Fwd: Why We Honor the Tea Party Movement

New Common Sense Applying First Principles to the Issues of Today At Heritage How do Heritage experts apply First Principles to economic policy? Let's ask William Beach, Heritage's Director of the Center for Data Analysis. What makes America Exceptional? Around the Country Does science give us definitive policy solutions? What is the future of American Free Enterprise? Is ordered liberty possible in Haiti? Check Out Houston Baptist University's The City, a free journal on faith, learning, and the critical issues of the times. Who is America's Ruling Class? Angelo Codevilla, a Senior Fellow at the Claremont Institute, explains its unique origin and influences. Quick Thoughts The Senate Judiciary Committee votes today on the latest nomination to the Supreme Court. Tony Blankley asks who they will choose: Abraham Lincoln or Elena Kagan? America is not in the heyday of the Progressives and the New Dealers. Michael Barone argues that we are a republic of property owners. What We're Reading: Decline and Fall: Europe's Slow Motion Suicide by Bruce S. Thornton. Watch his Heritage lecture.   Reclaiming America: Why We Honor the Tea Party Movement Remember when Conservatism was supposed to be dead, and America was primed for a New New Deal? Well, a funny thing happened on the road to the latest iteration of progressive liberalism—The Tea Party Movement. The Tea Party Movement has been one of the most significant citizen efforts in our times to revive America's founding principles. Across the country, people who had before never been engaged in politics—people like Billie Tucker of The First Coast Tea Party—began to attend rallies with homemade signs begging for fiscal common sense and a return to constitutional government. These individuals were not organized by one person or group. Their motive was not one policy issue or partisan agenda. Instead, it was a deepening commitment and advocacy of the truths of the Declaration of Independence and the basic principles of the United States Constitution. The Tea Party Movement has been much maligned and rarely honored for their activities. Until now. At The Heritage Foundation's 2010 Resource Bank, the Tea Party Movement received the Henry Salvatori Prize for American Citizenship, which is annually given to American citizens who uphold and advance America's principles, embody the virtues of character and mind that animated America's Founders, and exemplify the spirit of independence and entrepreneurial citizenship in the United States. The funding from the Salvatori Prize has been used to help meet the tremendous demand for educational materials from tea party organizations across the country. So far, 265 Tea Party Movement leaders from every state and the District of Columbia have received a collection of First Principles resources, monographs, and books: including copies of We Still Hold These Truths: Rediscovering Our Principles, Reclaiming Our Future, The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, and How to Read the Federalist Papers. An even greater number of groups has received bulk copies of the pocket Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and Heritage fact sheets to distribute at their events. Like their 18th century brethren, today's Tea Party Movement faces an impetuous vortex of government that everywhere extends its sphere of activity. But, as Matthew Spalding reminds us in his address, "Reclaiming America: Why We Honor the Tea Party Movement," there is a key difference between those early patriots and the movement today: "Those early patriots had to establish their independence and to start anew. Our task is different. It is not about fixed bayonets but fixed principles; not about bullets but ballots. Our task is not to overthrow; it is not revolution; it is renewal and restoration of those self-evident truths of constitutional government at the heart of America." Keep Reading about Why Heritage Honors the Tea Party Movement                        Forward this message to a Friend!   Quote of the Week                            Every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country; he should lisp the praise of liberty, and of those illustrious heroes and statesmen, who have wrought a revolution in her favor. ~ Noah Webster, On the Education of Youth in America For more quotes, visit westillholdthesetruths.org About The Heritage Foundation Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institute -- a think tank -- whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. The Heritage Foundation | 214 Massachusetts Ave NE, Washington, DC 20002 | 202.546.4400