Both parties are to blame for the untimely demise of this once proud and active movement.
With the federal government out of control, skyrocketing spending, and the deficit larger than ever, this movement may be truly dead.
That’s why Rand Paul fears the Deep State has finally killed this conservative institution.
They were heady, exciting times.
It was 2007 and Ron Paul was running for President.
People were waking up to the out-of-control federal government, a huge Obama spending spree was on its way, and soon Americans would rise up in a second Tea Party movement.
Obama’s policies and spending threatened the very fiber of America and people began to revolt.
In 2009, CNBC reporter Rick Santelli, on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, called out President Barack Obama’s spending spree and called for a “tea party” revolt against this big spending.
For those of us in the Ron Paul movement, this was just a reaffirmation of what we were already doing with the Ron Paul Revolution.
Though Ron Paul would never win the presidency, his legacy lives on in local and state governments and parties around the country.
“Ron Paul” Republicans are to this day taking over local and state parties and winning elections at the state level.
And of course, this wave of peaceful political revolution saw the election of Congressmen Thomas Massie, Justin Amash, and others who helped reenergize the Liberty Caucus and became the backbone of the House Freedom Caucus.
And in the Senate, we saw the election of “Tea Party” conservatives like Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, and of course Ron’s son, Rand Paul.
Rand quickly established himself as the fiercest proponent of a limited, constitutional government in the U.S. Senate.
But now, after the recent passage by both parties of the unconstitutional and downright criminal $2.7 trillion budget deal, Senator Paul took to the Senate floor to say:
“Both parties have deserted – have absolutely and utterly deserted – America and show no care and no understanding and no sympathy for the burden of debt they are leaving the taxpayers, the young, the next generation, and the future of our country. The very underpinnings of our country are being eroded and threatened by this debt.”
Paul went on to claim that the deal cut between Democrats and Republicans “marks the death of the Tea Party movement in America.”
Paul ended with, “Today is the final nail in the coffin. The Tea Party is no more.”
That’s right, the very movement started by his father’s 2008 Presidential campaign is now dead.
Many things happened along the road to its final resting place, but none was more harmful to the Tea Party movement than the truly grassroots groups being taken over by political hacks and consultants.
These swamp dwellers co-opted many of the most vibrant Tea Party groups and turned them into just another inside-the-beltway Republican interest group.
The initial Tea Party movement did not care about party affiliation, but rather they were fed up with corrupt politics, hypocrites, and an out-of-control government operating outside the Constitution.
After the Washington swamp consultants took over, many Tea Party groups cozied up to Mitch McConnell, then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, and other RINO Republicans who were part of the very problem the Tea Party was trying to eradicate.
Once the Tea Party became an arm of the Republican Party, it was over.
And this horrendous budget deal is exactly as Senator Paul says – the final nail in the Tea Party’s coffin.
But we must continue to fight.
We must remain vigilant against the Deep State and big government adherents in both parties.