Sep 14 TEA Party Recap

Saturday, the Central Minnesota Conservative Coalition sponsored a TEA Party rally at Lake George in downtown St. Cloud. The 1,000+ people that attended participated in a freedom celebration. They also heard a number of great policy speeches. The policy speeches centered on giving people choices while letting them prosper. Other important components of the event centered on accountability, personal responsibility and prosperity.

Another theme of the event was that we pledged each other that we'd hold all elected officials accountable to the things they say on the campaign trail. That commitment was directed at everyone from President Obama to U.S. congressmen and women to members of city councils, school boards and county commissions.

The highlights were plentiful. King Banaian provided the first highlights with a speech about William Graham Sumner's story of the forgotten man, which reads like this:

The type and formula of most schemes of philanthropy or humanitarianism is this: A and B put their heads together to decide what C shall be made to do for D. The radical vice of all these schemes, from a sociological point of view, is that C is not allowed a voice in the matter, and his position, character, and interests, as well as the ultimate effects on society through C's interests, are entirely overlooked. I call C the Forgotten Man.

King's speech focused on never letting ourselves be forgotten again. (Follow this link to read King's speech.) This is especially timely considering how dismissive the Democrats have been of the American people. Congressional Democrats and President Obama are trying to ram health care reform down our throats like they did with the stimulus bill. they're attempting this despite We The People's sending an unmistakeable message that their health care reform legislation is a clunker.

In this respect, it's no different than when Democrats insisted on ignoring us about the failed stimulus bill.

The first theme that emerged was NO NORE!!! It started with King's speech. Michele picked up on that theme in her speech, followed by Steve Gottwalt's speech, then mine, finally concluding with Ross Ueckert's (pronounced eckert) speech. If you aren't familiar with Ross, that needs to change ASAP. The best way to do that is by visiting Ross's website and immersing yourself in the information there. (That or have lunch with him after the event, which I had the privilege of doing.)

Steve Gottwalt's speech on health care reform was impressive, which I expected. Steve laid out a plan that people can get on board with. The centerpiece of that plan is his Healthy Minnesota Plan, which is actually a policy with a private insurance company that is owned by the individual, which makes it portable. Because Steve's plan uses health re-imbursement accounts, you only pay for the health care you use while providing catastrophic insurance for individuals.

What we frequently call health insurance really isn't when compared with car insurance or homeowners insurance. It's more accurate to call our current health insurance system prepaid health care.

The applause that Steve got made it apparent that the crowd appreciated Steve's presentation. After the event, I spoke with several people in the audience about the highlights of the presentations. Steve's presentation was among the speeches that drew praise.

Another speech that drew rave reviews was Rep. Mike Beard's presentation. Mike's presentation was about Cap and Trade. Mike used the speech to teach an economics lesson in addition to the energy lesson. Mike said that affordable, plentiful energy is what powers expanding economies. Mike then noted that Cap and Trade won't create a surplus of energy or make it affordable. Mike also noted that you can't conserve your way to a prosperous economy, that prosperous economies are "economies of surplus."

Dan Severson gave a stirring speech about how liberty is part of America's DNA, something I wholeheartedly agree with.

I talked with Dan Hollenhorst during the event. Dan and I are part of an organization called Citizens For a Free America. Dan reported that copies of the U.S. Constitution were a hot item at their booth, as were their bumper stickers.

Many thanks go out to Dave Thompson for the terrific job he did in emceeing the event and to the CR's. Yesterday's event wouldn't have run so smooth without their behind-the-scenes work.

Thanks also go out to State Sen. Michelle Fischbach, Second Amendment expert Joel Rosenberg and Chaplain Dan Hall, my friend and SCBA cohort Leo Pusateri and others for their inspirational speeches. (My apologies for those people I didn't list. My memory isn't what it used to be.)

Other Observations

Something that can't be overlooked is the fact that a substantial part of the audience were young people, with perhaps as much as one-third of the group being twenty-somethings.

A small group of liberals stood behind the crowd with a sign saying that they were disappointed by "the 6th District representative." The good news is that people ignored them while we let them exercise their First Amendment rights. In other words, we didn't go SEIU on them.

A number of great signs could be seen. My favorite said "Subsidizing ACORN is NUTS", though the sign that said "LIBERTY is the only STIMULUS I need" came in a close second. During Mike Beard's speech on Cap And Trade, a woman held a sign aloft that said "Cap And Trade = Trap and Raid", a sentiment Mike immediately agreed with.

Many of the people attending got to listen to several policy speeches that answered their questions on health care, taxes, Obamanomics and energy.

This was the second event sponsored by the Central Minnesota Conservative Coalition, aka CMCC. CMCC will attempt to hold monthly topical events throughout the year. Possible think tank discussions include education reform, energy policy, health care and economics.

If you're interested in attending CMCC events, please leave a comment at this blog. I will add you to my e-mailing list for future events. (I'm the only person who will see your email address.)

Thanks to the hard work of many, many people, Saturday's TEA Party was a huge success.

Comments welcome at LFR.