Give Us Liberty

by Dick Armey

  For most of her life, Mary had remained too busy for politics. Idle discussion about current events was a luxury reserved for those who weren’t working to support a family and care for aging parents. What she did feel passionate about was her family and the commonsense principles that guided them. In recent years, however, she noticed that her government did not share her values—in fact, it appeared to be heading in the wrong direction. Enamored with elaborate entitlement programs and endless pork barrel projects, legislators in Washington seemed interested in anything but balancing a budget.

  By March 2008 she was hearing staggering numbers on the news. The federal government had ballooned under President Bush. Mary had always held concerns about deficits and spending, but for the first time, it started to really concern her. “How would we pay all of this money back?” she wondered.

  As she watched from her living room in Cape Coral, the subprime housing boom slowed, staggered, and crashed. Hoping to find her elected leaders prepared to make hard choices, she was instead disappointed with their reactions.

  “President Bush listened to his advisors and made mistakes,” Mary said. “The bank bailout was ridiculous. If you can’t pay your bills and your business model has failed, you simply close your doors. That was the way it was supposed to work in our system.”

  Mary spent increasing time researching government and economic policy. With the presidential election approaching, she was looking for leaders but was disappointed by the major-party candidates. Senator Barack Obama supported the Bush bailouts. She watched in disbelief as Senator John McCain “suspended” his campaign at the end of September to head back to Washington, not to restore fiscal order but to join in and make sure the bailouts passed. She had volunteered for his presidential campaign but felt he took the wrong position on the financial crisis.

  Mary was starting to feel frustrated and angry. “The principles that this country were founded upon were being eroded—freedom was being eroded—and I needed to do something about it,” she said.

  After the election, Mary continued her research. She reread the Constitution and brushed up on American history. “I realized how much I believe in the founding principles, how much they mean, how precious our freedom really is.”

  Fresh off the campaign trail, President Obama began to push for a trillion-dollar stimulus bill. For Mary, this was simply too much. It seemed the new president was taking a risky bet with other people’s money, recklessly hoping for a different result than the various Bush administration stimulus packages and bailouts had already delivered. She was upset and concerned for her children and grandchildren. Inspired to act, Mary began searching for more ways to make her voice heard.

  She soon discovered and joined FreedomWorks, the grassroots group we lead, and learned that an activist training seminar was scheduled to take place in Tampa in the coming days. The Rakoviches signed up and attended the workshop with about eighty other Florida citizens. The three-hour training session covered grassroots basics, from calling local talk shows to recruiting activists, hosting an event to using online tools like Twitter and Facebook to build a community of activists.

  “The training gave me hope, and I left energized. I saw that others were as concerned as I was. I could see that I was not alone.”

  The Rakoviches were talking about putting their new training to use when our colleague Brendan Steinhauser of FreedomWorks called to follow up and support their efforts. He urged them to take it to the streets, saying, “You only need the two of you and a few signs to make your voices heard.”

  It did not take long for an opportunity to use their newly acquired skills to present itself. Less than two weeks after the FreedomWorks training seminar, campaign manager Nan Swift learned that President Obama was scheduled to appear in Fort Myers to extol the virtues of his stimulus plan. He would be joined by Charlie Crist, Florida’s Republican governor, who had enthusiastically supported the proposed additional federal deficit spending.

  They targeted the Obama/Crist rally and got to work. Ron called a local political talk show to announce the protest while Mary reached out to other activists to join them. They scouted the event location, noting the arrangement of barricades and likely restrictions from police and Secret Service personnel. They called local police to make sure a protest would be allowed and to find out about any special restrictions. The night before the rally, Mary gathered poster boards and markers to make signs. Even then, she still had misgivings.

  “I thought, What am I doing here? I’m not a protester. Are we going to be the only people out there?”

  Mary remembered the speaker’s advice at the FreedomWorks seminar: Have fun with it. She opened the box of markers and wrote REAL JOBS, NOT PORK in big black letters across a poster board. It felt great to do something! Come hell or high water, she would be there to greet the president. On February 10, 2009, Mary and Ron Rakovich set out for the Harborside Center in Fort Myers with signs, a cooler of water, and the courage of their convictions.

  It was a beautiful Florida day, with clear skies and a light breeze off the river. Attendees were lining up at the front entrance and police could be seen directing traffic. Sticking to their plan, Ron would drop Mary off and park the car while she set up signs and sought out fellow protesters. But as soon as Ron pulled away, a Fort Myers police officer instructed her to move.

  “From the beginning, they did not want us engaging the attendees,” Mary explained. “I was told to move to the back parking lot, but the stimulus supporters could stay.” Surprised and angry at being told to move three separate times, she was moved to tears. “I have every right to be here,” she exclaimed to the officers. “I’m just one woman with a sign. Why can’t I voice my opinion?”

  Undaunted, she moved from the entrance and adjusted the volume of her commentary accordingly. One by one, other protesters began to join her and put her signs to good use. Surrounded by Obama supporters, the group stood their ground and did what they came to do.

