Letter to the Editor: All about the tea party

Dear Mr. Haywood: I’d just like to address what it is that you don’t know, but think you know about the Tea Party.

You seem to think that the Tea Party is some group of radical, right wing, militant anarchists with undue influence on the electoral process. The Clark Fork Valley Tea Party is a local affiliate of the Tea Party Patriots you mention.

Have you accessed the web site of the Clark Fork Valley Tea Party to see what we stand for? Have you any idea of the limits placed by law on 501(c) 4 groups like ours? When did standing up for American values and the US Constitution and its Bill of Rights become a radical concept?

First, the Clark Fork Valley Tea Party is a group of predominantly “over 50” year olds, many retirees, that formed a 501(c)4, non-partisan organization with the expressed purpose of educating the electorate on various issues that pertain to Constitutionally limited government, fiscal responsibility (also known as maintaining a balanced budget), freedom from federal over-reach in our daily lives and usurpation of States Rights as enumerated in the US Constitution. Hardly what most would call “radical”.

What parts of the Constitution do you find offensive or as you would say “radical”? Freedom of speech, assembly, religion, and the right to petition the government? The right to keep and bear arms? The right of the people and their states to govern themselves in day to day matters? The right to privacy in your personal matters and effects? Freedom from warrantless search and seizure? The right to a fair, impartial trial by a jury of your peers? The ability of citizens to conduct business and their lives without undue government regulation and interference? The right to free and fair elections of our representatives? Freedom from undue taxation? Freedom of the press? Please, pray tell me, which of these concepts is radical or foreign to America and our founding documents? It would seem to me that the Tea Party is indeed at the middle of America in our principles, neither right nor left in our leanings. Please do not label us as anything but Americans, thank you!

Are we just an arm of the Republican Party? We are non-partisan. We are as I’ve said middle of the road Americans, perhaps more independent than anything. Check our web site, if you will, at clarkforkvalleyteaparty.org and you might learn something factual about us.

You infer that Mr. Cuvillier and Mr. Caldwell are right wing radical Tea Party members. Sorry, you are wrong again. Mr. Wells and Mr. French? Not members either! None of these folks are members of our group and please remember, don’t label us as radical unless you find our beliefs abhorrent to the Constitution.

You seem to feel that we have some kind of undue influence on elections and for that we should somehow be censored. Oops, sorry, you’re wrong again. As a 501(c)4, we are already censored in that we are not allowed make any expenditures to promote or defeat candidates for public office. Check out the IRS rules and learn something.

I cannot speak one way or the other regarding Mark French’s candidacy for public office, but would you deny him the right to do so for whatever his reason may be? I hope not for that would truly be a radical and un-American concept.

So once again, I find myself spending time refuting misconceptions about the Tea Party. It is rather tiresome and since we have a fine website, redundant. I’d rather simply suggest that you educate yourself before making alarmist public rants based on fallacies. Regards, Charles Woolley, Chair, Clark Fork Valley Tea Party

Charles Woolley,

Plains