“Maybe it’s an issue of being unable or unwilling to realize that we can actually impact things sufficiently to change things, rather than seeing ourselves as being exiled to some distant side line of life where we can do nothing more than sheepishly root for a life that’s far too far away to touch.”
– Craig D Lounsbrough
Being an advocate for liberty requires a healthy dose of optimism, a belief that freedom is a fundamental desire of all people, and a thick skin. We often seem to be outnumbered. Those who argue for bigger government always seem to be able to win the public’s support. Even those who talk as if they are allies turn out to be statists, hungry for power. It’s so easy to become discouraged by the inanity around us, but the Tea Party movement was sparked by a belief that it was possible to seize freedom from the tyranny of an over-sized and oppressive government. There is no reason to doubt that possibility.
Advocates of Tea Party principles should not be discouraged. Change comes slowly and often imperceptibly. We won’t know when we’ve turned the tide. A good analogy is the technology that is such a significant part of our lives. Each day it changes. Each day there are new innovations. Each day we continue to live our lives without perceiving that changes are taking place. Looking back at the past decade, it seems hard to believe that we ever lived in an age without iPhones, the internet, streaming movie services, and thousands of other modern advances.
The battle for liberty is mostly fought in imperceptible small steps. Yes, there are major losses (and major wins!), but the critical battles are the thousands that take place over time. These wins and losses take place across our nation, in town meetings, city council meetings, courtrooms, and many other public venues. We cannot win if we see “ourselves as being exiled to some distant side line of life where we can do nothing more than sheepishly root for a life that’s far too far away to touch”.
It is lazy Patriots that see themselves as “being unable or unwilling to realize that we can actually impact things sufficiently to change things”. In reality, it is only the individual that can have that impact. Each person must fight for liberty every day. The Tea Party movement is nothing but thousands of individuals, each fighting for the same principles in his or her own way. We’re not a unified, centrally controlled mass. We are a network of individuals spread across America. Each piece of the network has a role to play. The importance of each member of that network cannot be minimized. Each person can and does “impact things sufficiently to change things”.
Theodore Parker said that “the arc of the moral universe bends towards justice.” We can take confidence and renew our resolve by knowing that the arc of the moral universe also bends toward liberty. People all over the world envy the freedom that we have, no matter how damaged it is. In this New Year, start with a renewed sense of optimism that liberty will triumph.
In liberty,
Ken Mandile
Senior Fellow
Worcester Tea Party
