Howdy from Arizona...

Where do we go from here?

from the OFFICIAL TEA PARTY HANDBOOK
by Charly Gullett

Instead of wringing our hands and hoping Socialism won’t be too bad or that it will probably happen to somebody else, we are going to do some thinking “outside the box”. I am going to suggest that as the Tea Party movement grows, there are tactical forms of non-violent activism which the left has used effectively against us and which we can now turn against them.
The FIRST TACTIC of ACTIVISM: As evangelists for Liberty we must LEARN to separate the political terrorists from the tactics of successful activism.
My theme, here and elsewhere, is this…changing the tide of Socialism in America is not about embracing the evils of the liberal left; it is about recognizing their methods and then finding ways to transform those methods into the defeat of Socialism.

When we see one little Socialist piss-ant sitting at home with a personal computer and helping to drive Gov. Sarah Palin out of office by generating 25% of all the ethics violations filed against her and costing the governor and Alaskan taxpayers millions of dollars to defend those charges, we need to quit waving our hands in the air and think, “Much as I hate it…that was a pretty good tactic. How can I make this same tactic work for Liberty?”

“We should not reject the strategies of the political left just because they have been used against us by the enemies of Liberty. If we care about America and the inseparable relationship of Liberty and Capitalism, we need to embrace ANY realistic strategy or ethical tactic capable of success.”
--Cooking Alinsky’s Goose

The first rule of activism is…there are no rules. The left is not playing by the rules, so we’re not going to have any either. That does not mean the tactics presented in this handbook are to be construed as advocacy for illegal action or violence; they are not. The tactics of non-violent activism presents special problems for Socialists which they are able to more easily overcome if we use violence or other illegal activities.

In particular, non-violent activism creates empathy on the part of those middle-ground voters who are not yet on our side, often brings the despot’s own people to our way of thinking, and makes it very difficult for criminal politicians to respond in any way that does not make them look like coercive tyrants.

Violence on our part also makes us look bad which adds fuel to the Socialist fire and can dissuade potential middle of the road recruits from joining our cause. Having said that, let me point out the more daring the defiance, the more difficult it will be for the bad guys to ignore us without demonstrating weakness and fear of exposure; and in so doing they risk the possibility of more widespread defiance. This forces their hand, puts them into the classic trap of Alinsky’s conflict/response model and puts us in the catbird seat. Violence gives them an out which justifies their own use of violence, which decidedly we do not want.

So be careful, there is a balance between the audacious and the illegal and each of us must stand on that line and decide what is personally ethical. There is dangerous information in this handbook that can get you jail time.

In Minneapolis, I once heard Stephen Gaskin say, “…morals are defined by what you do when no one is looking.” Inevitably the decision to do the right thing will be made by you and you alone.