I attended the Town Hall Wednesday evening at James River High School in Chesterfield County. Sponsored by The Virginia Tea Party Patriots Cooperative Legislative Action Committee and moderated by RTP’s Legislative Committee Chairman Joe Guarino, the event attracted (my estimate) 150-200 citizens and seven state legislators:
Delegate M. Kirkland Cox
Delegate Riley E. Ingram
Delegate Manoli Loupassi
Delegate Roxann L. Robinson
Delegate R. Lee Ware, Jr.
Senator John Watkins
Senator Stephen H. Martin
I’ve attended a number of Patriot events, from Tax Day 2009 to the 2010 Virginia Tea Party Patriots Convention, and nearly every event in between. Wednesday evening I saw an awakened populace acting as self-governing citizens, committed to managing the details associated with that responsibility.
Some responses to our questions were less encouraging than others, but the tone was one of fiscal awareness. I’ve felt for months that Tea Party efforts these past few years have certainly influenced political discourse, and I had that sense Wednesday evening. One comment, that the General Assembly will consider about 3,500 pieces of legislation during its January 13 – March 13 session, really got my attention. You can be sure that all or most of those bills will cost taxpayers money, continuing the erosion of our rights and freedoms.
If responsible citizens expect to successfully self-govern, we need to know what government is doing, why it is being done, and the cost. In this time of crisis, and from here forward, we must never follow politicians again. We must resolve to lead them to a more sustainable role for government in our lives.
Trusting either political party in response to complex political issues has been a failure, period. Each side wants to stop the other, to win, period. It’s no longer about self-governance but politics, a game of us and them which obscures the constant battle (never a game) between the ruling class and the populace.
The Constitution was crafted to provide Americans with the strength needed to win this battle, regardless how often it was necessary to do so. Yet, we have very nearly conceded this battle in favor of the current environment.
I urge all to be informed, to know the details of self-governance no matter how daunting, and to pass that knowledge on to anyone who will listen, especially politicians. If we don’t accept that challenge, then by default we accept that we will one day be ruled, not governed, by dictators of some description. I dare say that that will be a much more daunting existence, indeed.
