On behalf of myself I want to respond to Ralph Rosendin”s Feb. 13 letter. As a member of Lake County Tea Party Patriots, I can say we are not out to start a third party.
Mr. Rosendin says “the Tea Party is doomed to failure.” I say we have already succeeded. We have raised the voice of the voter! There is not a medium in this country that isn”t reporting on us. He says “the main reason that its failure can be predicted is that it”s unreasonable.” I have to ask; unreasonable to whom? The socialists? Those who work very hard to deprive us of our freedoms?
Mr. Rosendin implies we are all “far right and sometimes referred to as the lunatic fringe.” He says we are the home of the religious right. Many of us are, but we also have agnostics, atheists and a myriad of different beliefs. We are Republicans, Democrats, libertarians, and those who carry no label. Perhaps he should also read the First Amendment.
He calls us “professional haters, worried gun owners, single-issue voters, and other individuals who want to cast a larger shadow than they are entitled to.” I haven”t heard anyone in the Tea Party who has expressed the hatred of Mr. Rosendin.
Many of us are worried gun owners. President Obama has said he will sign an international treaty defying the Second Amendment. I don”t know what the single-issue vote is that he says predominates the tea parties, so I can”t respond. I ask, what shadow are we entitled? Is Mr. Rosendin entitled to cast a larger shadow than our members? If so, why? Who are these rational voters he compares us to? Are they the folks who elected Barack Obama, Pelosi and Boxer? Mr. Rosendin says, “The minority has rendered the majority impotent.” If he is talking about the failure of the health care plan, he may wish to read Federalist No. 62.
I would remind Mr. Rosendin, we have never been a democracy. Our founders gave us a constitutional republic. He should read “The Federalist.” We exist because our elected officials no longer represent us, they no longer follow the Constitution. If Mr. Rosendin has a problem with our desire for freedoms and reject the tyranny of a government that is taking our God-given rights, that”s his problem, and he has my shadow”s permission to continue voting for the socialists enabling them to perpetuate their personal power and agenda.
Shane Bryant
Hidden Valley Lake
