During President Bush’s second term, many were starting to become more and more concerned with big government policies and out of control spending. In order of simplicity I will label these people as “Constitutional Conservatives.” When the housing bubble burst the federal government responded by passing TARP with the goal of  bailing out banks they deemed were “to big to fail”. This further led to the government intervening in the bankruptcy filings of General Motors and Chrysler and even more concern from the Constitutional Conservatives. One of the first acts of the new Obama Administration was to pass the Stimulus Act with it’s stated goal of supporting “shovel ready” jobs to reignite the economy. The result were years of $1+ trillion deficits.

At some point these Constitutional Conservatives started discovering each other and uniting which became a very loosely affiliated coalition known as the  TEA Party movement. The peak of this movement was the September 12, 2009 rally at the Capital building , protesting the passage of ObamaCare, and at Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor rally on the National Mall on August 28, 2010. All of this led to the wave election of November, 2010 where the House returned to a Republican majority with 64 new Republicans. plus a gain of 6 Republicans in the Senate.

While, I know, this is a quick and simplistic view of the TEA party movement, it is enough for the point that I am making. Following this, the Left’s fear was on display and they reacted the only way they know how, with derision and ad hominem attacks. The “heralded” and misnamed Southern Poverty Law Center declared many of these organizations as hate groups. This was echoed by the DHS under the direction of Janet Napolitano.

A leading state that attacked the TEA party movement was Missouri, with Jay Nixon as Governor, they encouraged their law enforcement members to be on the look-out for what they labeled as right-wing extremists.

From then until now the closest that these warnings came true was the episode at the Cliven Bundy ranch but, in reality, this doesn’t fit, as the protests were initiated by militant, anti-government groups. This is nothing close to what the TEA party types call for, they are not against the government but just advocate for a smaller, in control government guided by the Constitution.

Now we return to Missouri today, where the overriding news is on the killing of black 18 year old, Michael Brown by a white police officer, Darren Wilson, after a confrontation. The protests began almost immediately, facts be damned. National groups soon became the leaders of these protests fanned by Al Sharpton and leading to the intervention of the Eric Holder’s Department of Justice. Due to the pressure, a Grand Jury was convened to determine if the police officer should be indicted for criminal charges.  As I writing this, the Grand Jury’s decision is expected at any time. In anticipation, Governor Jay Nixon has declared a State of Emergency and has activated the National Guard in anticipation of mass violence that could follow the ruling.

The obvious conclusion is that, regardless of what the left claimed, there was never any worry of the Constitutional Conservatives/TEA party movement turning violent but, in fact, the threat of and actual use of violence is one tactics used Progressives in order to further their agenda.

#WeWereRight

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