Recently, much has been written about the TEA party movement and its leadership.  It would appear, based on the talking heads that so often comment, that they seek to find the titular leader of the TEA party movement.  In fact,  this has been problematic from the beginning.  For the political establishment in particular, the lack of an evident leader in the TEA party movement has been one facet of this grass roots effort that has resulted in frustration.  And in particular, to those who would attempt to dismantle it!  No more has this been evident than in looking at the political ruling class and their commentary, which seemingly moved from the intellectual to the derogatory in a matter of moments,  referring to the movement as  "tea baggers",  racists, rednecks or "birthers",  et al. while the same time suggesting the illegitimacy of people who turn up to make their voices heard at town halls, local meetings and even Washington DC.  This lack of clarity in the leadership of the movement is one element that is both a strength and sometimes a weakness.

Perhaps it is instructive to review the existence of Tea Party Nation and its founder, Judson Phillips.  In crafting a rather interesting, important and certainly fun TEA party convention in Nashville, Phillips' only "crime" is that he had the audacity to actually invite Sarah Palin to such a meeting.  And then to hold that meeting at a very fine facility, the Gaylord Hotel, in a city that's known for its music, it's fun and it's hospitality.  But his crime was not the fact that he invited her or decided that he would indeed have 600 jovial TEA party leadership arrive in Nashville for such a convention and  a big dinner; no his crime was that he actually decided to do this within and through his Tea Party Nation.

Tea Party Nation is nothing much more than a social website through which members can collaborate, share ideas, provide their views and post messages as well as events in their own location.  It was indeed a vision of Judson and his wife, Sherry Phillips, that this Tea Party Nation site could be a way in which leadership would collaborate.  The site itself is powered by common off-the-shelf software and indeed running the site is the key job of Tea Party Nation,  its advisory board and the various volunteers who are contributing to that effort.  However,  Judson Phillips and his wife were also able to lead and develop  the idea of a convention for TEA party leadership.  With great speakers such as Michele Bachmann, Joseph Farah,  Marsha Blackburn,  Phil Valentine and others, and of course the keynote speech by Sarah Palin,  the left went into apoplexy.   And there were those, who in their attempt to find the individual who might be the "heir apparent", began disparaging Mr. Phillips and his family.

But they fail to understand the real power of this movement.  Unlike Organizing for America, where the more than billion dollars raised by Mr. Barack Obama and his ilk have crafted a real Astroturf movement,  the TEA party grew out of a frustration and a visceral reaction to the Obama "hope & change - bait & switch" rhetoric that he professed during his campaign.  From the now famous Rick Santorelli "rant" on CNBC to the million and a half people that showed up in Washington DC, the movement has grown from the few to the many.   And yet, in between all those moments, people who heretofore have never been involved in politics or grassroots movements or even in their government, suddenly became acutely aware of the liberties that they had so taken for granted and which now required fighting for!

It was this idea,  formerly non-political people  joining together for the very first time in their lives, that resulted in a massive and concerted effort to take back their government.  They began to understand the nature of the Founding Fathers and the true passions of those "fifty-six" men who signed the Declaration of Independence.  Many had not understood, in the context of the history of our own Revolutionary War and the lessons learned, that  a significant few can influence extraordinary outcomes.  They were angered by the results of elections, unconvinced by the spending of a nearly trillion dollar stimulus package, a $2.6 trillion budget,  spending for healthcare, Cap & Trade  and numerous other initiatives which burdened America and sullied the great liberties that we as a nation enjoy.  We are indeed, as Americans, fiercely independent in our views and our lives.  The actions of previous administrations and in particular, Obama,  were sufficient to awaken the sleeping giant.  In fact, I would argue, Barack Obama became the "Pearl Harbor" of the conservative movement.  Regrettably, for people like James Carville who would suggest that there was to be a 40 year "rule" by the progressive left, found those same Democrats within the time it took to have a baby, on the other side of history!

But it is the TEA party movement itself and the lack of leadership that is not clearly understood by so many in the mainstream media and the left in particular.  They seek to find that individual or organization,  whether it's FreedomWorks and the likes of Dick Armey,  or perhaps Eric Odom and the TEA Party Express or other groups such as Tea Party Nation, that would  represent the coalition in a way that constitutes a clear leadership position and head.  However, I would argue that this indeed is not required of all grassroots movements.  In fact, the TEA party movement itself is about individuals organizing at the community level, something that the left and in particular this administration should have understood, as it has prided itself on its own community organizing skills.  It is a most instructive element of the TEA party movement that we simply have co-opted the tactics that were effectively deployed so often by the left.  And at the same time, the TEA party movement has  assembled real passion, real effort, caring for their community, love of their family and defense of their liberty.  Not all moments in a grassroots movement are perfectly executed and in particular we will find a few weeds amongst the strong turf.  However, in reviewing a number of the hit pieces that have been shared throughout the blogosphere while railing against Tea Party Nation and its leader Judson Phillips, one gets a sense that some commentary is beyond the pale.  Such indignation should be met with a bit of skepticism for it was Judson Phillips who simply had the boldness to ask a woman, indeed a former governor, as to whether she would come and speak!

