A Proposal, from Ronald Reagan

William R Collier Jr.

As seeming “rifts” appear in Tea Party groups, the question is simple: what do these groups stand for?

What is needed is a “commonality”, a phrase I borrow from Juanita Bergeson: it is a set of believes and values that is commonly held and that is the basis of shared identity and unity of purpose.

The zeitgeist, the spirit of the times, is revealed in the things that tend to emerge as top news items, although not always, and the spirit of the times is telling us that the reasons why Tea Party groups are struggling with one another is because there is a lack of “commonality”.

Here are some prominent news articles that focus on rifts and disunity within the Tea Party Movement, and below is a PROPOSAL for Commonality.

FoxNews focuses on Tea Party leaders who are urging “unity” even as these same leaders are declaiming about how others groups are not doing the right thing.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/06/tea-partiers-urge-unity-rifts-movement/

Here is the heart of the problem, a question: should the Tea Party Movement should operate WITHIN the GOP or would doing so would be a mistake and allow the GOP to hijack the GOP?

The question is really not well directed, unless the Tea Party Movement is defined by the TACTICS individual groups takes. If the Tea Party Movement is a movement, and not an organization, with many independent groups then the tactics taken by one group are not really then issue: this only becomes an issue if somebody is trying to create a superstructure over ALL Tea Party Groups.

This arguing over the way things are done, in this case whether by using a for profit model or non-profit, is, again, showing a tendency towards form over substance. The USA Today article, here, http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-01-31-tea-part-future_N.htm , reveals that Tea Party leaders, even WITHIN the “Tea Party Nation” that held the Convention that was headlined by Sarah Palin, disagree over the WAY things are organized.

So, what does the Tea Party Movement stand for?

I propose that of we have a “Commonality” we will be able to work together, even if different groups take different approaches, whether they use a for profit model, after all we embrace the Free Market, or a non-profit model, whether they work within or outside of a Political Party, or whether they emphasize this over that.

Way back in December of 2008 we at The Reagan 2.0 Revolution researched the core elements of the Reagan Revolution,  and using Reagan’s own words and the work he focused on, we discovered “Reagan’s 10 Commandments for Prosperity.”

We have re-posted the original article here: http://reagan2petition.ning.com/profiles/blogs/reagans-ten-commandments-for

I believe that, when all is said and done, all other differences aside, that ANY group that can ENDORSE Reagan’s 10 Commandments for Prosperity is a group that represents the SPIRIT of the Tea Party Movement.

I will simply ask you this: WILL YOU or your group, or your campaign, ENDORSE Reagan’s 10 Commandments WITHIN your specific goals or agenda items or platform?

If you will ENDORSE these by SIGNING our PLEDGE to support these 10 Commandments, I will happily LIST YOU in the list of groups, individuals, or candidates that endorse these Team Commandments so that everybody knows where you stand, so that everybody knows that you stand for what Reagan stood for.

Reagan’s Ten Commandments For Prosperity

If you will be free and prosperous, follow these Ten Commandments For Prosperity in the letter and spirit, do not look to the left nor to the right, consult not thine emotions or thy media, nor be persuaded to adopt the ways of those who have failed to produce prosperity with freedom for ALL who practice those ways.

1. Thou Shalt Have Low Tax rates

High taxes are not good for anybody, neither those who are taxed, nor those who think they will benefit from those taxes, because they take wealth and resources, which is power, and they concentrate them into the hands of those who are taking the taxes, which ultimately makes those people more wealthy and powerful, reduces the wealth of those who have earned it, and has no positive effect on those who are lacking or who are poor.
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When I sign this bill into law, America will have the lowest marginal tax rates and the most modern tax code among major industrialized nations, one that encourages risk-taking, innovation, and that old American spirit of enterprise. We’ll be refueling the American growth economy with the kind of incentives that helped create record new businesses and nearly 11.7 million jobs in just 46 months. Remarks on Signing the Tax Reform Act of 1986, October 22, 1986

2. Thou Shalt Have A Strong dollar.
Inflation is almost entirely a product of the printing press, the more money the government prints, and the weaker the value of each individual dollar, the less each dollar buys for Americans, it is only by pursuing a strong dollar that is stable and that is not at the whim of a few individuals who can decide, almost without constraint, what interest rates should be or how many dollars to put into circulation, that we can protect ourselves from fiscal ruin.
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A strong dollar is one of our greatest weapons against inflation. Conservative Political Action Conference March 2, 1984

