While liberals and progressives saw 2009 as the beginning of their messiah’s term in office and enjoyed more than ever the nanny-state they are living in, thousands of Conservatives and Constitutionalists in the Puget Sound area woke up in 2009 and realized our state and our country would soon be beyond rescuing if we didn’t do something. So we made intelligently worded signs mocking our current politicians and waved them at Tea Parties. We yelled in unison with other newly-awakened sleeping giants in Olympia, Seattle, Bellevue, and Everett, chanting “No new taxes!” and “You can keep the change!”
I’m not downplaying the significance and therapeutic benefits of Tea Parties, as it’s terrific that so many of my fellow citizens have awakened. But you have to admit it isn’t too difficult to participate in a Tea Party. When you stand around holding a sign and shouting with people you agree with, it can be both fun and fulfilling, but it’s also fairly easy. So I would like to persuade my fellow Tea Partiers, Conservatives, and Constitution-followers to do something more difficult.
It’s time to advance from being an “apprentice” activist in 2009 to being a seriously involved activist in 2010. To be fully awake so that we can save our liberty and bring our state and country back to how they were originally conceived, we must not just shout at and about our current politicians, but we must help elect new ones. We haven’t had success getting Jay Inslee or Patty Murray to change their votes, no matter how long we yell or how sarcastic our Tea Party sign message is, so we need to replace them and other liberal politicians with fellow citizens who better represent our values and beliefs. And it’s not merely enough to pick our favorite Conservative and Constitutionally-following candidates to vote for in 2010, but we must wholeheartedly campaign for them.
The good news is if you liked holding a sign at a Tea Party, you can still do this while campaigning for a candidate. You can hold a “James Watkins for Congress” sign on a street corner in Bothell or an “Art Coday for State Rep” sign in a parade in Edmonds. But as I said, it’s not as easy being a seriously involved activist as it was being an apprentice, so in addition to holding a sign with your candidate’s name on it, you’ll also need to promote their name to friends and family, doorbell around your community to hand out literature, direct people to the candidate’s website on your Facebook page, and of the utmost importance – donate financially to their campaign.
Supporting a candidate wholeheartedly means putting your money where your mouth is and donating cash to his or her campaign. Did you know that less than 5% of Americans donate to a political candidate? If you haven’t donated to a political candidate before, of all the years, 2010 is the year to donate! We must help put Conservatives and Constitutionally-following candidates in political office this year, and donating to their campaigns is one way to better assure this will happen. The candidates need to pay for all the signs and literature they’ll be handing out to voters, and some will even need to make TV and radio commercials.
As I said, it’s wonderful you wrote to current Representatives and Senators to try and persuade them to vote certain ways on bills. It’s inspiring that you took time off of work to make a clever sign and attend a Tea Party. And it’s fantastic that you spent time to attend forums so you could decide on the best candidates. But if you aren’t willing to part with some of your hard-earned dollars to help send Conservatives to Washington, D.C. and Olympia, then your time, your letter-writing, and your sign-waving will most likely be for naught.
Did you know that you may legally give up to $2400 to a Federal candidate (Senate and Congress) for the August primary and then another $2400 for the November general election? So in this decisive year of 2010, why not donate some cash-fraction of the number “2010” to the candidate(s) of your choice? Can you afford to give $2010 or perhaps $201.0 to Watkins, Koster, or Rossi? I’m sure anyone should be able to at least donate $20.10. After all, you spent that much alone in poster boards to make your Tea Party signs.
For state legislature candidates, the limit for donations is $800 for the primary and then another $800 for the general. So how about sending in a check for $201.0 or $20.10 to state candidates Scott, Munson, Hadian, Gagliardi, Coday, Richter, Borey, and/or Griffey? You can find these candidates’ websites and how to donate to them by going here: http://files.meetup.com/1395827/Political%20Candidates%20Who%20Are%20PSCU%20Members.pdf
Finally, it’s important that you are registered to vote, as are members of your family and friends who you know will vote for Conservatives and Constitutionally-following candidates. July 19th is the deadline to register online or by mail so you may vote in the August 17th primary. Here is information on registering that you can send to friends and family: http://wei.secstate.wa.gov/osos/en/voterinformation/Pages/DeadlinestoRegister.aspx
Thanks for waking up. Thanks for joining one or more candidates’ campaigns. And most importantly, thanks for taking out your checkbooks. You don’t want to have any regrets you didn’t do all you could in 2010 to rescue our state and our country before it gets beyond saving.
relaxed post, good work.