Roanoke Tea Party

We had about 100 folks at our rally and 2 to 3 times that many that lined up around cordoned area to welcome President Obama with the kind of welcome he deserved.

A protest. Thanks to Mike Bream for pulling this together.

More pictures can be seen on our Facebook page. I gave a short speech during the pre-rally discussing why we were protesting the President. Here is the text from that speech.

Chip Tarbutton

Our current President is just a few blocks away, surrounded by avid fans that treat him more like a Hollywood celebrity than a duly elected official.

And here we are protesting the President of the United States. Good law abiding citizens protesting the sitting President of the United States. How did we get here? How did our nation become so polarized?

In one word, progressivism  Progressive policies has been bubbling around the surface of politics for decades, but now that we have a President who skillfully follows their tenets to a tee. I say to you now that Obama really is not the problem, but a symptom of a deeper sickness that has infected our nation.

And the symptom what President Obama represents reflects a sickness that will ultimately kill this Republic.

Why is there such a sharp divide in this nation?

American principles state that our rights come from God. That they are inalienable and that we established a form of government specifically dedicated to keeping government and other individuals from taking those rights away. Those rights form the basis of the individual liberty and freedom that has made the United States the last best hope for the world.

What are those rights? All men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That the Constitution was the supreme law of the land and that the oath our representatives took made it clear that their primary responsibility was to uphold the Constitution.

Can we compromise on these principles and remain the nation we grew up believing in? No!

Our progressive friends believe in a very different America.

They believe that individual liberty is dangerous and must be regulated by the government. As Lenin once put it…”It is true that liberty is precious; so precious that it must be carefully rationed.” Progressive are repelled by individual liberty. They do not look for equal opportunity but equal outcomes.

They look specifically at creating rights and using the government as their “God” to deliver outcomes to people they consider to dumb or too stubborn to know what is good for them.

As our dear leader once said “The Constitution is a charter of negative liberties, says what the states can’t do to you, says what the federal government can’t do to you, but it doesn’t say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf.”

Government becomes God. The leadership can therefore do “for” you whatever they feel is important today, regardless of that old dead Constitution that gets in their way in imposing their will on you. President Obama…I think I speak on behalf of everyone here when we say….all we want the federal government to do on our behalf is located in the U.S. Constitution.

We see the outcomes of the progressive dream. It leads to poverty; witness the sorry condition of liberal enclaves like Detroit, the financial insolvency of town after town in California. It leads to tyranny; witness the regulatory nightmares invoked by the IRS, the EPA and other 3 letter agencies that have become 4 letter words. We are more and more everyday like a nation behind the iron curtain…than in the land of the free.

We are in the grips of a war for the soul of America. And we are losing.

Can you reconcile or compromise these two visions? No!

 Much like in the 1960’s there was no way to reconcile Jim Crow laws and the fact that All Men Are Created Equal. It was painful. It took sacrifice. But with bold leadership the vision of our American forefathers was realized through the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement did not win because MLK and other leaders where afraid of conflict. MLK was told by numerous “smart” people to tone down the rhetoric. To go slow. To accommodate and compromise. Yet his dogged determination to get to a nation where a man was judged by the content of his character and not by the color of his skin won the day. But at the ultimate cost.

Freedom has never been free. We have the winning message. Individuals CAN thrive. You can have your dream, if you are willing to work at it. That is the message that wins hearts and minds and has lead people from across the globe to flock to America.

It is time for our leaders to stop cowering and hiding from our national destiny. It is time to stand up to the progressives and with one voice declare this is the land of the free and the home of the brave. The only fundamental transformation that needs to take place is in our hearts and minds and to ensure that every leader at every level of government understands and boldly proclaims that liberty still lives in America. Because if we do not demand this from our leaders now…we will lose. Just like MLK, we cannot compromise, we cannot let the “smart” voices tell us to be moderate. Our liberty is the cause and there can be NO COMPROMISE.

I will have a sign up sheet for more information from the RTP if you would like it.,…Join the resistance…join the RTP.

God Bless America.