Mark Williams Resigns from Tea Party Express July 23, 2010
Outspoken Mark Williams Quits Tea Party Express |
Outspoken former Tea Party Express chairman, Mark Williams, had recently come under heavy fire from both inside and outside of the Tea Party for a satirical blog post in the form of a fictitious letter addressed to President Abraham Lincoln. This letter directly targeted NAACP's Ben Jealous in response to the NAACP resolution condemning the Tea Party as a racist movement. The post was over-the-top, even for the brash and abrasive Williams, including his signing the letter, "Precious Ben Jealous, Tom's Nephew, NAACP Head Colored Person." The National Tea Party Federation, an umbrella group with somewhat dubious claims of speaking for the Tea Party Movement, had expelled both Williams and the Tea Party Express from the ranks of their membership. The blog post and the resulting contention amongst various Tea Party groups drew national media attention until July 23, 2010, Mark Williams submitted his resignation to the Tea Party Express.
Mark Williams' Full Resignation Letter
"I feel compelled to separate myself from any further involvement with the Tea Party Express so that I can pursue other interests and to free the tea party movement from any more distraction based on my personal comments or blogs.
The media coverage over a recent satirical posting on my personal MarkTalk.com blog risks injuring the Tea Party Express, the tea party movement as a whole, and the people in this movement who I respect and admire so much. It has become increasingly unacceptable that the media and our domestic enemies continue to anoint me as the official voice of a massively diverse and broad-based movement.
This nation is in crisis, and beyond the struggling economy and suffocating deficits, is what I consider to be the most troubling development recently: this nation's slide towards socialism and abandonment to the fundamental Constitutional principles that have made America great. I do not wish to be used as ammunition against our own cause so to that end I am removing myself from the equation and severing ties to the Tea Party Express.
Ronald Reagan so correctly and eloquently explained that America is truly mankind's best hope for freedom. Our respect for the individual rights and freedoms is unmatched around the globe yet our politicians in Washington seem determined to change this legacy of freedom. We are in a war for the future of this country and the Left and their allies in the news media have decided to use my personal comments and views as a weapon to injure the tea party movement and conservative activists. I will simply not allow them to do this.
I have so much respect and admiration for all of you at the Tea Party Express and the tea party activists I have gotten to know and work with across this great nation. I am going to continue to fight on the side of liberty but it is clear that doing so with any affiliation with the Tea Party Express is not the best way to do so.
I do however fully intend to continue to fight in the spirit of and for the causes of the Tea Party Movement.
We have a lot of work to do between now and November and I know that the Tea Party Express will continue to serve as a leading voice for the millions of Americans who are determined to take their country back."
Whether or not the Tea Party Movement as a whole will suffer because of this incident remains to be seen. It is clear however, that critics of the Tea Party continue to lurk, waiting for any excuse to persist in their efforts to discredit the movement – efforts that up to this point, have failed.
Posted July 28, 2010
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