Dear friends of liberty:
Our enemies in the liberal media, the current liberal ruling elite, and, sadly, the Republican career politicians have banded together in an all out war on major Tea Party organizations. Please read Jenny Beth Martin’s response below. If you agree that we must continue to stand for liberty in spite of the lies, threats and innuendo of our enemies, then please consider making a donation today. I think it would be great if fund raising numbers showed a dramatic spike in the aftermath of the broadside launched against us. If liberty is to live we must be prepared to revive her and defend her at all costs. It’s time to tip the balance of power in Washington back to “we the people”
TEA PARTY PATRIOTS STATEMENT
ON MEDIA ATTACKS AGAINST OUR MOVEMENT
Since the Tea Party movement began five years ago, we have been under attack by the media, declared dead over and over again and criticized by congressional leadership, from people like Mitch McConnell and John Boehner whom we thought would welcome our spirited work to help get our fiscal house in order. Yet, just as we are building for the 2014 elections, we see more and more scrutiny and more attempts to delegitimize the hard work of Tea Party members all over the country. Such was the case in a new story by the Washington Post Sunday.
We shouldn’t be surprised that the GOP establishment and the liberal media are coordinating their attacks against several leading Tea Party organizations and their leaders. In fact, look for another similar attack very soon from others.
These “news reports” include sensational allegations regarding what might appear to the uninformed as excessive fundraising costs. Their story line is that Tea Party Patriots and Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund spend too much money on fundraising, with little left over to actually help drive our issues and help our endorsed candidates.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
We at Tea Party Patriots use email and direct mail to not only raise small dollar contributions from thousands of people but also to communicate directly with our members on important issues: the IRS targeting scandal, the national debt, taxes and spending, ObamaCare, Benghazi, and immigration reform, to name just a few. These are the same issues the so-called “mainstream” media either fail to cover at all or cover in ways that distort the truth.
In less than five years, we have placed over a quarter of a billion (with a b) email messages directly into the inboxes of conservative Americans. In the mail, we have disseminated over 34.7 million messages into mailboxes of our citizens. Over 1.2 million people have signed online petitions or taken some other activist action from email communications and over 600,000 have signed hard-copy petitions or taken some other step in activism related to our principles. Since October, we have generated over 3 million calls into congressional offices supporting our issues.
Each week through our communication efforts in snail mail, email, radio advertising, social media and through the dedicated efforts of individual patriotic Americans, we spread the message to local volunteer networks and we reach over 20 million Americans with our vision for the country’s future: a nation where personal freedom is cherished and where all Americans are treated equally, assuring the ability of all Americans to pursue their American Dream.
All of the money spent by Tea Party Patriots goes to advance Tea Party principles and issues, and that spent by Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund helps candidates who support those same principles: personal freedom, economic freedom, and a debt free future.
The media conveniently (and, quite possibly, deliberately) overlooks a fundamental fact of American politics for the last 50 years – the virtual monopoly of control over the so-called “mainstream” media enjoyed by our political opponents – in both parties.
Because we (and our allies) cannot rely on being able to spread our message through ABC, CBS, NBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, or scores of other so-called “mainstream” media outlets, we have been forced to create our own channels of communications, so we can speak directly to our supporters and potential supporters without waiting for “permission” from the editors of The New York Times.
Consequently, while the Tea Party Patriots is grassroots-based and volunteer driven, altruism inevitably meets reality; it costs money to operate an organization of this magnitude.
When we hire an employee, he or she is paid to work toward our mission. When we travel, it is to work toward our mission. When we lease an office, it is to have a place to work to advance our mission. When we pay for training and tools for our volunteers, it is so that they can better accomplish our mission. When we buy supplies, buy equipment, pay contractors, pay lawyers, pay for parking, pay for anything and everything we buy, it is all to accomplish our mission.
When we formed the Tea Party Patriots in 2009 – and when we started the Citizens Fund in 2013 – we knew the mainstream media would oppose us. So now we are not surprised when high-level politicians in the Republican Establishment have joined forces with the liberal media to smear us. In fact, it tells us we’re doing something right.
The Establishment sees its hold on power threatened, and the liberal media remain frustrated that they no longer have a monopoly on the flow of information. We expect both to ramp up their attacks in the coming months. The more successful we are, the more vicious the attacks.
We’re going to keep fighting for personal freedom, economic freedom, and a debt free future. Smears from the liberal media and GOP Establishment will not deter us. We wear them as badges of honor.
For Freedom,
Tea Party Patriots Support Team
Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund Support Team