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   XPost: alt.society.liberalism, alt.atheism, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: can.politics   
   From: kurtnicklas@gmail.com   
      
   Tea Party on NSA Snooping: We Told You Not to Trust Big Government!   
   by Michelle Cottle Jun 13, 2013 4:45 AM EDT   
      
   As NSA news keeps coming, the government-fearing right is taking a   
   victory lap.   
      
   As if Tea Partiers needed any more evidence that Big Government is out   
   to get them, along come Edward Snowden and operation PRISM.   
      
   It was bad enough that the tax man had been yanking their chain:   
   Everyone knows the IRS is a bunch of jerks. But the NSA combing   
   through people’s phone calls and emails? That’s a whole different   
   level of sinister.   
      
   “I read threads all day long by Tea Party people nationwide. I talk to   
   dozens and dozens of people on a daily basis,” says Ken Crow, the Iowa-   
   based editor of the Tea Party Tribune and cofounder of the activist   
   hub teapartycommunity.com. “They’re all afraid.”   
      
      
   Not surprisingly, Senator Rand Paul, a Tea Party darling, has been one   
   of the most outspoken critics of the NSA surveillance programs. Here's   
   what rankles him so.   
   The mood among Tea Party Patriots is equally tense, reports the   
   group’s cofounder Jenny Beth Martin. “A lot of people are saying,   
   ‘Wait a minute, we seem to trending much more toward a police state   
   than we ever imagined.’”   
      
   For a political movement largely driven by the specter of government   
   run amok, the NSA snooping news is, to borrow a Bidenism, a big   
   fucking deal, a smoking gun akin to Donald Trump unearthing Obama’s   
   Kenyan birth certificate.   
      
   Indeed, Tea Partiers’ reaction to the news of late may be best summed   
   up in four words: We told you so! “They say that those of us in the   
   Tea Party wear tin foil hats and we’re out there and all that,” says   
   Crow. “But take a look around!”   
      
   “This is definitely not an isolated thing,” says Jackie Bodnar,   
   communication director for Freedom Works. “It’s part of a huge list of   
   Fourth Amendment violations that have been happening for years.”   
      
   But almost as outrageous to many Tea Partiers as the NSA snooping   
   itself has been the lack of outrage by Republican leaders. Even as a   
   sprinkling of folks like Rand Paul and Glenn Beck decry the   
   government’s assault on the Constitution and declare Snowden a “hero,”   
   most party players have been more in tune with Sens. Lindsey Graham   
   and John McCain, who have been quick to remind people of the hard   
   realities of fighting terrorism, and Speaker John Boehner, who called   
   Snowden “a traitor.”   
      
   “We’ve given up on McCain and Graham,” says Crow. “It’s obvious to us   
   that they are not going to carry the banner of freedom and liberty.”   
   As for the speaker? “A marshmallow,” says Crow. “With a lot of these   
   scandals, there is overwhelming evidence of perjury by senior   
   officials in the administration—overwhelming evidence that criminal   
   activity transpired. Nothing is being done, and we want to know why!”   
      
   Not that Tea Partiers expected much more from a GOP elite that many   
   members have long held in disdain. “The political establishment voted   
   to allow these things to happen and for government to get this large   
   and out of control,” says Martin, adding sadly, “At this point, very   
   little surprises me.”   
      
   “We’ve given up on McCain and Graham,” says Crow. “It’s obvious to us   
   that they are not going to carry the banner of freedom and liberty.”   
   This does not mean, however, that the Tea Party intends to take this   
   insult lying down. Far from it. Various groups are rallying members to   
   express their displeasure through calls and email petitions to   
   Congress on any number of issues. “We have a lot of different calls to   
   action on our website,” says Bodnar. (“Demand Lois Lerner’s   
   resignation from the IRS”; “Stop the NSA seizing of Your Phone   
   Records”; “Tell Your Senators to cosponsor Rand Paul’s S. 1037, the   
   Fourth Amendment Preservation and Protection Act of 2013”; “Keep IRS   
   Away From Your Health Care”…)   
      
   More broadly, groups are scrambling to juice up education efforts.   
   Next month, Freedom Works will launch a new civil-liberties training   
   program at its Free the People weekend in Salt Lake City. “It’s been   
   something we’ve been trying to make happen and something that   
   activists have wanted for a while,” says Bodnar. The NSA mess is   
   simply “the straw that broke the camel’s back. There has been a big   
   uptick in the demand for education programs like this.”   
      
   With a little luck, such programs won’t merely galvanize existing   
   members but also recruit new ones. “The phones are blowing up with   
   people who want to know how they can get involved,” reports Bodnar. In   
   addition to longtime activists, she says, “there are also a lot of   
   people who are brand new saying, ‘I didn’t know about you guys before,   
   but I can’t just sit at home and yell at my TV anymore.’ ”   
      
   It remains to be seen whether this latest dust-up can reenergize a   
   movement that has been struggling for a couple of years to recapture   
   its early mojo. Still, at the very least, the events of this spring   
   have provided a shot of affirmation and adrenaline to loyalists. Crow   
   in particular is looking forward to a long, hot, combative summer. He   
   chuckles, “It’s fun fighting for liberty and freedom!"   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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