Tea Party Members Break Reagan’s 11th Commandment to Ensure Constitutional Candidates

In what normally would be a quiet primary season in red Congressional districts across the country, a few Republican candidates find themselves under a microscope when they expected to coast to an easy primary win. While some claim it’s a violation of Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment, tea party conservatives sin, throwing out the 11th commandment, to ensure the most Constitutional solid candidate gets the party nomination.

This is apparent in Missouri’s Seventh Congressional District. A few weeks ago, it looked like republican candidate Billy Long would coast through the primaries. Long had a significant lead in fund raising as well as having the most recognized name in the race. However, a chance meeting last fall led to one tea party member waging a campaign against the leading Republican candidate in the race.

Clay Bowler, the blogger at Bungalow Bill’s Conservative Wisdom watched candidate Long approach closer to his place in line prior to Claire McCaskill’s town hall meeting in Springfield, Missouri. A small-business man went up to Long and asked him why he couldn’t get a small business loan after the banks got the TARP money to free up the credit markets. He wanted to know what Long was going to do to make sure he was going to get a loan for his small business.

Long began to pander to the man, explaining what he would do. When he was done, Bowler asked him what in the Constitution gave him the authority to tell this man that he would help him. Long answered there was nothing. Bowler fired back, so why are you telling this man this. Candidate Long walked off.

After the meeting, Bowler began to realize that candidate Long had a long record in the local media of contradicting the platform put on his page, so he decided to challenge Long using the power of the Internet. He started the Billy Long is Wrong Web site. The site looks at the candidate under an intensified scope and examines the concerns he has of the candidate. Since the site was introduced, momentum has shifted to the more conservative Constitutionalist candidates.

This is the reality of the tea party movement, which is tired of more of the same from candidates that claim they are conservative republicans. Many tea party activists are asking what they can do to raise awareness for candidates that care about the Constitution and the limits of government, and more are turning to the Web to combat moderate candidates who don’t want to live within the limits of the Constitution. You can’t claim you are against the bailouts and then tell constituents that you will help them get their fair share. You can’t claim you are against the stimulus and then look to see how many millions and billions you can bring to your district.

Left Coast Rebel is another tea party blog that is working to promote Constitutional conservatives while weeding out RINO candidates. LCR is examining districts around the United States putting up red flags for Republican candidates that are running with a big ‘R’ platform.

LCR has been vocal in expressing support for little ‘r’ republicans that want to enforce the limits of the federal government. Normally, he wouldn’t get involved in other districts, but he has determined too much is on the line this election not to be more active in the election.
So conservatives and Republicans are breaking Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment. It’s not too hard to imagine that if Reagan was here today, he would probably be speaking up against what has taken place in the Republican party these days.

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