 obama made me a political activist  the career politicians in lansing and washington especially the progressive democrats don t understand the tea party movement they attribute the movement to a small group of right wing extremists who are comprised of uneducated gun toting bible reading neanderthals the truth is these people are your neighbors your coworkers your military veterans your business owners and all of the other regular people you see and interact with every day most of these people don t have a history of political participation they were just attempting to live their lives from daytoday by working paying their bills and taking care of their families most of them hadn t seen the slow erosion of their constitutional rights until the progressive democrats and president obama were swept into office in 2008 the democrats felt the 2008 elections gave them a mandate to recreate our country in their version of progressive european socialism they had arrived their time had finally come they had successfully taken over the traditional democratic party now they could implement their program of hope change as a result the silent majority in this country was awakened when they realized they were the frog in the boiling water their country had been hijacked and was being remade into a socialist country overnight every day it was a new program or policy universal health care cap trade card check closing gitmo repeal of don t ask don t tell the fairness doctrine a new czar every day real id rule by fiat with presidential executive orders and on and on the progressives saw that the idealized utopia they had been working towards for 100 years was within their grasp they couldn t wait it was time for the last big push to remake our country into their country a funny thing happened on the way to the new united socialist states of america we the people realized what was happening we became energized and we were no longer politically dormant and complacent we realized we are the majority according to the constitution this country is ruled by the majority we are a majority comprised of moderates conservatives republicans independents libertarians disenchanted democrats people of every ethnicity the young the old the veterans and many others we are patriots and we are energized we are the tea party we owe no allegiance to any person or party we love our country and we demand that we have fiscally responsible honest moral men and women representing us in lansing and washington people who will respect our constitutional republic and uphold our constitution as it was intended to be and who will represent us submitted for publication to the owosso independent lainsgburg independent perry independent st johns dewitt independent on march 1 2010 published in the owosso independent on march 7 2010  