And  in that one act, there has evolved a firestorm of criticism, jealousy and rage.  However, it has also resulted in another effect that we see before us now.  The TEA party movement is becoming a force to be reckoned with and, in my opinion,  something akin to the evangelistic movements of years gone by.  It is as much about people coming together with differing views, forming and dissolving,  developing extraordinary efforts to impact their local government, support candidates, recruit people into primaries and general elections.  And of course oppose, with their greatest energy, this administration's march to the left!  And in that sense, the TEA party movement in particular, needs no titular head;  it needs no individual leader.  Instead, it acts more like our Founding Fathers did in the Revolutionary War where only twelve percent of the Colonialists actually fought against the British while nearly twenty percent remained Loyalists. The rest were at home watching "Dancing with Stars", well maybe not, as TV wasn't actually invented then!  However, a massive war of Independence was fought on the basis of a significant few with the support of the general population.  They saw fit to attack those elements of the Crown that restricted their own desire for liberty and freedom and they were successful.  They fought a different type of battle against the Redcoats.  It was the first use of guerrilla warfare, hiding from  behind trees,  taking their tactics from their colonizing experience and taking their shots  accordingly.  And in the end, they defeated the British, subsequently earning the right to create the United States of America.

Today we see a similar revolution, a peaceful revolution.  The TEA party people, having endured name-calling and pejoratives lobbed at them by the left and its leaders, are fighting back in the blogosphere, at the voting booth and in the street.  It is not lost on this author that the course of the contest in Massachusetts, where perhaps on Tuesday the balance of power will be changed by the win of Republican Scott Brown, is akin to the "the shot heard 'round the world" of Concord fame.  To be sure this movement is real.  It is not, as Nancy Pelosi and others have suggested, Astroturf.  It is not coordinated by the Republican Party.  Indeed the Republican Party would have preferred to be seen as so smart and capable that it had maneuvered such a movement to do its bidding!  However, that is not the case and one is lead to contrast this movement to Organizing for America, MoveOn.org and other far leftist organizations.  They remind me of the character, Scar in the animated movie Lion King, where when he could no longer have the lionesses hunt and the green grass was gone and left with nothing but barbs, his minions attacked the false leader. 

In the end, the TEA party movement's approach to leadership is different, it is localized, it is effective, it's quick to react and in fact prides itself on the looseness of those local organizations.  And yet it learns the skills necessary to collaborate, to use technology effectively and resources skillfully, to consider and embrace the common view of the movement's first principles of smaller government, fiscal responsibility, less spending and greater liberty.  It is, inherently perhaps, these principles that effectively operationalize that same movement.  I am reminded of the theory of self organizing systems and how appropriate this view of the TEA party movement is in describing the power and effectiveness of people's actions.  The self organizing nature of systems and in particular communities and societies is so evident that the TEA party movement itself, without knowing these basic tenets, has been able to achieve something that the political parties have not yet fully grasped.  It is, in a sense, the proof point of the theory.  And as such, without a central leader or leadership structure, the left cannot strike the movement directly.  They may torment  the individual as they attempt to tear down people like Judson Phillips, who themselves are simple battalion commanders.  But the movement does not need the generals to direct the grand strategy or direct its operations.  Its very nature is local, its very existence is built upon these small cells, organizing, developing and carrying out actions individually but mindful of the first principles of the movement.  A movement like the TEA party has no head.  And where this is no head, there can be no beheading! 

Contrast that to the "hope and change" crowd who place the entirety of their emotional, intellectual and political expectations in the man, Barack Obama.  A man who had never exposed his background, who had hidden with great effort all of the things that he was heretofore except that which he preferred them to know.  And as he lurched to the left, attempting to take the country by force, while at the same time deal with the vagaries of the world in his progressive fashion, he has failed with his constituents.  He has indeed, as the leader of that very same liberal and progressive movement, simply let them down.  And now the "hyenas" have turned and  attacked! 

I believe that this is why the TEA party movement will be sustained.  Over time, it will likely become more sophisticated in tactics and the use of power.  But the groups making up this community,  organizers in the TEA party movement itself and those local leaders who stand before their members, are bound together by love of liberty.  They  ignore the name-calling and pejoratives, they refuse to accept defeat or be defined by the mainstream media's definitions and are therefore undeterred.  They have awakened to the realities of the limitations of their government and the fallacy of reliance upon that government for those unalienable rights ordained by our Creator.  They are the true patriots, that activist minority who are willing to fight in the revolution and they will overcome the "loyalists".  To be sure, those dispirited progressives  will rejoin in an attempt to overcome that very movement once more.  But the passion and the truth of their conservatism will sustain them through the fight.  And for the remainder of those who indeed are watching "Dancing with Stars" during this revolution; they will finally delight in the success of these revolutionaries and in the success of the elections to come.  And most of all, the country will embrace the accountability of those who are given the right to govern by these same patriots.  For the fundamental difference in the TEA party movement above all else is the expectation that the first principles will be embraced by those who would govern from our cities, our states and nationally.  And they will stand as guardians, never to allow our liberties to be trampled again.

You may indeed call out this movement in terms which are derogatory, diminishing,  dismissive; but you cannot win a Revolutionary war by doing so!  Our founders understood the great power of people and the great power of ideas.  The left  subsumes all of its power and all of its efforts from men like Barack Obama and George Soros.  The conservative has placed his faith in God as did our Founders.  And while this may seem quaint to some,  it is indeed something understood by conservatives, in fact most conservatives.  Unalienable truth needs no head and therefore there can be no beheading!  TEA party on!