3. Thou Shalt Have Free trade.
Free Trade IS FAIR TRADE, where both sides agree to open, fair, and competitive trade allowing the markets to determine the value of goods, promoting connections between nations and cultures, and spreading the principles of freedom in the economic realm even where political freedom is lacking. For Trade to be Free, it must of course be fair, but for wealth to increase for ALL trade must be free!
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Our trade policy rests firmly on the foundation of free and open markets. I recognize … the inescapable conclusion that all of history has taught: The freer the flow of world trade, the stronger the tides of human progress and peace among nations. Remarks at a White House Meeting With Business and Trade Leaders Se…

4. Thou Shalt Not Over-Regulate the People
Whatever good you think a “regulation” will do, ALL regulation transfers the decision-making authority away from the individual, the community, private entities, and the individual states to the entity that is making the regulation. If you think you can “regulate” away all problems and all risks, or use regulation to make things “fair” or “just”, you are mistaken- you will only end up increase the power of a few over the many and the result will be gigantism without any of the benefits the regulation was meant to deliver.
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The economic realities of the marketplace have done more to bring down the price of oil than all those years of frenetic government regulating. Presidential Radio Address – 26 February 1983

5. Thou Shalt Have Only A Limited Government.
The notion that you can justify giving something like 30% of ALL wealth that the People produce, over 30% of the LAND in this nation, and almost 50% or so of ALL decision-making powers to 9 supreme court justices, a president, and 535 legislators without seeing serious abuses of power at the expense of the rights, the property, and the welfare of the People is a Utopian fantasy. Those who pursue gigantism in government can use whatever high-sounding terminology they LIKE, but in the end, they are either foolishly ignorant of how dangerous giving such powers to a FEW people is OR they actually WANT that power.
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It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government. Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981

6. Thou Shalt Limit Government Spending.
Every dime spent by government IS A TAX on the People, and in the end, that tax is going to be paid one way or another. For every dollar spent by government, there are fewer dollars available to YOU: only economic activity produces wealth, government spending reduces the amount of available wealth and reduces the overall wealth of the People!
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We’ve tried spending our way to prosperity for more than four decades and it hasn’t worked. Radio Address, October 18, 1977

7. Thou Shalt Have Market Pricing.
It is true that there must always be restraint in favor of ethics, fairness, and even the common good, but the best judge of what should be produced and how much it should cost must be the People, as individuals who invest, who own businesses, who work, who sell, and who buy good and services. When this basic freedom is removed it delivers only inefficiency, more gigantism, and nothing good for the People, be they well off or poor or in between.
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Why don’t we impose wage and price controls? Because they don’t work and never have… They distort the natural market forces, create shortages and end up with black markets supplying the people’s needs at bootleg prices. Letter to Captain Wayne Speigel, 1975

8. Thou Shalt Have Privatization.
The “middling sort”, as Benjamin Franklin described himself and his friends, the artisans, shop keepers, and entrepreneurs who started with nothing, gave MUCH, and produced wealth for themselves and MANY OTHERS around them, were the “agents of transformation” in 1776 and they have always been the “prime mover” of our nation. The only groups who ever benefit from nationalization of any kind and by ANY name, are the people who get rich off government favors and the people who run the government- nobody else, which includes over 95% of the population, benefits.
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Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States. May 1988 Speech at Moscow University

9. Thou Shalt Have A Strong Defense.
Regardless of the myth-makers on your TV and in your newspapers, the Cold War was won because the United States of America was STRONG and the Soviets could not keep up with our advances in technology nor in raw capabilities, or firepower. It was the people manning SOSUS who tracked Soviet subs, the people who funded and manned all those “non-wars”, and the men and women of the US Military who proved to be too great an obstacle to Soviet ambitions who ended the Cold War, and those of us who were THERE will always be proud of this and will not simply let those who all the while told us we would fail try to take away from this glorious result of the Reagan revolution!
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Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong. Republican National Convention, August 23, 1984

10. Thou Shalt Reform Welfare
We could even refer to this commandment as “Thou Shalt Not Promote Dependency”. Why does the Bible itself say that those who do not work should not eat? Meeting our own needs, being independent of others, being self-reliant is not just a way to live well, it is an experience that is in and of itself enjoyable and fulfilling like few other experiences. Simply handing people money, after the government keeps its share to feed itself and line its pockets, is a terrible way to treat people and it tells them “we don’t think you have what it takes to even survive on your own.”
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I’m talking about real and lasting emancipation, because the success of welfare should be judged by how many of its recipients become independent of welfare. State of the Union Address, February 4, 1986
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DO YOU AGREE with Reagan and would YOU support a candidate who made Reagan’s 10 Commandments For Prosperity part of their official platform? Are you a candidate who would like to endorse Reagan’s 10 Commandments for Prosperity? Let us know!

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