Ten Tea Party Rules for Radicals

By Robert Villegas
Copyright 2009 Robert Villegas

Every government program (from Cap and Trade, Obamacare, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and more) is nothing more than a re-distribution program intended to take your money and re-distribute it to people who would not otherwise be successful. These programs are money laundering schemes that are intended to make corrupt politicians, professional parasites (community organizers) and corrupt businesspeople rich using your money. These schemes are intended to steal everything you have earned so people from George Soros on down have the funds necessary to make your children into slaves. They will use “soft” arguments about your “duty” to care for others, they will try to make you feel pity about the hard lives being lived by others and the need for action to fix an emergency that they have created; but make no mistake about it; there will be nothing soft about the dictatorship that is soon to come. I’m certain that the hammer and sickle is not the change you thought you could believe in.

These may appear to be harsh words; the left and the media are doing everything they can to obfuscate and deny that total re-distribution is the goal of the administration; but make no mistake about it, our government has no intention of caring for you. All they want is to convince you that it is ok to let them use your money for a supposed good that will never come. If they get their way, you will soon be poor beyond your ability to imagine. They are working to create a crisis that will provide the pretext for a massive attack on the Constitution.

Today, we are witnessing the victory of the progressive movement; they think it is finally their day; the champagne has already been poured, they have you where they want you. They think they are smarter than you because the education they have given you has made it difficult for you to figure out what they have done. They are also certain that their strategy cannot fail. They think they can advance their goals incrementally, get you to accept their basic premises and push until they have made a complete takeover.

You have to change their minds. We have to make them stop. Your choice is either to accept progressive ideologies of sacrifice and government theft or engage in a struggle to regain your freedoms. If we are to regain those freedoms, we must become radicals unlike any before. We must become Atlases willing to shrug off the parasites.

Below is my humble attempt to develop real Rules for Radicals. These are my suggestions on how we can fight these savages and beat them off. Perhaps we can recover the original intent of our Constitution and live in a civilized society again.

1. Always argue from your basic premise – your individual rights - They have no right to take your money and give it to someone else.
- Every government entitlement program is a form of re-distribution (theft) of your money.
- No one voted this government into dictatorial power – we still expect them to honor the same Constitution that every other leader in this country has been sworn to honor, no matter how much they hate it and want to overturn it.
- You have a right to earn a living and be happy.
- They have no right to take away your property.
- They have no right to regulate your economic actions.
- They have no right to destroy your freedom of speech or any other freedoms protected under the Constitution.
- Proper government is supposed to protect each and every citizen from the violation of his rights by the government.
- Capitalism is the implementation of individual rights economically.
- Violate individual rights and you destroy the ability of people to have free and peaceful commerce.
- Any government that violates individual rights is immoral and must be stopped or changed.
- Man survives by means of his mind. He must use reason in order to survive. Using reason is an individual decision. No one has a right to decide for a man what he should do when his reason prescribes something else. Destroy freedom of action and you destroy society. You cannot have a moral society if you interfere with man’s right to be free.

2. Get them to accept your basic premise
- Do they believe in individual rights? – insist that they respect them - then show them how individual rights should be protected in any given issue.
- It is your politician’s job to ensure that the government does not violate your rights – it is not their job to lie to you about why or how the government should use your money to benefit anyone else.
- Do they protect the Constitution?
- Do they understand the Bill of Rights?

3. Never accept their basic premise- Their basic premise is that government has the right and responsibility to make you sacrifice for the sake of others. Whenever you challenge them, they will tell you that you are evil, selfish, in the pay of corporations, etc. They want you to feel guilty for living a moral life. They want to make you feel immoral if you do not go along with their wishes. Refuse to give in to this idea.
- It is not proper that you be forced by government to provide your neighbor’s results.
- They do not have the right to force you to take care of your neighbor.
- “Morality ends where a gun begins.” – Ayn Rand
- It is cruel to force a man against his will.
- You have a right to decide who gets your money. That is a private decision.
- Government is not entitled to care for any citizen with another citizen’s money.
- It is immoral to make one man the slave of another. Re-distribution enslaves the productive person to the non-productive.
- Production does not take place in a vacuum…someone has to decide to work hard and do well. What gives the government the right to invalidate that decision by means of force?
- Any government that decides to pick economic winners and losers is a fascist state.
- “Social Justice” is a euphemism for re-distribution and actually means expropriation and force against productive citizens. There is no “justice” with social justice.

4. Always look them in the eyeThis method takes the moral high ground and puts them in their place. It communicates the certainty you have in your position.

5. Always defuse their argument – stay in reality
A correct argument is based in reality and in consequences. Every form of re-distribution has unintended consequences that can often be identified by careful thought. Every government intrusion is justified by lies and distortions. Learn how to recognize them.
- Read the writings of the Founding Fathers as well as good free market thinkers like Henry Hazlitt, Ludwig von Mises, Andrew Bernstein and Ayn Rand to name a few.
- Government coercion takes place whenever the government tries to prescribe for people what they should do.
- Government coercion is force. Force always replaces the individual’s mind with the government’s decision. This is immoral.
- Remember, good economic argument exposes the bad consequences that stem from the economic distortions brought about by government intervening in private decisions. The moral argument is where you take a stand for your right to act in your own self-interest without interference from the government.
- All economic problems are caused by government interference in the market place…not by private decisions made by people trying to do the right things for themselves.
- When the government wants to “fix” an economic problem, always look for what they did to create the problem and then tell them to stop doing that. That will fix the problem.
- Leave men free and they will solve their own problems.

