Tea Party missing from Tampa

The Republican Party has gone through meaningful change since being thrown out of Washington in 2008.  Left to wander in the political desert for four years, it reemerged in Tampa last week with a new face.  To viewers of the 3-day GOP convention, the party today looks refreshingly more diverse.  

The prominent role of women, African Americans, and Latinos proved to the country that conservative principles are not only appealing to old rich white men, but are universal principles embraced by American women, and citizens of different races, religions, and socio-economic backgrounds – something that we Republicans have known to be true for some time, and glad that this knowledge is finally becoming mainstream.

But while the convention may have successfully showcased a positively new look and feel of the GOP, it sadly failed to highlight and embrace one of the biggest changes to take place in the party in recent memory.  

The rise of the Tea Party that resulted from those four years of introspection was glaringly missing from the week and should serve as red flag to voters hoping to replace the Obama administration with a better alternative.

The Tea Party managed to successfully take over Congress in 2010, sweeping away many of the old guard that had strayed from responsible conservative governing and replacing them with a younger and eager group of leaders more committed to the principles that were supposed to define the Republican Party. 

With this movement, which was the most important political revolution in recent years, came leadership that was actually willing to take on the tough issues facing the country.  This is a group that wanted to honestly tackle the deficit, greatly reduce government, finally roll back social spending, and bring about much-needed reforms to entitlements – all issues that the country agrees need to be addressed but issues that both parties have ignored for years including the current administration.

But this refreshing message of courage and political boldness was all but ignored during the Romney-led convention.  Where was the call for reducing government across all areas including defense?  Ron Paul was not allowed to speak.  Where was the commitment to entitlement reform?  Ryan mentioned it but Romney’s speech was completely void of any specific or even broad plans and policies to address this issue.  Where was talk of responsible global leadership?  Instead we got alarming calls from Condoleezza Rice and John McCain to return to aggressive (and costly) American imperialism.  Where was the strong defense of eroding American civil liberties?  Rand Paul wasn’t in primetime.

Instead of presenting an evolved Republican Party with a platform committed to taking on the tough issues, learning from past mistakes, and offering substantial alternatives to the Obama presidency, we got an eerily similar platform to the old Republican establishment.  The same establishment that grew government by epic proportions while irresponsibly cutting taxes and increasing the deficit.  The same party that waged two multi-trillion wars with no plans to pay for them.  The same group that stripped away important individual liberties with legislation in the Patriot Act.

Most of the country is not happy with the way Obama is governing and is pessimistic of the direction he is taking the country.  But is it ready to replace this government with a repeat of George W. Bush administration?

Disappointingly, the most exciting revolution in modern day American politics had no banner at the festivities.  Romney decided to side with the old guard instead of embracing the new generation of true conservatives embodied in the Tea Party.  He blew his opportunity to take the party in a new direction that would bring the party back to its roots, an opportunity to run on a promising platform instead of just running against Obama’s. 

The Republican Establishment put this country on a self-destructing trajectory once before.  I doubt the country will ask them to do it again.