Party Time, Tea Party Time That Is
A few weeks ago I accepted an invitation from a local tea party group in Indianapolis. They asked me to come speak on politics and the political process and how to get involved. Normally when I go speak to a local group I usually scribble my notes shortly before going on, but this one I put in some extra effort.
The first rule of public speaking is know your audience. From my observation of the tea party movement, I knew they were all mad at the government in general and incumbents more specifically. However, the point I wanted to get across to them was that being mad isn’t enough to effect real, lasting change. You need to transform that anger into informed action.
The first question I asked was how many of them were upset at the stimulus bill? Everyone raised their hands. The second question I asked was how many knew how many stimulus dollars had been spent in their congressional districts? Not a single hand went up. I explained to them that example personified their biggest challenge; moving beyond anger and slogans and into the realm of policy and process.
I told them it’s one thing to say you want to “return to Constitutional governance” and follow the framers’ intent. It’s another thing to know exactly which framer you’re talking about? Madison, Patterson or Hamilton (my personal favorite).
It’s one thing to talk about allowing insurance to be sold across state lines in order to bring competition to health care and lower the costs. It’s another thing to address the issue of what to do when an out-of-state insurer denies coverage and a decision must be made over who has jurisdiction of the claim, the insurer’s home state or where the policyholder resides. Of course the bigger issues is does an out-of-state insurer want to follow another state’s mandates regarding basic coverage?
It’s one thing to want to grow your organization beyond its homogeneous base, but you don’t do it by referring to inner-city residents as welfare dependents. You do it by engaging them and making sure the principles of freedom, liberty and personal responsibility can apply to their daily lives, where for a significant number of residents everyday is a challenge to survive.
I told them to form working groups on issues such as education, health care, economic development and come up with position papers that meet their political philosophy. So when someone like me asks for specifics, they can give an informed response; which goes a long way to establishing credibility. I also told them it never hurts to win and election or two because winning tends to cure a lot of ills.
As much as it may surprise some of you, I was very well-received by the audience. I showed them respect and told them I understood their frustration, but in order to grow and survive it will take some message management and getting into the weeds of policy and understanding the political process. For the record, I recommended they get involved in the Democratic and Republican parties if they want to influence both from within. Remember, I am an arms dealer at heart.
Overall, I think they got the message. Politics is a lot more work than people think and the romantic fantasy of Mr. Smith goes to Washington is just that, a fantasy. However, I think the 100 or so people I spoke to got the message and will now turn their anger into informed action, and I think the political process will be better for it in the long haul.
