While it may be a bit premature, there is a general acknowledgment amongst political pundits that the November elections this year are going demonstrate a powerful and perhaps never seen political shift in American politics. The Tea Party movement is the major reason this is happening, leading to the curious question mused by Chip Hanlon at Red County today http://www.redcounty.com/tea-partiers-beware-perpetual-jihad/36843?taxonomy=26 entitled “Tea Partiers: Beware Perpetual Jihad” asking “what are you going to do when elected officials start doing what you ask of them?

Well the answer is simple, continually hold their feet to the fire!

Why would that be necessary you ask when they are people of principle who are doing what we in the limited government movement want? Because, sooner or later the process of compromising on issues will drag them to the center and ultimately lead them to make well meaning, but very bad decisions that will lead to tyranny and less freedom.

I have observed this process over a number of years that I served in the House of Reps here in Oregon and subsequently as an outside observer. The only way to stop the slow migration into the cesspool of socialism is if tea partiers and groups like AFP buck up our newly elected officials when they get weak in the knees by doing what we do best, protesting loud and clear.

There will be plenty of other forces that will be tugging at their heartstrings (school kids begging for more funding, handicapped in wheelchairs ect..), or the public employee unions trying to intimidate them and the sweet siren song of lobbyist’s big government arguments. Sooner or later, you will succumb and become part of the problem. I know, because I have experienced it myself and if the limited government movement had been as powerful then as it is now, I would not have taken some votes I regret and wish I could do over. Only after I had left the unreal world of Salem did I begin to see clearly how I had allowed the process to influence my thinking.

So the answer to the question is this:

The Tea Party grassroots movement will need to continually hold our elected officials accountable to make decisions that are Constitutional and limited in scope. If that means protesting, then so be it.

Come to think of it, if history is any guide, then perpetual “Protest Jihad” may be the only thing that saves our great Republic.