard times, even defeats, it will win.