Give Us Liberty

by Dick Armey

  3“They’re Astroturf (fake grass roots) events . . .”: Paul Krugman, “Tea Parties Forever,” New York Times, April 13, 2009, A21.

  4“This [Tea Party] initiative is funded by the high end . . .”: KTVU interview with Nancy Pelosi, April 15, 2009, http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/15/pelosi-astroturf.

  5“Dick Armey’s group is out there . . .”: Press gaggle by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=86538.

  6“. . . things that you could not do before”: Gerald Seib, “In Crisis, Opportunity for Obama,” Wall Street Journal, November 21, 2008, A2.

  7“It is now evident,” they argued, “that an ugly campaign . . .”: Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, “ ‘Un-American’ Attacks Can’t Derail Health Care Debate,” USA Today, August 10, 2009.

  8“I’m not afraid of August”: Press conference with Nancy Pelosi, July 23, 2009, http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0709/Pelosi_Im_not_afraid_of_August.html.

  9CNN’s Anderson Cooper opted for dirty jokes: “Cable Anchors, Guests Use Tea Parties as Platform for Frat House Humor,” http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/16/cable-anchors-guests-use-tea-parties-platform-frat-house-humor.

  10managed to say the words teabag and teabagger: “Rachel Maddow’s Disgusting Homoerotic Tea Party ‘News’ Report,” http://www.ihatethemedia.com/rachel-maddow-disgusting-homoerotic-tea-party-news-report.

  11“helped create the teabaggers . . .”: Jonathan Alter, The Promise: President Obama, Year One (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010).

  12“They’re carrying swastikas and symbols like that . . .”: Interview with Nancy Pelosi, www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFSZiG14GOU.

  13“. . . our own right-wing domestic terrorists . . .”: http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWY5ZmYwNTkwMjE0MTMxYTk2ZjQyOTZhMmI0ZWQ3MzY.

  14“. . . we value our liberties . . .”: Peter Hamby, “Axelrod Suggests ‘Tea Party’ Movement Is ‘Unhealthy,’ ” April 19, 2009, http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/19/axelrod-suggests-tea-party-movement-is-unhealthy/?fbid=JiSECAjMn8i.

  15“. . . that picture of him in the Post today . . .”: President Bill Clinton, “The Tragedy of Oklahoma City 15 Years Later,” April 16, 2010, http://www.americanprogressaction.org/events/2010/04/inf/clinton.pdf.

  16“This is about hating a black man . . .”: Keith Olbermann interview with Janeane Garofalo, Countdown, April 16, 2009, http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/back-story/2009/apr/17/liberal-actress-says-tea-parties-were-racist/.

  17“. . . an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity . . .”: Brian Williams, interview with President Jimmy Carter, NBC Nightly News, September 15, 2009, http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/15/carter.obama/index.html.

  18“The public is outraged about the president’s policies . . .”: “Statement of Project 21 Fellow Deneen Borelli on Allegations of Racism Against Critics of Obama Policies,” September 16, 2009, http://www.nationalcenter.org/PR-Racism_Obama_091609.html.

  19“Personally, I’m not a fan of this movement”: David Brooks, “The Tea Party Teens,” New York Times, January 5, 2010, A21.

  20“There is an argument floating . . .”: David Brooks, “No U-Turns,” New York Times, March 29, 2007.

  21“. . . tactics of the New Left”: David Brooks, “The Wal-Mart Hippies,” New York Times, March 5, 2010, A27.

  22“. . . evil is introduced into society by corrupt elites and rotten authority structures”: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/05/opinion/05brooks.html.

  23“People of the same trade seldom meet together . . .”: Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWN4.html#I.10.82

  24“Normal, nonideological people are less concerned . . .”: Brooks, “No U-Turns.”

  25“Now I’m not a true Republican . . .”: Amy Gardner, “Republicans in Utah Direct Anger at Former Party Favorite Bennett,” Washington Post, May 1, 2010, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/30/AR2010043000770.html.

  26“a proposal for time travel . . .”: Michael Gerson, “Doers vs. Undoers,” townhall.com, February 26, 2010, http://townhall.com/columnists/MichaelGerson/2010/02/26/doers_vs_undoers?page=full&comments=true.

  27“. . . conservatism has been reduced to sound bites”: Steven F. Hayward, “Is Conservatism Brain-Dead?” Washington Post, October 4, 2009.