  Nearby reporters were soon intrigued by the protest. It was obvious at first glance that this was not one of the usual mobs that descend on presidential events. No one was screaming obscenities or proclaiming the usual opposition to war, oil, red meat, or all of the above. These were middle-class Americans of all ages talking about fiscal sanity. And they were making sense.

  Mary was contacted by a producer at Fox News shortly after the event. She was featured on a newscast later that day talking about the protest. It was her first time in front of a microphone, let alone on live national television, and now she was very nervous.

  “I was probably shaking,” she recalled. “The crew asked me to take my glasses off for the remote feed. I couldn’t see the camera and was being asked questions through a small earpiece. I could barely hear him. The last time I think I spoke in public was at a preschool parent-teacher meeting.”

  The effect was remarkable. Mary’s honest sincerity and obvious lack of preparation charmed and intrigued viewers. They listened to what she said and realized they agreed. To the millions who were just as outraged as Mary but unsure of how to make a difference, a role model had been found.

  As it turned out, Mary was far from alone. Years of broken budgets and wasteful spending had created vast reservoirs of discontent. Conventional wisdom holds that the government’s fiscal irresponsibility, deficits, and federal spending are perennial issues in American politics that never move large numbers of people off the couch or voters to the polls. That assumption was about to be put to the test.

  ECHOES ACROSS THE COUNTRY

  MORE THAN THREE THOUSAND miles away, Keli Carender was frustrated. A Seattle schoolteacher and member of a local comedy improv troupe, Keli had always been interested in politics and current events. But she had never seen herself as an activist, leaving the marching to others while she aired her views among friends in homes and coffee shops. The closest she had ever come to political demonstration was a weekend back in high school when she participated in a Washing
ton Girls State convention hosted by the American Legion. By spring 2009 Keli was reconsidering her responsibility as a citizen.

  “Our nation’s fiscal path is just not sustainable,” she said. “You can’t continue to spend money you don’t have indefinitely.”

  She watched what passed for debate over the stimulus package on C-SPAN and reached for the phone, determined to express her objections to her representative. But she rarely got through, and when she did, the congressional staffers were condescending and sarcastic. They acted as though she couldn’t possibly understand the workings of the national economy and rather should leave such matters to the professionals.

  Keli decided it was time to make a choice. “I could give up and be depressed watching my county commit fiscal suicide, or I could find a way to speak up.” She chose the latter. “I figured that if the Left could use protests to get their message out, so could I.”

  Demonstrating the blunt practicality that would typify early activist events, Keli called the local police department in February 2009 and simply asked, “How do you do a protest?” The parks department graciously walked her through the request and permitting process. In just five days she set up a “Porkulus Protest” in downtown Seattle. The next several days were spent reaching out to anyone and everyone who might be willing to publicize or participate. “I called think tanks, clubs, and radio hosts, anyone I could think of that may be interested in coming out,” Keli recalled. She caught a break when popular conservative commentator Michelle Malkin promoted the event on her blog.

  On the morning of the event, Keli was nervous that only her parents would show up. But thanks to her work, 120 citizen activists, many of them protesting for the first time, took to the streets to draw attention to fiscal irresponsibility in Washington. “We brought barbecue pork sandwiches,” she recalled with a laugh. “And they did not go to waste.”

  At FreedomWorks’ headquarters in Washington, D.C., e-mails and phone calls began pouring in. From Tampa to Seattle, people were publicly demanding accountability from their elected leaders. To those who were paying attention, a clear theme had emerged: Mary, Keli, and their fellow citizens across the country live on budgets. They don’t spend more than they earn. When times are tough, they make do with less. They expect their government to do the same.

  ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

  AT THE TURN OF the millennium the U.S. national debt stood at $5.6 trillion2. By the end of 2008 that amount had nearly doubled to $10 trillion3, which translates to more than $85,000 per household. By 2018 the deficit is projected to nearly double again to more than $18 trillion4.

  In 2000 the cumulative deficit was just below 60 percent of Gross Domestic Product5 (GDP). According to the Congressional Budget Office, that percentage is expected to rise to more than 100 percent by 20126. By comparison, France’s 2010 debt-to-GDP ratio7 is 84 percent.

  Since 2003 the total national debt has increased by more than $500 billion each year with shocking increases of $1 trillion in 2008 and $1.9 trillion in 20098. Not surprisingly, this spending is far outpacing the growth of the economy. In 2000 the federal budget was $1.6 trillion. By 2009 the budget had expanded to $3.6 trillion but only took in $2.1 trillion in revenue9. This means that the federal government is now borrowing nearly fifty cents of every dollar it spends.

  There are only three ways for the government to spend money it does not have: it can raise more tax revenue; it can borrow money from the private sector or from other nations; or it can debase the dollar by printing more currency. Make no mistake: Americans are aware of the crushing debt burden we are amassing as a nation. Individuals and families know that you can’t spend your way to prosperity with money you don’t have. They know this because they live it in their daily lives. The national debt threatens our future with crippling new taxes, sky-high interest rates, out-of-control inflation, and an increasingly weak dollar. This process punishes workers, savers, and investors alike. Ultimately, the world could lose its faith in U.S. currency, essentially bankrupting a great nation because our out-of-touch political class lacked the will to set priorities and live within a budget.

