According to my calculations, it’s only a matter of time before tea partiers are called reptilian aliens from outer space. I would say zombies, but sadly that was already done by some charming people and their little video game, “Tea Party Zombies Must Die”. Just in the past few weeks, tea partiers have been labeled “terrorists,” “S.O.B.s,” “hobbits,” and “barbarians” who can go “straight to hell,” of course after they’re done, according to Representative Andre Carson, hanging African-Americans from the nearest tree.

I’m actually starting to lose track of the name-calling, but suffice it to say, the Left and its elected allies like Joe Biden and Maxine Waters, are upping the vitriol of their rhetoric. That’s what people do when they’re losing an argument: they either change the terms of the debate or resort to ad hominem attacks. Of course, name-calling means nothing.  Already bereft of ideas, it seems the Left has also forgotten the little schoolyard chant about sticks and stones.

But beyond the name-calling, it is becoming deadly serious - our economy is tanking. Unemployment has barely budged from between 9-10%, and absolutely zero jobs were added in the month of August. Our President is wandering about between his and Michelle’s vacations, with clearly no idea of what to do. It should be pointed out that we are probably expecting too much from a former community organizer who never understood how jobs and capital are created in the first place. After getting beaten handily in 2009 in Virginia and New Jersey, 2010 nationally, hamstrung in Wisconsin in 2011 (I would say humiliated as well: after dumping tens of millions of dollars into the fight against Scott Walker’s Budget Repair Bill, the Supreme Court race and attempts to flip the majority in the State Senate thru re-call elections, the unions failed on all three counts), the Left, particularly the public sector unions, know they’re up against it in 2012.

The incredible, shrinking President’s numbers are, well, shrinking and the Democrats were already going to have a tough time holding the Senate in 2012: with the economy still dragging and unemployment high, it’s hard to believe holding the Senate will get any easier between now and November of 2012.

Seeing the trends in the poll numbers, and realizing the tide is against them, the Left is desperate. When people start flailing about, using harsh rhetoric, it’s an indication that there is mounting frustration. And one gets the sense that the public sector unions, while maybe not on their last gasp, are certainly feeling cornered and very threatened.  The questions I have for the tea party, and those that identify with it, is what do you plan on doing to seize the moment in 2012? If people thought the successes of 2010, and even 2011, was going to fix things, they were mistaken. Our victories in 2010 were just the beginning of a long road back to true American exceptionalism.

American Majority has been planning its Training Bomb (www.trainingbomb.com) for a while now (yes, we swiped the term from the Ron Paul “Money Bombs”), with it having grown to trainings in 14 different states being held on Constitution Day, September 17^th. The point of the trainings is to do the things that move the political dial and lead to political success. We of course believe in free enterprise and limited government, but what will make these ideas become reality? Political victories. Politics is policy.  Those who win politically that make policy.

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I still find it strange when those who claim they believe in free enterprise, limited government, reducing government intervention in the marketplace and fiscal responsibility, suddenly take an “Everywhere but in my house” approach. I am referring to the more than 80 House Republicans, many of whom claim to be conservatives, who are co-sponsoring H.R. 1380, otherwise known as the Pickens Plan after Texas energy tycoon, T. Boone Pickens.

The bill revolves around several main arguments, the first of which is that America must become energy independent. I fully agree with those sentiments: America only produces 5 million barrels of oil a day, yet consumes 20 million, meaning 75% of our oil comes from other producers, some of whom have no love for this country. The second argument builds off the first: we must tap into American energy sources to gain more independence. Again, I completely agree with that argument. The third argument is that natural gas is one of the best American energy resources, therefore we must tap into it, as we have more than 100 years of natural gas that we can produce domestically. There is of course nothing wrong with any of the above arguments.

But where the Pickens Plan starts to go awry is when you look at the nuts and bolts of how the Plan would work. First, as many know, American cars and big rigs don’t currently run on natural gas, so there would have to be a massive overhaul of vehicles.

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I keep hearing the narrative that somehow, as though it were written in stone, collective bargaining is a right for public sector unions. I would disagree entirely: collective bargaining is a privilege, not a right, for public sector unions. And you know what? About 50 years ago, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. agreed with me. The union’s Executive Council in 1959 said: “In terms of accepted collective bargaining procedures, government workers have no right beyond the authority to petition Congress — a right available to every citizen.”

And it is a privilege that has been badly abused for years; U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics show that public sector employees, many of them unionized, make nearly $40 an hour in combined wages and benefits versus roughly $27.50 for those in the private sector.

So I applaud what Scott Walker is doing in Wisconsin, but I actually feel he didn’t go far enough. All his Budget Repair Bill is doing is addressing the public sector unions’ right to collectively bargain over pensions and health care. I think it would have been nice to address the right to collectively bargain for wages, and here’s why: at the end of the day, the public sector unions are not collectively bargaining for a greater share of earnings, as do the private sector unions. They are bargaining to get a bigger slice of the pie of tax dollars, which the government has taken from the American taxpayer.