  28“opposition to Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress has sparked a resurgence . . .”: Brink Lindsey, “Right Is Wrong,” Reason magazine, August 2010.

  29these informal networks take advantage of what philosopher Michael Polanyi: Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-critical philosophy” (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958).

  30“It seems that Greenspan, Bernanke, Fannie, Freddie . . .”: David Boaz, “What Caused Atlas Shrugged Sales to Soar?” http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/05/18/what-caused-atlas-shrugged-sales-to-soar/.

  31As Saul Alinsky teaches, “change comes from power . . .”: Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals (New York: Random House, 1971; New York: Vintage Books, 1989), 113.

  32“. . . Democrats have vilified the ‘tea party’ . . .”: Neil Munro, “The Tea Party: Do Not Boil,” National Journal, April 24, 2010.

  33Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic political consultant”: Ibid.

  34views of the “Tea Party” (48 percent): “Tea Party 48% Obama 44%,” Rasmussen Reports, http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/april_2010/tea_party_48_obama_44.

  1“We won’t get a public option . . .”: Fred Barbash, “Robert Reich Calls for March on Washington in Support of Public Option,” Politico.com, August 18, 2009, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26224.html.

  2Sophia Elena, a video blogger: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXo-13UQKcw.

  3“. . . it had received a bomb threat”: Teddy Davis, “There’s a ‘Big Ol T.E.A. Party’ Coming to Washington,” September 11, 2009, http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/09/theres-a-big-ol-tea-party-coming-to-washington-.html.

  4“Everyone was in great spirits . . .”: E-mail submitted to FreedomWorks “Why I Marched” initiative.

  5“I loved seeing people of all ages marching . . .”: E-mail submitted to FreedomWorks “Why I Marched” initiative.

  6250,000 strong: http://www.lib.lsu.edu/hum/mlk/srs216.html.

  7“FreedomWorks held a Capitol Hill demonstration yesterday . . .”: “Democratic Memo: 9/12 Project Might Draw Two Million People to D.C. Tomorrow,” September 11, 2009, http://hotair.com/archives/2009/09/11/democratic-memo-912-project-might-draw-two-million-people-to-dc-tomorrow.

  8“I was stunned by the number of people . . .”: E-mail submitted to FreedomWorks “Why I Marched” initiative.

  9“as many as one million people . . .”: David Gardner, “A Million March to U.S. Capitol to Protest Against ‘Obama the Socialist,’ ” London Daily Mail, September 14, 2009, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1213056/Up-million-march-US-Capitol-protest-Obamas-spending-tea-party-demonstration.html.

  10“. . . their dc demonstration attracted 30,000 people”: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/09/freedomworks-cuts-estimate-for-crowd-at-its-912-rally-by-one-half.php.

  11“Authorities in the District . . .”: Emma Brown, James Hohmann, and Perry Bacon Jr., “Lashing Out at the Capitol,” Washington Post, September 13, 2009.

  12“probably well more than 850,000 in the crowd”: Charlie Martin, “March on Washington: How Big Was the Crowd?” Pajamas Media, September 14, 2009.

  13“We overheard people talking . . .”: E-mail submitted to FreedomWorks “Why I Marched” initiative.

  14“I will be fifty-one years old . . .”: E-mail submitted to FreedomWorks “Why I Marched” initiative.

  15“The huge, polite, focused crowd was like a fresh wind . . .”: E-mail submitted to FreedomWorks “Why I Marched” initiative.

  1“Both parties seem to be . . .”: Janet Hook, “New York Race at Epicenter of a GOP Mutiny,”
Los Angeles Times, October 27, 2009.

  2“This is not a good year . . .”: This and all other quotes regarding the poll are from “CNN Poll: Anti-incumbent Fever at Record High,” CNN.com, February 24, 2010.

  3“. . . public servants end-of-job counseling . . .”: Grandma’s Not Shovel-Ready: Signs from 9/12 and the Tea Parties of 2009 (Wilmington, Del.: Let Freedom Ring Publishing, 2010).

  4“. . . channel this tidal shift in American public opinion . . .”: Mark Tapscott, “Tea Party Leaders are Wasting Opportunity to Replace Congress,” Washingon Examiner, September 3, 2009.

