How to tell if your grassroots TEA Party or Occupy group has been usurped by a major political party (Part 1 of 2)
USURP
1. To seize power from another, usually by illegitimate means.
2. To use and assume the coat of arms of another person.
As the election nears, certain alleged and true grassroots political organizations will soon become prevalent in the major media. As a result of this renewed media attention, many folks will renew their affiliation with, or contemplate joining, a TEA Party or Occupy group. Many of these folks will be getting involved in politics for the first time in their lives. As political rookies, these folks may benefit from the advice of more seasoned citizens, such as this writer, in navigating the plethora of political shell games the establishment of both political parties play.
One of those political shell games involves grassroots political organizations that appear to be true, independent grassroots groups but which are actually are Trojan Horses (Astroturf) usurped by one political party or another. Rumors and allegations of this sort abound about both the TEA Party and the Occupy Movements. The conflicting rumors, allegations, duplicity and propaganda can be overwhelming, especially to a new comer to the political game.
In the first part of this two part article, we will provide you with a list of 25 easy questions to ask yourself about your current or prospective grassroots group. In part two of this article, we will suggest to you how to assess if your own answers about your particular grassroots group indicates whether or not it has been usurped by one of the major political parties.
This writer provides this tool for his fellow citizens to use, because your time is valuable and in short supply. This writer does not want you wasting your precious time because you are misled into joining and supporting an alleged grassroots organization that is not what it portends to be.
In this writers attempts to divine the truth from the propaganda, he has arrived at the following perspective. In as much as it possible for this writer to discern, on the National and State Levels, both the Occupy and TEA Party Movements have been usurped by 1 of the major political parties. The National and State Level Occupy movements seemed to have been usurped by the Democrat party (primarily progressives) and the National and State Level TEA Party movement seems to have been usurped by the Republican Party [e.g. Congressional TEA Party Caucus].
But the local, true grassroots TEA Party and occupy organizations run the gamut from fiercely independent true grassroots groups to merely extensions of 1 of the 2 major political parties. Yet, this writer deems the truly independent grassroots local political organizations as the most effective units of anti-status quo political organization and the place where an individual can have the maximum impact on the agenda and goals of the group.
With the duplicity of the political establishment and the complexity of this social and political dynamic in mind, this questionnaire is drafted to allow anyone to objectively determine if their preferred grassroots political group is a truly independent grassroots organization or simply a Trojan Horse cheer leading squad for one of the two major political parties.
Here goes:
1) Has your group been in existence for more than a year, with no real elections in which others were encouraged to run for leadership positions? Is the ballot counting process transparent? Is the founder or leader closely associated as major “player” in a political party?
2) Does your group have and abide by Articles, By-Laws and a parliamentary authority as well as the Natural Law concepts of the Rule of Law and Due Process?
3) Are your group’s meetings mostly about watching movies on issues or ideology or are the meetings about setting and/or following up on an agenda, goals, objectives and performing activities to fulfill the agenda, goals and objectives of the group?
4) Are there committee chairs in your group that actively pursue the agenda, goals and objectives of the group or is there just 1 or 2 people that lecture to and/or control direction of the group most of the time?
5) Does the agenda and direction of your group come from the “bottom up” or the “top down”? Does the agenda and direction of your group come from within the group or outside the group?
6) Does the group encourage discussion and input amongst all its members or is it dominated by 1 or 2 individuals?
7) Does your group only become active during the election season?
8) Before and after the election, does your group press meaningful legislation like Judicial Reform, Fiscal Transparency, restoration of the constitution and Bill of Rights, Ending the Federal Reserve Bank, criminal investigation and prosecution for the misapplication of funds from the bailouts and/or the stimulus, etc?
9) Does your group seem like it is just a cheerleading squad for one major political party or the other?
10) Does your group have political debates or rallies where only the candidates of one political party are invited?
11) If candidates of both major political parties are invited and attend rallies and debates, are all candidates treated equally respectfully?
12) Does your group, or closely associated members of your group, initiate lawsuits and/or demand legislators author, carry, sponsor and/or support legislation to address issues intended to benefit the majority of average Americans?
13) Does your group blindly follow, or often challenge, the major political party closest to their own political ideology?
14) Does your group invite, welcome and listen to persons of all political perspectives?
15) Does your group have an active political caucus with respect to the elected officials in its geographic area or does it just let the politicians dictate and/or control the agenda?
16) Does your group make a trip to the State or National Capital at least once a year to lobby politicians on issues the group has agreed by democrat process are the most important?
17) Does your group hold politicians most similar to its political ideology as, much or more, accountable for their own misdeeds or departures from the party platform as it does politicians of the opposite political ideology?
18) Does your group focus on demonizing and discrediting a particular political party and/or that party’s candidates and membership? Does your group expel, ostracize, or otherwise encourage persons to stop attending, because they are not ideologically in lockstep with the group on almost all issues?
