The Real Movement

[Geee]

American Spectator:

The media seem intent on anointing a national leader of the Tea Party, no doubt for convenience's sake. But despite what people might see on TV or read in various media outlets, the Tea Party movement is not about national groups based in Washington, D.C., or those who have arbitrarily asserted themselves as national leaders.

The movement and its impact on the American political scene always has been and always will be about the local organizers. The national groups could go away and the movement would be fine. However, if the local leaders go away the movement dies.

And right now, something very organic is taking place with the real leaders of the movement: organized very locally in the beginning, the Tea Party is now organizing at a statewide level and beginning to network nationally. The Ohio Liberty Council, with 58 different Tea Party and 9/12 groups from across the state; the Florida Liberty Alliance, with more than 100 groups; and the Virginia Tea Party Federation, with more than 40 groups, are three of the best examples of local leaders uniting into significant statewide coalitions. Other states are in the process of developing similar coalitions, and it would not be surprising to see dozens of states similarly organized by 2012.

The leaders of these statewide groups began as organizers of local Tea Parties, and due to the respect and trust of their peers, have begun rising to the top to create a circle of leadership: they are the credible leaders who get things done. Others might claim credit for things happening in 2010, but if it were not for these local leaders, nothing would have happened.