Ross Mackenzie: "How do you know when you are part of a revolutionary movement?"

In today's Richmond Times-Dispatch, retired opinion editor Ross Mackenzie asked the question, "How do you know when you are part of a revolutionary movement?" He goes on to respond:

A possible partial answer: When they -- critics, opponents, the nameless they who seem to rule -- start trying to define you, as opposed to letting you define yourself.

They -- leftists, Democrats, mainline pressies -- have sought variously to define Tea Partiers as racist, fake (faux grass-roots, "Astro-Turf"), extremist (Nancy Pelosi), irrelevant, and prone to violence (could Bill Clinton have had Tea Partiers in mind when he recently recalled the horror wrought by Timothy McVeigh?).

Mr. Mackenzie added that none of the above were seen at the Tax Day Richmond Tea Party:

The several thousand attendees defined themselves broadly as middle-class and definitely not "privileged." They presented not as violent, not as extremists, and not as racists. They were polite and calm. The rally had an almost Fourth of July sense to it.

With the mainstream media and lefty liberals trying to define the tea party movement, it is obvious most have never been to one of their rallies.

The March on Washington that took place September 12, 2009, was an example of hundreds of thousands of conservatives -- the most accurate count is 1.2 million -- protesting the policies of the government ... but not as militants. They were hard-working, responsible Americans concerned about the direction of their country and, after years of apathy, were finally standing up and speaking out and exercising their First Amendment rights.

Feeling as if they had elected representatives who were not listening, tea party patriots decided to represent themselves ... in person ... and that's exactly what they have done on more than one trip to DC as well as in localities around the country. Overreaching government programs, takeover of private industry, tax-and-spend, government health care reform ... all have alarmed everyday Americans who do not preach hate, as Mr. Mackenzie explains:

... nearly every local Tea Party embraces five basic principles: fiscal responsibility, personal responsibility, limited government, the rule of law, and national sovereignty. Of course, many Tea Party members are social conservatives, but economic issues remain the unifying principle."

Long simmering, their fury has been fired by stimulus bills and ObamaCare, and now is building toward November's congressional elections that may prove the boiling point. And this is what gives the screaming meemies to them -- the theys who see Tea Partiers as potentially genuine revolutionaries potentially capable of ending their reign, and so seek to describe them in malignant terms they do not deserve.

Are "tea party patriots" -- who encompases conservatives from many groups -- part of a revolutionary movement? Going by Mr. Mackenzie's definition, I would say, "Yes."

Read his entire article.