HIGHLANDS TODAY WROTE THIS ARTICLE ABOUT THE TEAPARTY MOVEMENT Take some tie to readi it, digest it and tell them what you think. You might also want to show up at the republican or democrat meetings and let their leadership know your opinion as well. 

SEBRING - One is a retired teacher who has an alpaca farm. Another was a paralegal. One used to work in banks and another was a homemaker.

Until recently they didn't know each other but all shared a growing concern about the way the country was being run.

Then Congress approved a series of stimulus packages to jump start the economy and rescue Wall Street, failing banks and Big Auto.

Mandatory government-run health insurance started looking as a possibility and Washington, D.C. kept dithering on stronger laws against illegal immigration.

Today, Richard Fankhauser, Mary Bengtson, Phyllis Moloney and Gladys Nealon are a few local taxpayers and citizens fighting what they say is a people's war against big government, unbridled spending in Washington and the onslaught of socialism in the United States.

There's also David Foxworth, Paul Moloney, Lin DiCesare, Bill Youngman and Bill Bridges. The nine local conservatives belong to a nationwide protest movement that first came to the forefront as a "Tea Party" protest on Tax Day and now has a local Highlands County chapter.

"We are concerned that the government is trying to become bigger," DiCesare explained. "We don't want socialism in our country. We are not fear mongerers. We see what is going on and we have been the silent majority for so long."

The reference to Tea Party is both obvious and not. Two hundred and thirty six years ago, a group of colonists dumped tea in the Boston Harbor to protest the British Tea Act. That sparked the American Revolution. Today, these Tea Party activists are relying on the same parallel.

The acronym also stands for Taxed Enough Already. These Taxed Enough Already folks, who claim to straddle the political fence, maintain they are not shadow Republicans fighting a stealth war against President Obama, but aggrieved citizens unhappy with the status quo over the last few years and dismayed by most politicians.

Fankhauser used to be a Republican and now is a registered Independent. DiCesare is a Democrat and a Native American.

"The media would like to paint us as the Republican Party," Youngman said. "We are not. We are nonpartisan."

"We are not a red and blue party but a red, white and blue party," Phyllis Moloney said.

Susan Macmanus, distinguished professor of public administration and political science at the University of South Florida, agreed somewhat.

An anti-incumbent movement

The Tea Party is an anti-incumbent movement that espouses conservative values, she said.

"A lot of it is a grassroots movement," she said. "It's a conservative movement. It's an ideological movement rather than a nonpartisan one."

"The two issues they are against taxation and big government," she added.

Organizing rallies have been one way the Tea Party folks have tried to mobilize and espouse their ideas. Writing letters to politicians is another.

Cheyenne Morin, co-chairperson of the local chapter of the Democratic Party, attended a recent Tea Party rally on the Sebring Circle.

Morin somewhat understands their ideological arguments at a philosophical level, only their take on things relies on an oversimplified view of the world, he said.

"Things have to be viewed more from a humanistic view of the world," he said. Like how the American economy does not operate on its own but is deeply intertwined with the global economy which the stimulus packages helped bolster, and how denying health care insurance to illegal immigrants will only put the tab back on taxpayers when these patients go to emergency rooms for treatment, he said.

"They talk about socialism and rationing," he said. "It's a lot of smoke and mirrors."

The only rationing of health care that is happening, he elaborated, is for the 47 million American residents who don't have any health insurance.

"The government is not going to take over health care," Morin added. Just like a health insurance company does, the government will match health insurance policies with subscribers.

"The insurance company does not offer you a product; it just moves money around."

Eric Veltri, a Sebring resident who is a self-professed socialist, also has problems with Tea Party claims, namely their concerns about big spending.

"If they truly worry about big spending, they should have an issue with the trillions of dollars going to the defense budget," he said. "They are right wingers who don't have the facts."

In response, The Tea Party maintains that tort reform is the best way to deal with the health care crisis, not mandatory health insurance that is not guaranteed anywhere in the constitution.

They also advocate for health insurance plans with low payments and the ability to buy policies across state lines.

National security is big on their agenda and something that should be immune to cost considerations, they say.

When asked where they would spend a trillion dollars if given some, many resoundingly said national security.

"Freedom does not come cheap," Phyllis Moloney explained.

While the Tea Party members support the War on Freedom, coming as it did in response to 9/11, they said they are unhappy that it is not being fought to win.

"We are fighting a politically correct war," one said. "You can't win this war."

A GOP view

If Morin was there at the rally, so was Gil Santavenere, vice chairman of the local Republican Party.

He wasn't there just out of curiosity but took the chance to distribute campaign material for Marco Rubio, the former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives who is running against Gov. Charlie Crist for a U.S. Senate seat.

Those who keep tabs on state politics know that Rubio is considered more conservative than the moderate Crist, but Rubio apparently is not considered conservative enough by some Tea Party members, he said.

"We are not sponsors of the Tea Party," Santavenere maintained. "We are not in complete accord."

But there are issues that worry both the Republicans and the Tea Party, things like big spending and the fear that communists may infiltrate mainstream politics, Santavenere said.

Is the Tea Party just a thing of fashion or will it stand the test of time or merge with the Republican Party in the long run?

That depends on who you ask.

Santavenere said it was important that the Tea Party remained independent of the Republican Party to maintain its legitimacy and not get dubbed as another tool of the Republicans.

Morin compared the anti-tax movement to the anti-war movement that cropped up during the Bush presidency.

"It was just there," he said. "It was not overwhelmingly powerful or strong."

Even though the Tea Party comprises mainly conservative Republicans, according to Morin, he doesn't think it will get a foothold in the Republican Party over time as the Religious Right did.

Macmanus said it was hard to say if the protest group would fizzle out or endure.

"Movements may simmer down or flare back again," she said.

And whatever the Tea Party's claims evoked in people, it is democracy in action, she said.

"It's just an example of likeminded citizens getting together and protesting," she said. "It's as American as apple pie."

Five pledges of the Tea Party
1. I believe in a balanced budget and therefore will vote for a freeze in government spending until that goal is realized.

2. I believe government should not increase the financial burden on its citizenry during difficult economic times, therefore I will oppose all tax increases until our economy has rebounded.

3. I believe more than four decades of U.S. dependence on foreign oil is a travesty, therefore I will support an energy plan that calls for immediately increasing usage of all domestic resources including nuclear energy, natural gas and coal as necessary.

4. I believe in the sovereignty and security of our country and therefore will support measures to close our borders except for designated immigration points so we will know who is entering and why. I will vehemently oppose any measure giving another country, the United Nations, or any other entity power over U.S citizens.

5. I believe the United States of America is the greatest country on earth and therefore will not apologize for policies or actions which have served to free more and feed more people around the world than any other nation on the planet.

Source: http://thehighlandsteaparty.com/

Pallavi Agarwal can be reached at 863-386-5831 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it