9/24/11 7:55 PM OPINION-EDITORIAL
Dear Morgan Freeman… An Open Letter From Our Publisher
In this lengthy and passionate editorial, an original Tax Day Tea Party organizer, Publisher Ali A. Akbar, takes Morgan Freeman to task for his false comments and encourages further understanding of the real tea party movement.
Dear Mr. Freeman,
I’m not sure what a “tea partier” is, but I am a tea party activist. I’m concerned about the generational theft your generation has committed on mine. I’m not waging war against you, nor your generation, but the very idea that we have to spend money we don’t have on programs that are questionable at best and brewing the economic ruin of our United States at worst. We must lynch the very notion. I like the other millions of tea party movement supporters around our great county.
I know you love your country. Know that I do too.
In fact, I along with a handful of others frustrated with the establishment in our country. This establishment isn’t just a dark-skinned man who happens to be Democrat. They are corporate bosses who have successfully lobbied for taxpayer subsidies, they are auto industry executives whose bad business plan required tens of billions of dollars in the form of a federal bailout, a Texas duo — President Bush and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay who rammed irresponsible spending bills through Congress, and big spenders in both parties dedicated to enjoying new luxuries that require our Treasury to borrow 42 cents of every dollar it spends, while saddling my generation with the bill. I’m admittedly a dedicated Republican, but one party rule has taken our nation in an awful direction under both Bush and President Obama (with his historic supermajority). This is the establishment the tea party and I are fighting.
Quickly, I wanted to debunk some falsities you said on Piers Morgan Tonight. As you know, you caused quite a stir — people weren’t calling you names but nonetheless sent viral the clip of you, well, frankly making a fool of yourself.
Let me start off with what you got right. It is the stated goal of tea party movement to influence both parties, reviving the GOP as the fiscally conservative sound alternative. You see, we believe it has strayed, losing credibility independents and conservatives alike, while giving the left fodder to attack the “brand.” We spent too much. We participated in the budgeting tricks Democrats have longed used.
Even though it was left out of CNN’s transcript, it was revealed that you don’t really know who Mitch McConnell is. Unfortunately, that’s all too common — Americans don’t tune into the political process and that hurts the public’s ability to debate these issues like educated people. So, in the interest of sharing, let me tell you a little about the Senior Senator from Kentucky, who also happens to be the the chamber’s Minority Leader. He’s not what you would call a “conservative’s conservative.” And although it is my personal opinion that he has been relatively effective, many tea party activists disagree and find him to be a “big-government” Republican. It’s hard to find a major conservative group that hasn’t called on him to resign his Republican leadership post.
Just this last cycle, in his home state of Kentucky where he serves as kingmaker, he suffered a bruising defeat at the hands of the tea party seeing his chosen candidate, Attorney General Trey Grayson, defeated by Rand Paul. Rand Paul was labeled as radical, extreme, and unelectable by McConnell’s allies at his instruction. However, voters felt otherwise.
McConnell has also faced off against the tea party with earmark reform, committee assignments, appropriation bills, and the handling of the debt ceiling negotiations with President Obama to name just a few recent battles.
All this is to say, Mr. Freeman, Mitch McConnell is not a tea party Senator. Far from it. The relationship is contentious at best. But not having known all this, as you now do, that he is not a member of the tea party movement, you can be forgiven for assigning McConnell’s statements to the tea party movement as a whole.
Next time, use a better example. If you still believe that the tea party is willing to see the end of America before assenting to economic policies that we believe hurt America’s middle class and job creation, use a different Senator.
The tea party movement, Senator McConnell, the 14 million unemployed Americans (9.1% of Americans, with African-American unemployment at 16.7%), and the tens of millions underemployed Americans (18.4%) however, surely share the goal of making President Obama a one-termer. Last week, for the first time, a majority of Americans say Obama is to blame for the economic crisis and his disapproval has been below 50% for months. We simply cannot continue this jobless recovery under his watch. It’s the content of his policies, not his color.
I don’t believe taking down the country is in the platform of either party. Or, as you put it, “screwing the country.” Democrats, Republicans, independents, and tea party supporters alike love this country.
I then became… I don’t know any other words for it, embarrassed, when the very next sentence out of your mouth was accusing right-leaning Americans of “do[ing] whatever [they] can to get this black man out of here.” You gave not one shred of evidence. Maybe you haven’t heard of Tim Scott or Allen West, both of which had to fight the establishment within my own party to get elected, both blacks, and if it hadn’t been for the aid of the tea party, they would have lost. More African-Americans chose to run as Republicans for federal offices than ever before. Most carried significant if not overwhelming tea party support.
