(Assemblyman Ed Goedhart) – I may be a registered Republican who can’t run as a candidate for the new Tea Party of Nevada, but I can certainly run on their platform. Indeed, not only can I run on their platform, I intend to do so.
As you probably already know, the Tea Party was officially formed and registered as a new third party with the Nevada Secretary of State this weekend. Organizers explain in their preamble that the party is being established “to promote this nation’s founding principles of freedom, liberty and a small representative government.”
Count me in.
Organizers also state that “our government under both Democrat and Republican control has led to a massive national debt, crushing deficits, increased taxes; while establishing a large and powerful federal government in a direct refutation of the founding ideals of America.”
Hard to refute that.
The organizers further declare that they are “concerned citizens who have had enough of government waste, corruption and intrusion in our daily lives” and who “desire our God-given individual freedoms which were written out by our Founding Fathers.”
Sign me up. Seriously.
Every Republican elected official and every Republican candidate for every office everywhere in Nevada ought to join me in signing off on the new Tea Party’s platform even if they’re not a member of the official Tea Party of Nevada.
After all, how can any true conservative Republican argue with any of the Tea Party’s core beliefs?
• We believe in a small and limited government whose role should be limited to those expressly outlined in the constitution and allows states to decide how best to operate for their citizens.
• We believe that the current federal government under both Democrats and Republicans has radically expanded beyond its constitutional authority resulting in a massive national debt, deficit and taxes.
• We believe that our money is just that, and that taxes should be kept to a bare minimum necessary for the government to fulfill its limited role.
• We believe that private industry, capitalism and competition are the engine of prosperity and liberty in America and oppose any and all social experiments and programs that seek to replace the role of the private sector. We oppose federal government bailing out any private institution.
• We believe in personal responsibility and oppose government run health care and socialized medicine.
• We believe that the only rights are those that place no obligation on others and that while some laws are necessary, every law passed by the government makes us less free.
• We believe the Constitution and Second Amendment grants individuals the right to keep and bear arms free from government intervention.
• We believe we must protect our homeland and secure our borders against illegal immigration and oppose any efforts at amnesty for illegal immigrants.
• Above all we believe that people are best served by a government that seeks to stay out of their lives as much as possible and that individuals should be given the freedom to make their own choices with the responsibility of accepting the consequences of those choices without taking from others.
Indeed, if every elected Republican in Nevada had embraced and practiced these core principles over the years, there’d be no need for a new third party. Alas, many in my party have too often lost their way and wandered off the limited-government dairy farm in favor of bigger, more expensive and less intrusive government.
That unfortunately includes some of my Republican colleagues in the Nevada Legislature.
I support the new Tea Party’s platform, encourage the new Tea Party’s efforts to pursue small, constitutional government, and fully intend to campaign for and earn the votes of the new Tea Party members in my re-election campaign this November.
(Mr. Goedhart is a Nevada Republican Assemblyman from Amargosa Valley)
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