I recently asked Nancy McKiernan for permission to republish an article she wrote for her website, http://www.teapartybrewing.com/ .

Grassroots Candidates Shake Up State Assembly

Written by Nancy McKiernan

Grassroots candidates shook up the Colorado Republican State Assembly on May 22.  I've heard many people say things such as the Tea Party movement is being hi-jacked by the Republican Party or I supported the Tea Party movement until it gotten taken over by the Republican Party.  While the lame stream media might try to paint this picture, my opinion is that the opposite is true. What I'm seeing are people who consider themselves "Tea Partiers", "912ers" or any citizen who is just fed up, taking over political establishments.  Two thirds of the delegates at the Colorado Republican State Assembly were first time delegates.  I was one of those delegates.  The results overwhelmingly showed support for grassroots candidates and I believe took "establishment" Republicans by surprise.  If we hadn't already gotten their attention by various upsets around the country, such as the Chris Christie win in New Jersey, Bob McDonnell win in Virginia and Scott Brown win in  Massachusetts, I think we have their attention now.

This is not to say that we should support a "grassroots" candidate over an experienced politician, just because they don't have the baggage of prior affiliation with Washington.  However, we are more involved, paying attention and expect our candidates to listen to us and represent us.  We will continue to hold them accountable and will make it known if they betray us after being elected into office. 

I am not as familiar with what is happening within the Democratic party, but I hope that fed up "First Timers" are making their voice heard there as well.  We the People are all affected by corruption in Washington regardless of which party we're affiliated with or affiliated with no party at all.  Together, if we demand more, hold Politicians to a higher standard and stop the senseless arguing of this side did it so even though it's wrong, it's ok for the other side to do it.  Politicians, Lobbyist, Special Interest Groups, etc. win in this scenario and we lose.  Divided, corruption wins.  United, We The People win.

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Nancy makes some excellent points in her article:  The Republican Party has NOT taken over the Tea Party Movement.   The Tea Party Movement has recognized that its views are more closely aligned with Republican values and as such they are exerting their influence in the Republican Party, to the chagrin of many long time established Republicans.  Witness the recent win by Rand Paul in Kentucky over the Republican establishment candidate.   Witness the defeat of Utah Senator Robert Bennett in his primary.  Witness the selection of Ken Buck by the Colorado GOP Assembly.   His primary rival will be Jane Norton who will get her name on the ballot by the petition process.  

The strategy for incumbents and establishment approved/selected candidates must be obvious.  Republican establishment candidates are not going to win their party nomination through the assembly process because there is a new breed of activist in the Republican Party.  And this is not simply true in the Republican Party, it is also true among Democrats.

Look again at Colorado.  Michael Bennet, the President's selected Senate replacement for Ken Salazar who joined the Obama Administration as Secretary of the Interior is being challenged in the Democrat Primary by Andrew Romanoff, current Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives.   Romanoff is running as an opponent to Cap and Trade and the recently passed healthcare legislation, two principal issues that strike the ire of who?   The Tea Party Movement. 

Harry Reid is in trouble in Nevada and currently his likely Republican opponent this fall will be Sharron Angle.  Sharron Angle is supported by whom?  The Tea Party Movement.  What is it that makes the Tea Party Movement so effective?   The fact that it isn't a party at all.   It is a collection of American citizens who have put down their plows, put down their pitchforks, put aside their private lives, picked up their muskets and who are saying to these and all other political candidates and office holders that what they are creating in our name is not what we want to leave our children and our grandchildren and we will not tolerate this any longer.      

Not surprisingly, the Obama Administration does not understand this movement at all.  What they understand is Chicago style politics.  The Tea Party Movement is the antithesis of Chicago politics.  We reject the gamesmanship that is considered normal, the control that is exercised by only a few and that includes attempts to seduce candidates like Congressman Sestak and Andrew Romanoff from opposing their hand selected candidates by offers of federal positions, by bribes.  Aside from being illegal the evidence should have been clear following Democrat defeats in New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts that the Tea Party Movement is impervious to this tactic.  The game we play is called Democracy.   We will on the whole support the candidate who abides by the original intent of the Constitution and who favors a reduced influence by the federal government in our lives.  

In all of American History there have been very few awakenings that caught the attention of all citizens and spawned them to action.   In Lexington the first of these movements was the Shot Heard Around the World.   In Texas there was the Alamo.  In Cuba there was the sinking of the Battleship Maine.   In the 20th Century there was the sinking of the Lusitania and in Hawaii there was the Day of Infamy.  From 2001 we will forever remember 9/11.  Will the 21st Century Tea Party Movement someday rank with those aforementioned historic events?  Will history texts someday teach of a time when a grassroots movement was joined by individual Americans who shed the chains that a large and growing federal government had meticulously attempted to use to shackle them to a destiny of debt and deprivation?  Will this Tea Party Movement be defined as a second calling not to defend our nation against a foreign enemy but to defend our liberties from a domestic enemy intent on enslaving us to a cause that none of our founders would ever have supported?   

I believe that articles like the one written by Nancy McKiernan help us to an answer.   If we are successful in November 2010 and equally successful in November 2012 we can restore this republic to what it was intended to be and what it once was.  There has already been considerable destruction of our economy and our social infrastructure.  We are insolvent and great strides have been made over decades to balkanize this country in an effort to create voting blocks that pit one ethnic group against another.   We must return to prudent financial management and the famous melting pot.  

The effort is huge, but not impossible.  The result can be the legacy I wish to leave my grandchildren.  I pledge my support to this end.   Simply put, "If not us, then who?"