  Government spending has been a concern as long as there has been a federal government. But recent events have elevated what was once an ongoing concern to the level of historic crisis. The response from the grass roots? Enough is enough.

  THE RANT HEARD ’ROUND THE WORLD

  IN THE WAKE OF Mary’s and Keli’s events in February 2009, a movement was reawakened. Confused by the commonsense rhetoric and nonviolent, law-abiding tactics, political pundits and media observers were at a loss. The phenomenon needed a name.

  An on-air commentator for cable news network CNBC, Rick Santelli was a fixture at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where he offered news and commentary on corn futures, yield rates, and other market data. On the morning of February 19, 2009, news coverage was dominated by Obama’s proposal for yet another housing bailout. CNBC studio analysts calmly reported the news, discussing vast sums of taxpayer money in a tone ordinarily reserved for reporting on weather patterns over the Midwest. Standing by for a floor report, Santelli heard the commentary on his earpiece and began to fume.

  After reporting on the latest housing bailouts, an anchor tossed to Santelli for his usual update. Santelli unexpectedly unleashed an impassioned rant.

  “The government is promoting bad behavior!” Santelli shouted. “This is America! How many people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgages that have an extra bathroom and can’t pay their bills? Raise your hand! President Obama, are you listening? You know Cuba used to have mansions and a relatively decent economy. They moved from the individual to the collective. Now they’re driving ’54 Chevys10. It’s time for another Tea Party. What we are doing in this country will make Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin roll over in their graves. We’re thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July, all you capitalists. I’m organizing.”

  As he spoke, a group of traders formed around him on the trading floor. Capitalists to a man, they cheered the outburst and drowned out the planned transition, extending the segment and creating an indelible TV moment. Within hours, Santelli’s rant had gone viral, earning more than a million views on YouTube and countless watercooler and dinner-table discussions across the country. The frustration that had been building, and which had begun to turn into street action, now had a name. The Tea Party was ready for the national stage.

  CONCEIVED IN LIBERTY

  ACROSS THE NATION, PRIVATE citizens who had never protested, never agitated, never taken a public political stand were gathering and organizing to make a difference. United by common principles and outraged by the complacence and indifference of their elected leaders, these individuals were ready to do something. Early meetings were filled with entrepreneurs, retirees, schoolteachers, civil rights leaders, lawyers, those who had prospered in recent years, and some who had fallen on hard times. All believed that the time to act had come, that their children and grandchildren deserved better and it was up to them to change the course of a nation.

  But for all the excitement, the first wave of Tea Party activists faced significant challenges. They were poorly funded. They lacked national organization. They were greeted with skepticism by the political establishment. They included none of the political intelligentsia in their ranks, none of the gatekeepers and message experts and focus group gurus. How could they hope to influence a Congress of incumbent leaders with strong ties to interest groups and well-funded corporate backers? How could they challenge an administration that had swept into the White House with a landslide victory in the presidential campaign?

  To many, the answer could be found in another group of unlikely activists who were overmatched and outgunned but fought anyway. Also comprised of ordinary citizens, this group had toppled an entrenched regime that seemed invincible. In fact, it had happened in 1773, right here in America.

  Chapter 2

  The American Revolutionary Model

  It was now
evening, and I immediately dressed1 myself in the costume of an Indian, equipped with a small hatchet, which I and my associates denominated the tomahawk, with which, and a club, after having painted my face and hands with coal dust in the shop of a blacksmith, I repaired to Griffin’s wharf, where the ships lay that contained the tea. When I first appeared in the street, after being thus disguised, I fell in with many who were dressed, equipped and painted as I was, and who fell in with me, and marched in order to the place of our destination.

  —GEORGE HEWES, 1773

  ON A COLD DECEMBER morning in 1773 in Boston, Massachusetts, a group of concerned citizens gathered at the Old South Meeting House. Among their number was a poor shoemaker named George Hewes, a man of little standing in the bustling city but one who felt that his freedom was just as valuable as that of the wealthy merchants and landowners who were also present. At just five foot one, the diminutive Hewes had been denied military service due to his stature and had reluctantly settled into a trade he disliked. At heart, the man was an agitator. A veteran of the Boston Massacre, he was a devotee of Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty. He was no one special, just a man who felt his liberty was worth fighting for.

  Infuriated by new taxes on imported goods and wary of the British troops stationed around the city, the men gathered that morning intending to take action. Too long ignored by Parliament and local officials seeking to protect their own positions rather than represent the citizens they were sent to govern, Hewes and his compatriots came to discuss a significant choice. Would they challenge British authority and stand up for what they believed was right?

  After a heated debate, the meeting resolved that certain ships carrying vast quantities of tea should leave the harbor without the payment of any duty. The act would clearly signal their displeasure with the tax while falling short of any treasonous act that could result in fines, prison, or even hanging. Satisfied with their choice, the group sent a contingent of concerned citizens to report the message to the Customs House and force the release of the ships from the harbor. The collector of customs refused to allow the ships to leave without payment. When word of this decision reached the Old South Meeting House, a howl erupted from the hall.