Tea Parties: Old News?

It was reported on AOL this morning that the tea party movement may be fracturing. There are several different groups who make up the overall movement, and each is trying to put its stamp on the direction in which they are headed. Further, some think the drive is being co-opted by the Republican party for its own use. It can seem a tangled web.

Populist movements historically tend to wither as they are often single issue. It is no surprise then when chinks appear in the armor, especially as it is difficult to keep people together when something by its nature appears primarily to individual thoughts. Yet if any movement is to gather steam and maintain itself, then at some point compromises have to be made. At some point we simply have accept that progress in our country means understanding that we can rarely get everything we want, so we must be happy with what we can get.

It leaves a bad taste, to be sure, and this is not to say that we should not keep an sharp eye on things and become shrill at times when the leadership begins to stray too far from core values and beliefs. But without a basic central figure at the helm a ship cannot do much but flounder.

Without Washington our nation would not have been formed. Without Lincoln the Civil War may have been lost. Without Reagan the prosperity of the Eighties may not have come about. It would be false to say that these great men did not have their share of naysayers. But the one thread they share is that they were able to get the populace to see beyond bickering on small matters in order to respect and work towards the big picture.

So get it together, tea partiers, and accept that there can only be one big dog. Imagine, if you will, the sound his bark will command.