Tea Party Vs. CRA

This Cartoon says it all about what Obama’s IRS has done. Every President has used the IRS in my lifetime to hammer political enemies, but Obama has taken it to the next level. Remember when Clinton’s accusers all got audited?

I was too young to remember Nixon’s hijinks.

The image of this seemingly helpless Tea Partier getting strangled by the IRS is burned in my mind, so much so that I felt compelled to write this piece.

I really feel for those groups that the IRS abused. It makes me angry.

You see, I have been critical of the Tea Party. I am a CRA officer and member for life. The CRA is the first group I joined after registering to vote. It is the only Group I am a member of today.

The CRA is the only group in California for Conservative Republicans who want to save babies, save the family and gun rights. Other groups are single-issue or run as fast as they can from the “social issues”.

We’ve seen the articles where homosexual activists admit that their goal is to destroy the institution of marriage. John Eastman was on national TV telling America that the Obama IRS sent a copy of their confidential tax return to the homosexual activist group human rights campaign, ostensibly so that the donors to the National Organization for Marriage could be attacked and exposed.

The IRS stonewalled applications from Tea Party, 9-12, freedom, patriot – etc. etc. etc. groups for tax-exempt status.

But the IRS attacked Romney donors, James Dobson, Franklin Graham and several other religious groups with audits. This is far different than interfering with applications for tax-exempt status from Tea Party Groups.

… but the IRS did not attack the CRA. There was a time in the past where the CRA would have been attacked. This is why I stood up with a handful of CRA officers to fight for the new leadership we now have. The CRA changed course and will grow in to relevance again.

In the early 1990’s, Then (RINO) Governor Pete Wilson flew off the handle at the CRA calling it “<F-Bomb> Irrelevant” because the CRA was such a force at the time that our opposition to his Tax Increase was newsworthy.

In essence, the CRA was the Tea Party before there was a Tea Party. And this is why political consultants and political staff were drawn to the CRA in an attempt to control it.

Other than the social issues, there is a major difference that is at the core if why I don’t identify with the Tea Party.

The CRA has By-Laws and a structure. The Tea Party is libertarian and therefore has limited, if any structure.

This has created problems:

Political Consultants have monetized the Tea Party – like the America Deserves Better PAC, The Campaign to Defeat Barack Obama, the Tea Party Express, etc.

Campaign Staff and Legislative Staff have infiltrated Tea Parties to use them to do their bidding. Witness the Doug LaMalfa staff that control the Redding Tea Party or the rifts that occurred repeatedly in the Nevada County or Placer County Tea Parties – mostly centered around Doug LaMalfa.

Other Tea Partiers – four from Lincoln led by a fifth with a personal axe to grind voted for Tax-Raising liberal Republicans for Placer GOP Cent Com Leadership. They were joined in this by tea party members from Auburn. Two of the new leaders of the Placer GOP were prepared to publicly endorse Liberal Democrat Jennifer Montgomery for re-election and said so in a Placer GOP meeting last year!

If you did that in the CRA – you’d be subject to expulsion per our by-laws.

In the 2014 election cycle all Republican candidates will be able to approach the CRA knowing that our endorsement has no gatekeeper and is not pre-ordained for the first time in a long-time.

We’ve expelled Political Consultants for manipulating the organization. We’ve defeated others in officer elections. The CRA has been able to police itself and return itself to the control of “we the people”.

The Tea Party has no mechanism to do that by and large. Tea Party Members can support people for office that are an enathma to the stated values and goals of the Tea Party with no consequence.

This is why the CRA endorsement is coveted, the by-laws of the CRA and the organization of the CRA (since 1934!) make it mean something.

… and this is why I am an active member of CRA, not a Tea Party.