TEA Party: America at critical juncture

America totters on the brink between a bright or dim future as November’s presidential election nears and the time for action is now. More so the time for God is now. Such was the message all three speakers imparted during Tuesday night’s Texas Patriots Tea Party meeting in Cleburne.

Several hundred attended the event to hear U.S. Rep. Roger Williams, R-Austin, state Sen. Brian Birdwell, R- Granbury, and state Rep. Matt Krause, R-Fort Worth.

“This country is better because of the Tea Party,” Williams said while adding that grave challenges lie ahead.

Joking that while his district is diverse, everyone in it has gun ownership in common. Williams described himself as a Christian conservative, pro-life, grass roots taxpayer who relies on the Bible, the Constitution and the people of his district when making the tough decisions.

Politicians, Williams said, make decisions either to save their careers or to save America. He prefers the latter.

“During my time in office I’ve not made one decision I regret,” Williams said. “The Bible and the Constitution will tell you how to do the job.”

Quoting Winston Churchill, Williams said every man and woman experiences a moment when they are tapped on the shoulder and asked to do something great.

This is that moment for America at large, Williams said. This is our generation’s Valley Forge.

“You hear every cycle this is the most important election of our lives,” Williams said. “But let me tell you something. This is the most important election of our lifetime. It really is.”

Taxes are too high, health care too poor, America remains too energy independent and the military is under attack, Williams said.

“Are we going to maintain the strongest military in the world?” Williams asked. “Or are we going to continue seeing it hollowed out like [President Obama] has done? Right now our enemies don’t fear us and our friends don’t trust us.”

Williams said the high school drop out rate shocks him.

“These kids don’t understand the American dream because right now all they’re seeing is the American scheme from this administration,” Williams said. “Don’t think Obama is not a socialist because he’s shoving it down our throats.

“So it’s time to decide whether we’re going  to be a country of socialism or entrepreneurship, sheep or shepherds, contenders or pretenders, victims or patriots because that’s where we are.”

More important, Williams said, is that the next president will likely get to pick several Supreme Court nominations.

“Hillary says Obama or Eric Holder would be good choices for the Supreme Court,” Williams said. “Game over I say.”

Birdwell joked that it’s hard to follow Williams because Williams is more positive.

“As positive as I am about this great nation with its warts, problems and the challenges we face, I’m always looking at the enemy’s most dangerous course of action,” Birdwell said. “Because if you’re prepared and plan [for that], when you get it, it’s a piece of cake. I like eating cake.”

Birdwell chided FBI Director James Comey for laying out the case why Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton should be charged with criminal misconduct before deciding not to recommend prosecution.

“Ladies and gentlemen we’re not in the parking lot of a banana republic,” Birdwell said. “We’re in a banana republic when the federal government and chief executive of this nation responsible for faithfully executing the laws fails to do so because of last name or privilege. We have a very serious problem that is deadly to the people of this nation.”

Quoting former President James Garfield, Birdwell warned that what people tolerate today they will endorse tomorrow.

Quoting Thomas Jefferson, Birdwell said that the liberties America enjoys are a gift from God.

Birdwell turned attention to the open carry and campus carry bills he played a role in during the last legislative session and his dealings with the media during that time.

“Many members of the media while I was fighting for campus carry stood aghast and did not understand that somehow magically when you cross 15th Street from the Bob Bullock Museum, where you can carry, into the University of Texas campus that you do not magically somehow walk from a fallen, sinful world into the Candy Land board game where everything is hot fudge and Neapolitan. I wish everything were kittens and rainbows. It’s not. People have a nasty habit of getting dead in gun-free zones.”

The Second Amendment, Birdwell said, is less about guns and more about the right of self preservation.

Birdwell voiced support for the Convention of States whereby states can alter the U.S. Constitution.

“I believe structurally, even with good men like [Roger Williams], the Congress of the United States, while it has the doctrinal authority to do so, I believe it is structurally and organizationally incapable of giving us the reforms necessary to get the federal government back under control,” Birdwell said.

Ultimately, the answers rest with a higher power, Birdwell concluded.

“Our political, our cultural problems are not going to be solved in this room,” Birdwell said. “If you’re a pastor in this room tonight those problems are going to be solved in your church and your church getting out on the battlefield called the state of Texas.

“Because once we separate our religious liberty, our cultural problems, our right to self preservation and our freedom of conscious there are folks in this nation that are ready to use the power of government to compel you to violate your conscious and your religion in the name of what they prefer.

“We are in deadly serious times and only standing before God, taking a knee, begging his forgiveness and asking him to pour out his spirit upon us is the solution to our political problems.”

Krause discussed America’s Godly heritage and what he sees as a need to return to that principle. Krause also discussed American exceptionalism and the reason for America’s success.

“American exceptionalism is kind of a dirty term right now, seen as arrogant or cocky,” Krause said. “But American exceptionalism doesn’t stand for the fact that we as Americans are better than the other people of the world. American exceptionalism means that the ideas, the principles, the foundation of America is superior to all those others that have ever come before us. It’s the idea that we the people are governed by laws that come from God not man.

“Our founding fathers built our country on a foundation of Judeo/Christian principles. I would say that’s the reason we’ve been so successful.”

Charges that many, or at least some, of the founding fathers were atheistic, agnostic, deist and/or otherwise little interested in religion ring untrue, Krause argued buttressing his claim with numerous quotes namechecking God, Jesus Christ and Christianity from numerous founding fathers and subsequent U.S. presidents. Several from Benjamin Franklin and Patrick Henry figured to be among the least religious of the bunch.

Politics can be a nasty, depressing affair Krause admitted, while at the same time urging all to remain involved.

“The last thing you should do is close in and feel you should not get involved,” Krause said. “Because that kind of thinking has led to a lot of ruin in our country. But the opposite thinking has led to a lot of greatness in our country.”