  5“sign up for your local political party . . .”: Erick Erickson, “Put Down the Protest Signs and Pick Up the Campaign Signs,” RedState.com, September 2, 2009, http://www.redstate.com/erick/2009/09/02/put-down-the-protest-signs-and-pick-up-the-campaign-signs/.

  6“Would you guys knock off an incumbent Republican . . .”: Chris Matthews, interview with Matt Kibbe, Hardball, MSNBC December 10, 2009.

  7In 1912, the Progressive Party was formed: James Chace, 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft & Debs—The Election That Changed the Country (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004), 168.

  8thirteen U.S. House members in office: Amos R. E. Pinchot and Helene Maxwell Hooker, History of the Progressive Party, 1912–1916 (New York: New York University Press, 1958).

  9“The Year of the Woman”: http://emilyslist.org/who/history/index.html.

  10700,000 donating members: http://cdn.moveonpac.org/content/pdfs/onepageaboutus.pdf.

  11“. . . the face of power in America”: Andrea Seabrook, “Powerful PAC: EMILY’s List Turns 25,” Morning Edition, NPR, April 30, 2010.

  12“companies that have been awarded taxpayers’ money . . .”: “TARP Recipients Paid Out $114 Million for Politicking Last Year,” OpenSecrets.org, February 4, 2009, http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/02/tarp-recipients-paid-out-114-m.html.

  13“Even in the best economic times . . .”: Ibid.

  14“The taxpayers are a vast group . . .”: Mancur Olson, The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups, rev. ed. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971/1965), 165–66.

  15“The small-government candidate in the Republican Party . . .”: Adam Nagourney and Jeremy W. Peters, “GOP Moderate, Pressed by Right, Abandons Race,” New York Times, November 1, 2009, A1.

  16“Dede is more liberal than the Democrat”: Janet Hook, “New York Race at Epicenter of a GOP Mutiny,” Los Angeles Times, October 27, 2009.

  17She was in third place: Daily Kos / Research 2000 NY-23 Poll, http://www.dailykos.com/statepoll/2009/10/28/NY/408.

  18blaming the “hate and lies and the deceitfulness”: Michelle Breidenbach, “Dede Scozzafava Says ‘Hate, Lies’ Wore Her Down,” Syracuse.com, http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/11/dede_scozzafava_says_hate_lies.html.

  19“. . . I am writing to let you know . . .”: http://watertowndailytimes.com.

  20“Ms. Scozzafava fit the model of candidate . . .”: Nagourney and Peters, “GOP Moderate, Pressed by Right.”

  1“I mean, when you have parents asking neighbors . . .”: Matt Clemente, e-mail message to Adam Brandon, April 12, 2010.

  2“In 2010 all politics are national”: Rachel Martin, interview with Rick Barber, Good Morning America, January 24, 2010, http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=9647848.

  3“Florida will be one of the clearest tests . . .”: E. J. Dionne Jr., “A Florida Test for the GOP,” Washington Post, May 14, 2009.

  4“an inspiring leader for the next generation . . .”: “Former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey Endorses Marco Rubio for U.S. Senate,” July 14, 2009, http://www.marcorubio.com/former-u-s-house-majority-leader-dick-armey-endorses-marco-rubio-for-u-s-senate.

  5“It is a damn outrage”: David Brooks, Meet the Press, May 9, 2010.

  1“Pick the target, freeze it . . .”: Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals (New York: Random House, 1971; New York: Vintage Books, 1989), 130.

  2Hayek’s weighty notion: “spontaneous order”: F. A. Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty (1960; repr., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978).

  3“Which of these systems . . .”: F. A. Hayek, The Use of Knowledge in Society in Individualism and Economic Order (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948, 1980), 79.

  4“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences . . .”: Thomas Jefferson to Archibald Stuart, 23 December 1791. The Thomas Jefferson Papers, Series 1: General Correspondence, 1651–1827, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

  5“We can’t give people a choice . . .”: Personal recollection of Dick Armey.

  1“I don’t expect politicians to solve anybody’s problems . . .”: Jann Wenner interview with Bob Dylan, “The Modern Times of Bob Dylan: A Legend Comes to Grips with His Iconic Status,” Rolling Stone, September 7, 2006.

  2“Our own selves”: Ibid.

  3“No, these are my people, Americans”: Brent Baker, “White NBC Reporter Confronts Black Man at Tea Party Rally: ‘Have You Ever Felt Uncomfortable?’ ” NewsBusters.org, April 16, 2010.