19) Does your group circle and protect members from political attacks from politicians who resist reform and reduction of tyranny or does the group aid and abet politicians in “political assassinations” of those members who vigorously and openly promote transparency, accountability and Reform (TAR)?
20) Does your group encourage emotional antagonism towards persons of opposite political ideology or promote friendly reasoned dialogue?
21) Does your group meet regularly (monthly or weekly)?
22) Is your groups email list available to all the members or just controlled by 1 or 2 persons?
23) Does your group have a steering committee that anyone can participate in? Did or does your group have a Nominal Group Process event to set the agenda, goals, objectives and activities of the group?
24) Is your group largely funded by a major political party or a major personality associated almost exclusively with one political issue and/or major political party?
25) Does your grassroots group hold both major political parties equally responsible for the current crisis our County is in, or does it hold one or the other political party overwhelmingly more responsible than the other major political party?
Regardless of your political stripes, if you belong to either a TEA Party or Occupy group, you are likely of the mind that something is seriously wrong with our country. The Constitution is being ignored, our Bill of Rights is being trampled, Justice is no longer dispensed according to the Rule of Law applied to the facts in evidence and corruption runs rampant in our Government.
It is this author’s belief that true, independent grassroots organizations are superior in all respects to the Trojan Horse groups. Any political group founded in duplicity is antithetical to the democratic process of our Representative, Constitutionally limited Republic. Further, the true grassroots groups are superior to the major political parties in that the 2 major political parties have in about 20 years reduced America from the undisputed super power in the world to the brink of collapse. The old, status quo, 2 party system for resolving our problems will not work. Importantly, this writer recognizes and applauds the true, independent grassroots local groups of both the Occupy and TEA Party movement for recognizing something is wrong with our government, turning off the TV and getting off the couch to do something about it.
The momentum of discontent is with WE THE PEOPLE now. However the momentum will soon be lost as the sheople get accustomed to the lower standard of living, the greater level of tyranny, forget about the injustices of the bailouts and stimulus, and get consumed by their everyday lives made even more hectic by the increased taxes necessary to sustain every increasing government spending. The danger is so great and so imminent that WE THE PEOPLE cannot afford any of our fellow citizens’ wasting any time joining and supporting Trojan Horse groups masquerading as independent grassroots organizations. Our entire government has morphed into an entity whose sole goal is to maintain its own power and the corrupt status quo.
The collapse of our economy and expansion of our government’s tyranny has created a whirlwind of emotions and uncertainty. Our country is on the brink of moral and financial collapse. The enemy, incumbent politicians and government bureaucrats are formidable having money, the propaganda of major media and the indoctrination of public schools to beguile WE THE PEOPLE.
“These are the times that try men’s’ souls.” Thomas Paine
The urge to seek comfort and direction in these times is understandable. Yet, the urge to belong to a group and surround yourself with like minded persons often leads us to unanticipated and undesired results. Friendship blurs with politics and suddenly many of us are unwilling to speak our uncensored minds for fear of what our new found friends and cohorts might think, lest we be ostracized from the comfort of the group. The best way to avoid such anguish and self-censorship, which are the manifestations of human nature, is to be certain that you join or continue be a member of the right true grassroots by assessing what their intentions before you join and from time to time after you join.
In Part 2 of 2, the writer will allow you to compare your answers to what the author believes is the insight each question provides. Read Part 2 of 2 here: http://exm.nr/MLeVtG
[This article transmitted via McDonald’s™ free Wi-Fi and fueled by a bottomless diet coke with a slice of lemon and a grilled ranch chicken wrap with onions for a grand total of $2.87 http://www.mcminnesota.com/31894 ]
Those were my thoughts.
In Closing:
Thank you, my fellow citizens, for taking your valuable time to read and reflect upon what is written here.
Please join with me in mutually pledging to each other and our fellow citizens our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor to our mutual endeavors of restoring liberty and economic opportunity to WE THE PEOPLE as our Founding Fathers envisioned and intended. [Last Paragraph, Declaration of Independence http://bit.ly/ruPE7z ]
This article is written with the same intentions as Thomas Paine http://ushistory.org/paine. I seek no leadership role. I seek only to help the American People find their own way using their own “Common Sense” http://amzn.to/kbRuar
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Keep Fighting the Good Fight!
In Liberty,
Don Mashak
The Cynical Patriot
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Critical Thinking Notice - This author advises you as no politician would dare. Exercise Critical Thinking (http://bit.ly/ubI6ve) in determining the truthfulness of anything you read or hear. Do not passively accept nor believe anything anyone tells you, including this author... unless and until you verify it yourself with sources you trust and could actively defend your perspective to anyone who might debate you to the contrary of your perspective.
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