6. Use the boycott
Don’t give them your money, don’t give them your vote, don’t give them an inch because they intend to rule and they don’t care what you think. It is either freedom or slavery…every statist politician must be disenfranchised and excised from the fabric of our society.

7. Don’t let them get away with logical fallacies.
- Ad hominem – attacking the man rather than arguing the issue – also called ridicule or personal attack.
- Changing the subject – avoiding the issue or answering a question not asked.
- Equivocation – using the same word with more than one meaning in order to confuse the opponent
- Moral outrage – pretending that someone has said something morally reprehensible. Sometimes call selective outrage or moralizing.
- Walking stick – threat of force.
- Circular reasoning – using the point you are trying to prove as part of your argument.
- Appeal to pity – engendering guilt by pointing to the suffering of others – this is not the issue. Your rights are the issue.
- Non sequiter – the conclusion does not follow from the argument
- Soliciting agreement – asking you if you accept their premise which is wrong – such as “You agree that it is right for the government to provide for the common good, don’t you?” or “You agree that something has to be done about the poor, don’t you?”

8. Know the Constitution and understand the reasons for the Bill of Rights. Especially the principle that a government should be prohibited from violating the rights enumerated in the Constitution. Progressives have struggled to invalidate the Constitution – put them back on point.

9. Know the types of governments.
- Limited government – a government limited to protecting individual and property rights. It is a government that bans force except in the areas of fighting crime and fraud against otherwise free citizens.
- Statism - a political system where the state makes all decisions and assumes the right to control all aspects of life for the individual.
- Fascist state – a government of private property where the government selectively tells people how to manage their property.
- Socialist state – a government that owns the major industries and decides production quotas for the economy.
- Communist state – a government that owns all property and makes all economic decisions.
- Welfare state – a government that is based on re-distribution of income from the producers to the non-producers – it requires a coercive state.
- Coercive state – a government that takes upon itself the right to make whatever coercive decisions it deems proper.
- Mixed economy – an economy consisting of some regulation and some freedom – sometimes also called a fascist state.
- Oligarchy – a government ruled by a group or family of property owners with the ability to create monopolies that restrict competition in favor of the ruling elite.
- Republic – a government ruled by the people but forbidden to engage in any coercive activities. The government can only function in protection of rights with most officials elected and given only limited powers - sometimes called a limited government. A Republic selects people to leadership who are presumably the most deserving and judicious.
- Democracy – a government where majority decision rules in all areas including capital punishment for any reason. Coercive governments often use the cover of a “democracy” to engage in persecution of citizens who dissent.
- Theocracy - a nation where the government is a religion.
- Monarchy - a government run by a hereditary monarch or king.
- Anarchy - a situation where there is no government.
- Plutocracy - a government where the wealthy rule - similar to an oligarchy.
- Tribal society - a society where a tribe rules all members.
- Collectivism - a political ideology where the collective makes all decisions and the individual is required to do the will of the collective.
- Capitalism - an economic system that is based on individual rights and individual autonomy.
- Totalitarianism - a political system where the rule of the government is total.
- Tyranny - a political system where the government controls with brutal disregard for the rights of citizens.
- Individualism - an ideology that holds the individual as the sovereign agent.
- Nihilism - an ideology that holds there is no value for man to pursue.

10. Understand that the enemies of freedom require you to accept the premise that all profit is theft. They ridicule the profit motive as a basic assumption. So their attacks on businesspeople, businesses, the workings of the market place, capitalism, capital accumulation, interest earnings and other forms of profit are an effort to defeat the idea that you have a right to your earnings. They want to justify their taking your money for their own uses.

Statists assert without proof that there is no such thing as an individual decision, that all decisions and economic results are collective in nature and belong to the collective. You must stand up to the evil of this and fight for the good inherent in making money. Fight for your decision to use your mind in order to survive and assert your right to be as successful as possible, to live the most affluent life possible and to be free of moralizing meddlers who claim the right to your money. If your mind created it, it is yours and you should keep it. It takes intelligence, ingenuity, planning and hard work to create profits. Profits are a sign of your ability to survive. They are created, not stolen from anyone. They are good and you should be proud of your ability to live well. Never let them tell you that profits should be a cause of guilt.

A final point: Look around you. Democrats and Republicans, the infrastructure of our society, energy plants, roads, automobiles, central heating, air conditioning, processed foods, computers, cell phones, iPods and all the other conveniences of our lives are proof that freedom works. They add years of comfort to our lives(Imagine having to ride a horse from Indianapolis to Washington DC). These things were created by free people using their minds. Our genius comes from our freedoms; the very freedoms protected by the Constitution. These are great arguments for capitalism; and they reveal, in tangible terms, the value of defending individual rights. And they show what a truly moral society can accomplish.

In spite of what President Obama tells you, the free market does work in wonderful ways. No coercive state has ever been able to create such affluence. A coercive state like that being proposed by our President eats up, first, the savings of a society, and rather than letting smart people invest those savings in making society better, it merely spends the money in non-productive ways. This kills the genius of our society and sets us on a path toward decline. The government can never make better judgments about how to spend your money than you. Do we really want to destroy our wonderful society for the sake of a false idea such as "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need"? Don't we already know that this idea destroys all motivation for the poor and the rich? What kind of leader would suggest such an idiotic idea?

Hopefully, these “rules” are a start to getting our freedoms back. We've got to stop this absurd theft of our childrens' futures. I’d welcome any suggestions.