Tea Party Italia, Part II

A few weeks ago, I published the first half of my interview with Luca Bocci, Director of International Relations for the Tea Party Italia.

In this final installment, Luca addresses some of the same problems faced by the liberty movement here in the United States, not to mention the Tea Party:  How should we go about achieving results? How should we solve disputes between fellow liberty activists? What do we do about politicians trying to hijack our movement? And what does the outlook on the near future look like?

To see the full interview, click here, but if there's one thing Luca wants solved, it is this:

Freedom isn't free but sometimes it's frustrating to realize that some people find it incredibly difficult to prioritize things. You care about legalization of marijuana? Good for you. Would you rather have free dope or free enterprise and a really free market? Would you rather have the ban on abortion or a fair/flat tax system? First things first...

You have the libertarians that pass of their time campaigning for Ron Paul, picking fights with the Rick Perry conservatives (it gets ugly sometimes, trust me), the religious "right" that tries to steer the movement on social and moral issues, the radical crowd that seems to be utterly fixated on finding new and creative ways to irritate the Catholics, with their sometimes senseless attacks on the "evils" of the Vatican. Then you have us, the "not very moderate moderaters,"  who try to put a little order in this mess and remind everyone that the real fight is elsewhere... ~Luca Bocci

Lessons From Wisconsin

"Take back Wisconsin!"

"Recall the crooks!"

"End the Tea Party Movement!" 

Over the past several weeks, these cries have been heard across the left side of the political spectrum when speaking about  the recall of six Republican Senators in the Wisconsin state legislature. The recalls occured in response to Gov. Walker's decision to take away the ability of public sector unions to bargain for certain benefits.

While employee-employer relationships are an entirely other topic, one thing is clear:  The left saw this as an attack by the Tea Party on the collectivist principles they stood for, and the left took the recalls a symbolic battleground where they could "prove" that 2012 was within their grasp. The unions poured millions of dollars into these races, as did other out-of-state and in-state groups, all seeking to take a stand for their respective sides.

As the dust cleared on the first round of recalls, four Republicans were left standing -- they had maintained the majority in the Senate and obliterated any hope from the left of destroying the Tea Party symbolically in Wisconsin.

Video: Top Democrats Call Tea Party Members "Terrorists"

Members of the Tea Party movement have been called a lot of nasty things before like: crazy, extremists, teabaggers, and racists, but in the final hours of the debt ceiling debate, just one month before the ten-year anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks, many Democrats, including Vice President Joe Biden, have been calling Tea Party members the nastiest name yet:  terrorists.

YAL-UW Hosts Tea Party Co-Founder

On May 10, Keli Carender -- more commonly known as "Liberty Belle" -- visited the University of Washington. Regarded as one of the original founders of the modern-day Tea Party movement, she spoke to a group of grassroots activists and members of Young Americans for Liberty and the UW College Republicans about The Tea Party Patriots. 

"I used to be normal," Carender joked, "but after awhile you realize it's not normal to be okay with your friends or your professors making you feel bad for your principles." 

Much of Carender's talk focused on empowering the "minority." Minority, that is, being conservatives/libertarians in Western Washington. Some points I took away from her visit:

• Conservatism is local, and you can wear yourself out by trying to focus on national, state and local politics. Try breaking it down and prioritize the area on which you focus. For example, city council meetings are often unattended--but your city officials are capable of waste and corruption too!
• The American notion of "You have a voice in the nation" is only true if you are willing to put in the hard work to be heard
• The Tea Party is normal. It is made up of average people who finally got fed up with government waste. There is no "Tea Party monolith." When people go on the news and say "The Tea Party believes..." they forget the greatness of the Tea Party movement is that it is made up of many smaller groups
• Many of the smaller groups in the Tea Party have specifically chosen to not discuss foreign policy and social issues, choosing instead to focus on something more grassroots people can agree on: the economy.

It was a great opportunity to hear about the Tea Party from someone who has been involved since the beginning. For more on Liberty Belle and The Tea Party Patriots, check out their site here.