Letter: Tea party is a ‘party’ for the people not the candidates

Published 11:44 pm Thursday, February 10, 2011

Spring will be here soon and politicians’ ambitions will turn to lies, oops, campaigning.

There will be clashes over party affiliation from A to Z, but without two cents worth of difference in any of them. The one party that many of the known and unknown senators, representatives, governors, and locals will lay claim to is the tea party.

There are a couple of problems that I see in someone laying claim to a political party. The first is that your name becomes associated with the errors made by anyone claiming the same allegiance. Second, the party you claim may not claim you. Here is where the tea party comes in.

Politicians flocked to the refreshing tastes of the tea party viewpoint while many intimated their affiliation with it. Many of them solicited tea party support last year, some to experience success in their run for office and some did not win. The one thing that was missed by the greater majority of candidates was the early decision of almost every tea party group in the nation to not endorse candidates.

No fewer than a half dozen groups that I visited all made the fact clear that they would not endorse a candidate of any political persuasion. Leave all tea partiers to their own choice of candidate.

The newly elected candidates have been installed in their respective offices by now. Some are still reeling from the whirlwind of being blown into office somewhat unexpectedly. The “lame stream media,” the talking heads and much of the American public are still reeling from the wide sweep of position changes, especially in the House of Representatives. The media is still making reference to some of these lawmakers as “tea party candidates.”

If I understand the intent of the tea party, there is no such thing as a tea party candidate. The tea party is we the people. Join the party.

Lawrence Headrick

Tunnel Hill