The Happy Warriors Of The Tea Party

I got involved in politics as a teenager. As part of a high school political science class, I was told that I must volunteer to work for a real political campaign. I did so.

Man, it was fun.

I became a Republican because of Ronald Reagan--he did great things and he defended his principles with a smile. I suppose I warmed to his personal approach as much as his policies.

Politics seems to me to have become more angry over the years. The rhetoric exhorts us to destroy our ideological enemies lest the world head to Hades in the proverbial hand-basket.

Melissa Clouthier writes correctly that my party is currently waiting for a happy warrior like Reagan. But she also argues that the party has found a whole army of happy warriors--the Tea Party.

I agree. Two years ago, when the movement was just getting its start, a ragtag group of folks sympathetic to the Tea Party organized a "protest rally" on April 15 at the post office in my town.

A small group showed up with handmade signs bearing a simple message: taxes are too high and we don't like them. As weary taxpayers drove up to the mailbox to send off another year's return, many of the drivers honked and gave a thumbs up to the "protesters." There was a lot of laughing and cheering and a general sense of camaraderie among ideological peers.

And, man, it was fun.

Enjoying the political process doesn't mean compromising your ideals. It DOES mean taking yourself a bit less seriously.