By: Leette Eaton- White:

I get asked all the time: Why are you a conservative? Why are you a republican? How can you like those policies? Don’t you care about poor people? So on and so forth. If you can think of the question I have probably been asked it. So here is the short answer. I believe innocent life should be defended at all costs and the guilty should be punished. I believe this country has the right to defend itself preemptively, and I believe for the most part we make an effort to do so as honorably as possible without compromising our safety, and while that may not always meet the standards of international laws it meets the standard of the Constitution and that’s golden by me. I believe the money we earn is ours, and only what is absolutely needed should go into taxes for social programs that we know work or are incentive based. I believe charity should be a product of free will, and its best when it is a product of free will going where the individual intends it, doing what they designate, and going to those they believe deserve it. This is the core of conservatism. It is good. And I choose to live it.

Now onto tea. I always loved tea. It has all the joy of a hot drink without the calories of hot cocoa. But it is TEA that most Americans like. All the joy of a fiscally responsible party with ever so slight social conservative leanings without the pomp, circumstance and bad rep of the Republican Party. The idea of a new political party is just tantalizing… almost too good to pass up. According to a recent Rasmussen poll amongst likely voters Americans tend to agree with the unofficial TEA party. The fact is the republican party is losing steam and even while the democratic party seems insistent on digging its own grave by pushing through expensive bill after expensive bill while Americans scream “NO!”, the Republicans still can’t seem to really push past the bad reputation they have built up over the years. This is a combination of bad political leadership, no clarity on a conservative message, and politicians not living up the hype. And I think it’s that last point that is the biggest problem.

We need to have politicians that run in the parties their true values represent. And if a politician claims they are holding the values of one party and half the time votes along with the opposing party they do NOT accurately represent party values. The core of Republicanism is conservatism. It always has been. But the politicians running on the Republican party tickets have been moving left for years, yes I am talking about John McCain… who has been moving left longer than I have been alive. Now I am not saying he has no place in politics… I am saying he is the face of a bigger problem. People who are not honest. Now granted no politician is honest. Even the best of them are forced to compromise somewhere. But there are some basic things that we the people should demand and one of them is platform honesty and political bravery.

Which is… run on the beliefs you actually have and if we vote for you then vote on the issues the way you said you would… or you are fired. It’s pretty simple and yet politicians and voters alike become complacent thinking doing the same thing over and over again will get a different result. That is a tell tale sign of mental illness. We can’t expect our country to improve if we keep handing over power to the same people messing it up time and time again. And I am proud to be in a movement dedicated to changing that mantra. The TEA Party Movement is of course grassroots and highly controversial.

Now lots of people including one of my college professors, who seemed to think the TEA party is Religious Right Wing Republican machine manufactured to appeal to the everyday man but protect the establishment. This is false. And if there is any proof if that it is in the New York State 23rd district elections. There the Republican, Dede Scozzafava who was a liberal in every sense of the word was backed by the Republican Party and the Republican establishment.

Very few Republican leaders, including former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, supported the conservative third party and TEA party approved candidate, Doug Hoffman. The money, the commercials, went to Dede. Doug had to struggle. But with help from the people and an outcry from everyday average Americans he managed to stay on the ballot and Dede dropped out of the race. This in my opinion is proof the republican establishment is severely out of touch.

The TEA party, unofficial though it may be, gets the concerns of the American people because it is run by the American people. I fell in love with the Republican Party a long time ago. Its values are what made me love it. And the establishment doesn’t seem to hold stock with those values anymore; they compromised those values in a foolhardy attempt to be liked, which did not work. I still love the values, I no longer love the party, not the way I used to. However, if the TEA party were to make things official I would happily notify the Board of Elections that I change my mind and would like to make it official with a new party and a new start with the same good old values I held before.

About the Author: Leette Eaton- White is a native New Yorker and a full time student studying Forensic Psychology. She has been a Conservative Republican since 2002, finding her Republican roots at the age of 15. HipHopRepublican opened the gateway for her to start her political activism in urban areas and across the net.Contact – Leette4hhr@gmail.com