Recently, Governor Rendell of Pennsylvania commented that the Tea Party movement was fizzling out.  His premise was that the emotion rendered in the rallies and protests and town halls was now diminished.  And as the economy improves, he further suggested, the movement would finally dissipate much as did the Ross Perot third party efforts in 1992 and 1996.

Interestingly, Rendell's comparisons and those of other pundits are out of step with the context of the current activism displayed by the Tea Party movement  as well as other groups who have energized the conservative electorate.  George Bush's lack of a use of the Presidential veto and the resulting increase in spending was problematic for most Americans.  However,  it was the election of Barack Obama and his "stomp on the pedal" spending upon taking office that became the Pearl Harbor moment for those same conservatives. 

The reality is that the Tea Party movement is comprised of people who represent the deep convictions of American exceptionalism and is focused on fiscal responsibility, Constitutionally limited government and free markets.  Unlike the "celebrity centric" third party effort of Perot, the entirety of the movement is now animated by what it sees as the government's antithetical actions to these core principles.  Ideas always outlast personality, and the Tea Party movement is a set of principles, internalized by its activists.  In this context, the movement is a reaction to a set of actions by its representatives that its members find objectionable.  And unlike the Perot candidacy, the Tea Party members and the movement are connected through social networking, the internet, chat and through a self organizing approach to leadership that is far more powerful.

Evidence is beginning to develop that suggests the movement is maturing from the visceral rally orientation to an organized effort to influence local, state and national elections.  As an example, the Republican Committee in the state of Utah is now run by a majority of Tea Party members.  In other states, including Tennessee, more Tea Party members are running for these committee chairs at the local and state level.  Essentially, this approach is allowing for the Tea Party to take over the levers of power of the Republican infrastructure rather than create a third party.  Ultimately, this will begin to take place within the Democratic  representative infrastructure as well.  However, most Tea Party activists recognize that you don't try to create a new structure, you simple do a "hostile" takeover vis-a-vis the seating of people in these positions.

Recently the National Tea Party Federation was formed, which now has over seventy organizations aligned  with nearly 500,000 members represented by their leadership.  The National Tea Party Federation is focused on messaging and collaborating across its membership to push back on narratives that disparage the Tea Party movement as well as act to consolidate and synthesize ideas that the Federation will promote nationally, such as healthcare, Cap & Trade, budgeting, etc.  Collaborating with the new media and the mainstream media, the NTPF has already launched an effort to call out the Congressional Black Caucus on Congressman Carson's allegations that racial epithets were shouted at the CBC during the D.C. "Code Red" rally.  The federation is still waiting for a response.

The conjunction of a more ordered approach to media within the movement and the recognition that change takes place at the ballot box are forces that will sustain the movement beyond the early emotional energy that ignited that same movement.  And in the end, the Tea Party "brand" will become a moniker to align like minded Americans, forty percent of which are independents and Democrats and fifty-five percent which are women.  With such political demographics, we can begin to see that the aforementioned core principles, focusing on spending and liberty, are values that will not ebb. 

The Tea Party movement has  motivated and energized people to move off the couch and into the streets and our country's capitols in a way that is unprecedented in recent history.  The people of this nation, who are largely represented by and in the movement, are unwilling to go back to sleep allowing a government to overreach and diminish the future for their children and grandchildren.  The Tea Party movement is about the zeal for liberty and freedom that our Founder's represented in the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution.  Recalling  the close of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on September 18, 1787, a Mrs. Powel anxiously awaited the results.  As Benjamin Franklin emerged from the long task now finished,  she asked him directly: "Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" "A republic if you can keep it" responded Franklin."  The Tea Party movement is committed to keeping that republic!