by Lee Cary
There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
(Julius Caesar, Act 4, Scene 3)
The Tea Party movement in Texas is afloat on a full sea of political affairs, one that encompasses the nation, and must take the current and back a challenger to the re-election of incumbent Republican Senator John Cornyn in 2014.
Shakespeare’s lines come in a discussion between Brutus and Cassius about when best to battle the forces of Octavian and Marcus Antonius. Cassius advises waiting until they increase their strength. Brutus suggests attacking Octavian at Philippi, before Octavian grows stronger.
The Republican establishment is using the low tide between the 2012 general election and the 2014 mid-terms to put distance between the Grand Old Party and the Tea Party movement.
Karl Rove, the media-designated Public Relations spokesperson for the G.O.P., has, according to Breitbart’s Big Government, declared war on the Tea Party.
But this “war” is old news. It’s been going on since the Tea Party emerged as the first significant American grassroots political movement of the 21st Century.
In the beginning, the G.O.P. had a chance to embrace the Tea Party. Instead, the Republican establishment carefully kept its distance as the liberal media eviscerated Tea Party people as old, angry, white racists. Very few high-profile Republicans came to their defense, and most of those who did spoke with half-a-heart.
Professional establishment Republicans were embarrassed by the movement’s amateurish pedestrians, but, at the same time, saw them as a potential threat to the Grand Old Party. They failed to recognize Tea Party followers and supporters as allies with substantial potential to advance the cause of Jeffersonian Democracy against the Democrat’s progressive march into Bismarck’s dream of State Socialism.
And so, in silence, the “war” began…before 2010.
Radio talk show host Mark Levin recently asked, “Who the hell died and made Karl Rove queen for the day?” Last August 28, I asked a similar question in an article posted here entitled, “Who appointed Bush’s ‘Architect’ the G.O.P. Gatekeeper?”
The answer to both questions is the same: The media enthroned Rove, and the Blueblood Republicans were happy for Rove to do the heavy lifting for them. He has become the lightening rod. In fact, he doesn’t matter much.
But Rove’s not the problem between the Tea Party movement and the G.O.P. – he’s merely a spokesperson for the problem.
From the Tea Party perspective, the G.O.P. has no core political credo – it stands against the New Democrat Socialist Party, but not for much. From the Tea Party perspective, the nation cannot, in these times, afford a Democrat alternative with vague beliefs.
From the G.O.P. establishment’s perspective, the Tea party movement can’t be controlled, making it an unknown in a political landscape where points and counterpoints are carefully scripted and cleverly delivered – sometimes.
The Tea Party movement can’t be controlled by either the National Republican Committee, or by its own shadow hierarchy of high profile personalities. It is a broad, blunt instrument, or, at least, it has that potential.
Individually, Tea Party activists are mustangs. They will never yield to the harness of coordinated talking points handed down from a political hierarchy, or follow the guidelines in a distributed memo from Karl Rove-type hacks.
They don’t agonize over “messaging” – an exercise in futility designed for those who have no definitive message – because they know the hard core of what they stand for, including fiscal responsibility, less government, and individual freedom.
So the internecine war underway was inevitable.
The G.O.P. is a political party, with most of the characteristics of political parties everywhere.
The Tea Party is a populous movement of freedom-loving citizens.
The two mix like oil and water.
Incumbent Senator John Cornyn is the consummate Republican establishment politician. A master speaker of the measured comment delivered with minimal passion and only slight urgency, generally prefaced, on the Sunday morning talk shows, with typical pol-speak padding, “I take issue with my good friend and colleague, the Senator from New York, when he asserts that …”
Cornyn speaks and acts like the jurist he once was, while, in the meantime, the national house is on fire.
So maybe it’s time for the Tea Party movement in Texas to find a primary challenger to Cornyn in the Republican primary. A woman or man, white, black, brown, whatever…with a political background or not…young, old or in-between…who embodies the patriotism and principles of the Tea Party movement and can speak of them with passion and clarity.
If no one can be found to challenge Cornyn in the Republican primary, perhaps there’s a small government, fiscally responsible, freedom-loving Democrat who is alarmed at the trajectory of today’s Democrat Party and wants to reverse our federal march into State Socialism.
And, if there’s no one in that party, then why not run an Independent candidate to become the next junior Senator from the State of Texas, and make Cruz the senior Senator?
For on a full sea we are surely afloat, and must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures. And our collective venture is the country.