It was encouraging to hear that you recognize the “gaining traction” of the tea party though. A USA Today/Gallup poll conducted March 26-28 showed that the tea party’s demographics were in line with the mainstream of our population. Falsely labeling it the “dark underside of America,” and saying that it’s “stirring up muddy water” was surface-level criticism that doesn’t encourage healthy dialogue. Comments like this put out there on cable news channels are exactly why there is a misconception about the tea party. You’re encouraging this child’s game of string-telephone.
You ended your comments on the subject by encouraging President Obama to metaphorically give us a “bloody nose.” Is this not the same sentiment that after mis-characterizing the actions of the tea party as such, you decried as racist and un-American? Now you’re ready to bless those actions if Obama is ready to employ them?
You see, I believe in drawing contrasts. I believe that our policy differences are in fact, so great that American voters must send their chosen representatives to Washington — the winners of elections. This is exactly what happened as 87 new House Republicans were sent to Washington promising to fight government spending, the increase of the debt ceiling, work to repeal the healthcare insurance mandate that was supported by the big pharmaceutical lobby, and so much more. Americans voted for this just 10 months ago. Voted! Elections have consequences.
Mind you, this is the most diverse GOP class ever; five new Latino members, two African-Americans and nine women adding to the ranks of the current Republican House. All thanks to the tea party movement! 35 of these never served in elected office. We wanted something different, new. We wanted war with the establishment.
Who am I to lecture you? I’m an ol’ tea party G. I helped, when we could be counted in the dozens, and gave birth to what you see.
I do politics. It’s not for money, nor for influence, but because the future belongs to those who participate.
In the fall of 2008, I helped some free market activist friends with an effort called the DontGo Movement. I won’t bore you with the details, but we did something powerful. It was the first successful, truly organic effort in organizing concerned right-of-center citizens online. No funding, no major backing, no nothing. Within a week, we had over 19,000 concerned citizens sign up to participate in putting pressure on Speaker Pelosi in solving our energy crisis. We just wanted Congress to stay and do their jobs for once instead of taking a political vacation to go campaign. We went to war with the GOP establishment and forced them to come back early, risking their reelection bids. We ended up winning.
I was a member, asked to help with the website when other vendors wouldn’t, then appointed CEO, quickly elected to the Board, and then was asked to Chair the Board as we rolled into the American Liberty Alliance — one of the first three sponsors to the tea parties. Smart Girl Politics and Top Conservatives on Twitter were the other two. Again, these weren’t funded groups; they weren’t based in DC — this was organic damnnit. Then we got the bailouts and so we strapped together a broad movement. Mind you, this was under President Bush. Yes, our roots start under a Republican President!
No, Fox News wasn’t covering us back then. They also missed the birth of the tea party movement. We political professionals have never seen anything like this. Opponents underestimate us at their own peril and we are mis-characterized as a fool-hearty way to dismiss us from the debate. I’m sure it wasn’t your intent, but that’s how it came across.
Tea party groups have no position on foreign policy and most leave out social issues. This is a fiscal reform movement dedicated to fundamental reform in the way business is done in the federal government. Many tea party groups have broken with Republicans on free trade, earmarks and appropriations, transparency led initiatives and the fights continue to this day.
You’ve probably been told otherwise. It’s a grave mistake to mis-characterize us.
Maybe it was my single mother upbringing to blame, for the reason that I have this history with fighting the establishment. I did a lot to take care of my two younger brothers while my mother went to school full-time and worked full-time. We were latch-key kids, but understood that our mother loved us very dearly and was doing everything she could to provide a better opportunity for us. This story is shared by African-American kids like myself everywhere.
In February 2009, I was one of the first handful National Tax Day Tea Party coordinators with my friend Eric Odom, building much of the technical infrastructure that led to the most successful protest in American history – with at least 1.2 million people attending in 81 cities organically. I can’t help but think that my humble upbringing help play a role in all of this. In fact, if you study some of my friends backgrounds, you’ll find soccer moms, a bankrupt struggling couple, a libertarian, and a few people who took out thousands of dollars of their own money to pay for permits and staging in these major cities, without ever knowing where this groundswell of frustration was going.
I’m not a racist. I’m not a self-hater. I truly believe President Obama must be defeated. His policies are bad. No, awful.
I honestly would like an apology. And, I hold some blame with the media for coming in between good Americans like you and I, highlighting and exaggerating our differences and my new movement.
Sincerely,
Ali A. Akbar
Just another minority, keeping it real. Oh, and a fan.
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