Now to be clear: paying a certain amount of taxes is a part of being involved in an organized civilization. If you want to make sure you have roads and national defense, you’re going to have to pay taxes. But that being said, taxes are removed through a threat of force from the taxpayers by the government (yes, I mean force. Try not paying property or income taxes and see what happens). So the government is run off of money earned in the private sector. Government does not create jobs; when there are reports of more jobs, but they’re all government jobs, the government is not creating anything: it is merely funding even more government jobs off the backs of the private sector. Which compounds the problem because by taking capital from the private sector to create government jobs, you’re not creating jobs that create more capital, as private sector jobs do.

So, public sector unions, unlike their private sector union counterparts, are not creating more capital. Do they provide services for the public good? Absolutely. Are they creating capital? Absolutely not.

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On Saturday, standing on the state capitol steps in Madison, Wisconsin I saw history. I saw the first public, physical manifestation of the great struggle between the tea party movement and the public sector unions. At stake: the future freedom and prosperity of this country.

On one side of the debate, you have freedom loving Americans who are the taxpayers, the ones who fund our government and are the heart and soul of this great nation. On the other, those who would seek to ride on the backs of the taxpayers as they take this country down a path of statism.

This is the great fight right now: freedom vs. statism, and the ones of the front lines for freedom are the tea partiers. They have been, and are continuing to, answer the bell time and time again in this crucial time in American history. They’ve been mocked and reviled, questioned, but they are America’s best hope to turn this magnificent nation back to a path of freedom and prosperity and away from destructive statism.

What I saw in Madison on Saturday was amazing. Thursday morning, the American Majority staff in Wisconsin and some local tea party leaders, Meg Ellefson and Tim Dake, along with Dave Westlake, decided there should be a rally in support of Scott Walker and his Budget Repair Bill. In roughly 48 hours, it went from idea to reality, from a few people talking to 10,000 rallying on the steps of the capitol.

Within hours of announcing there would be a rally, I got a call that Andrew Breitbart was in.

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There’s been a lot of chatter about Mike Pence and a potential Presidential bid by him. From National Review to the Washington Examiner, to George Will to others at the Washington Post, even to Erick Erickson’s post on RedState, people are wondering will he or won’t he. Supposedly he’s making his decision this weekend about whether he will run for President or Governor of Indiana.

I think he should run. While not denigrating the other potential GOP candidates for President in 2012, ask yourself: do any of them really excite you? That should clear out half the field right there, if not three fourths. Then ask yourself who has held true to his or her principles under fire, time and time again? I’m not saying standing up and proclaiming this or that: words mean nothing to me. It’s what you actually do, and Mike Pence’s voting record has shown from No Child Left Behind to Medicare Part D to TARP to the stimulus bill, even taking a stand against the recent tax compromise, he has talked and walked the walk.

Then ask who you think has the ability to excite the base and not alienate independents? Keep asking yourself questions along these lines, and throw in the fact that Mike Pence is a very good communicator of the ideas we hold dear, and you start to realize a Mike Pence for President bid could really take off.

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The 2010 primary season was, for the most part, a good one for limited government, freedom-loving conservatives. Most of the high profile challenges against the incumbent or establishment candidates, with Mike Lee, Ken Buck, Joe Miller, and Sharron Angle ended with the grassroots candidate winning. The American people clearly demonstrated that they are tired of long time incumbents, the ruling class, ignoring the will of the people and growing government spending and the role of government in people’s lives.

But we need to put things into perspective: the 2010 primary season must be seen as simply the opening salvo in the American people’s war against statism. It is the first battle in many to come in the war over whether the American people, or the ruling class, will control the American system of government.

Sure, there are reasons to celebrate, but let’s be honest: nothing has been won yet. The primary victories are just that: primary, not general election, victories. And while it’s humorous to see the befuddlement of the establishment as yet another one of its candidates goes down in defeat, think about this: of the 472 U.S. Representatives and Senators running this fall, it is almost guaranteed, in a supposed “anti-incumbent, anti-establishment” election that 80% or more of the incumbents will win this year.

Those statistics are just at the federal level, but they hold true even at the state level: roughly 80% of state house and state senate incumbents will win this fall. The good people over at Ballotpedia.org have even compiled a list of state legislators who will not even be challenged in the general election. The list is uncomfortably long, which is staggering given that this is a Congressional re-districting year due to the census.

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We are in a fascinating period in American history, where a confluence of developments has transformed our citizenry’s relationship with government. The mainstream media is distrusted and dying. The majority of our elected officials – let’s not bother with terming them “leaders” – no longer care to represent the interests of the people. In response, the American people are rising up in protest at a rate and in a manner not seen in decades, if ever.

Congressional approval ratings are at historic lows at around 14% (an acquaintance joked that during the American Revolution, the British Crown had double that approval rating, with roughly a third of colonists supporting the Crown and Parliament). Rasmussen recently reported that only 21% of Americans believe our government has the consent of the governed, and CNN reports that 56% of Americans believe that our government poses an immediate threat to American citizens’ rights and freedoms . . . well you get the idea.

The American people are making it clear where they stand, and in an unmistakable manner. Next week, on April 15th, more than one million people will be at more than 1,000 Tea Party protests across the country as more and more Americans come out to protest where elected officials are taking this country.

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