(Joe Wierzbicki) – Hello everyone – my name is Joe Wierzbicki and I am the Coordinator for the Tea Party Express.
Recently I received several emails from folks who had all sorts of concerns about some supposed announcement that only Sue Lowden and Danny Tarkanian would be speaking at the March 27th kickoff of the Tea Party Express at our Mega Rally in Searchlight, NV.
This struck me as very strange because we’ve made no such announcement, and have in fact been in discussions internally with our team to figure out how to proceed.
It always amuses me in this business of politics when people will sometimes tell me about a decision we’ve made, when I know we’re still in the decision-making process. You just have to smile and press ahead, and know that everything will sort itself out in the end.
It was also very odd since some of these emails specifically asked why on earth we’d exclude Sharron Angle when I had just gotten done personally emailing Sharron Angle’s campaign the past about the event in Searchlight, and Sharron assured me she was very excited about the event.
To date the Tea Party Express has invited participation – and thereafter granted it – to every possible U.S. Senate candidate in Nevada under the sun. To my knowledge the only exception is that of John Chachas who is a new candidate.
So for folks to be insisting that we’ve now somehow sold out to the big money establishment candidate offends me a bit. We’ve never done that and we’ve always enjoyed working with the fellow tea party folks, conservatives, Ron Paul constitutionalists and Libertarians in the state.
We are currently figuring out who all will be coming to Searchlight and figuring out how to address this issue. Yes, it is quite true that ONE consideration raised was that since all of the candidates have been given the platform to get their message heard via Tea Party Express events to date that we have only those registering support in the polls or individual supporters/contributions speak. That would mean a field of Lowden, Tarkanian and Angle.
The reason this idea was raised is that if we have too many speakers then we won’t be able to allow everyone who wants to come to Searchlight the chance to speak, and so should we open up some speaking slots to others since we’ve already had some of these Senate candidates speak before. In other words – did it make sense to tell Joe The Plumber he can’t speak but invite a candidate who is below ½% in the polls a chance to speak when we’ve had them speak at several of our events already? That’s one of the thoughts that has been raised in our team’s discussion.
Another suggestion was to have ALL the candidate’s speak – and continue our trend to date of including ALL the candidates. Which prompted discussion about which candidates were still active. I know Robin Titus has dropped out, and I’ve received conflicting reports about whether Mike Wiley is still going forward with his campaign or not. He spoke at one of our events last month but since then some people say he’s “OUT” and some insist no he’s “IN.”
So we are still working this out. No decision has been made about how we will proceed – but I wanted to inform you all of the nature of some of the discussions that have taken place thus far.
But some of the words I’ve seen used about Gov. Sarah Palin in these emails is really saddening to me. You see, Gov. Palin has in no way been involved in ANY of these internal discussions about who should or shouldn’t speak. She is an invited guest of the Tea Party Express. She’s been trying to get to one of our rallies for each of the first two tours as we were in contact with her office and she has been a huge tea party supporter since Day 1.
Yet some folks have ascribed to her all sorts of motives for a decision she hasn’t even been involved in making. That’s not helpful for this movement folks.
Furthermore, her views are her own. Some of you were furious with her for endorsing John McCain for U.S. Senate in Arizona and couldn’t believe we’d support that. Well, that’s an easy one. We don’t.
We will not be supporting John McCain’s campaign in Arizona, but Gov. Palin has her reasons for why she is – a little hard for a woman to go around the country a year ago telling the nation to vote for the man to be President and then say he shouldn’t be re-elected to his own Senate seat. It’s also a tacky and disloyal thing to do to the man who just tapped you to be the Vice Presidential candidate on his ticket.
So those are HER reasons. Our belief is that while John McCain was a great patriot who honorably served his nation and deserves our respect for his service, that does not mean we should support him if his views on the issues run counter to ours – which they do. So on this one Gov. Palin and the Tea Party Express have a different view. And that’s a good thing. Lots of us in this tea party movement have different views on things, and we shouldn’t tell one another what we each can or cannot think and do.
To show you why this troubles me let me explain further. I did NOT receive emails from folks when she endorsed Doug Hoffman the Conservative Party candidate in New York over the RINO Republican, Dede Scozzafava. On that one we DID agree with her. I also haven’t heard from folks about her supporting Rand Paul for Senate in Kentucky over the Republican establishment’s preferred candidate.
Instead, we as humans tend to speak up when we’re upset about something. And that’s natural and very human. Many years in retail taught me that is human nature. You don’t get too many people telling you when they are content, but you sure do hear from folks when they are unhappy about something.
But one has to take the good with the bad, and not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Each of you can decide for yourselves what you think of Gov. Palin. We think she is a good asset to this tea party movement. She shares our ideals and beliefs, and she is part of the coalition. Not the ONLY part. But one part.
If we all want we can have a circular firing squad and shoot at each other, and let the Left win. Or we can find areas of commonality, where conservative Republicans can work with the Campaign for Liberty, the Libertarian Party, the Republican Party, disaffected Independents, etc… on those core constitutional issues where we have shared goals.
Those are reflected in the message points on the side of our buses. If you’ve not seen them, then read them in Searchlight on March 27th. I think each of you reading this email will agree with each of our basic tenets upon which we founded the Tea Party Express.
It got so ludicrous with some of these rumors out there that some folks thought we were paying Gov. Palin to come and speak. We are not. She is coming for free. The event is open to the public and is free.
And there is no final decision made on whether to have all U.S. Senate candidates speak – and cut some of the other conservative leaders traveling to Searchlight out – or just have those who have attracted at least SOME support in the polls.
To demonstrate to you the willingness we’ve had to include all the Senate candidates and ensure that they’ve had a platform to reach the public and get their voices/views heard I am including for you links to the YouTube videos posted by our supporters of some of these candidates speaking at Tea Party Express events.
For folks to be maligning us and suggesting we’ve somehow excluded people isn’t reflective of our history – and that history deserves to be respected.
Thank you for taking the time to read this note. Regardless of which candidate you do or don’t like, I look forward to seeing you all in Searchlight, NV on March 27th. Candidates are only one part of the fight to take our country back. On the constitutional principles of a limited government, defined by the roles and duties of the government as outlined by the Constitution, Delcaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, we are united. And we shouldn’t let any one person, campaign, candidate, celebrity, speaker or organization divide us in any way.
So here are those speeches, which should show that this craziness about Sarah Palin and the RNC coming in to exclude voices is ridiculous. We at the Tea Party Express have been providing a platform for these candidates to get their messages out since our inception
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
RSS