WorldNetDaily.com

July 26, 2010

Joseph Farah

It's no secret the biggest, most dynamic grass-roots political movement in modern American history has its enemies.

The tea-party movement has been attacked by the president of the United States, the NAACP, the press establishment and the Washington political establishment.

But there is also an invisible threat to the tea-party movement. That threat comes from the inside – from a handful of activists jockeying for position to lead the movement, to speak for it, to define its concerns and to limit its scope. They speak of "unity," but they actually seek to divide for the purpose of control.

It is because of this threat that I wrote, "The Tea Party Manifesto: A Vision for an American Rebirth."

I noticed that certain prominent tea-party "leaders" were attempting to constrain the movement to a set of economic issues.

I am convinced (and I believe the overwhelming number of tea-party activists nationwide are with me on this) that America faces serious crises that go beyond economics and materialism. They are moral, spiritual, transcendent issues that cut right to the heart of people's ability to discern right from wrong, even to recognize that there is something we call "absolute truth."

Is it possible, then, to address those deeper crises with economic or materialistic solutions alone?

I don't think so.

Put another way, if the tea party limits itself to a purely economic or materialistic agenda, can it be successful at addressing the root problems America faces?

The answer is clearly no.

That's why I believe those conspiring to constrain the agenda of the tea-party movement from within represent a bigger threat to the movement's longevity and success than do Obama, the media, the Washington political establishment and the NAACP combined.

The tea-party movement is like a raging, consuming, righteous political brushfire. If you want to see it spread, don't deprive it of oxygen. Don't confine it. Don't dig trenches around it.

Why would you want to constrict this movement?

I know why Obama would want to limit it. But why would someone who supposedly shares its passion for righting the ship of state?

There are only two possibilities:

• That those trying to restrict tea-party activism to economic issues are truly materialists. They, like Marxists, really believe that economics is everything, that we live only in a material world.

• That they want to control the movement for their own empowerment.

Maybe I'm not seeing other possibilities. I don't know.

But I don't trust materialists. And I don't trust politicians.

I do trust the instincts of the average tea-party activist.

Read more at wnd.com ...