2012: It is happening now.

One of the amazing things about the Tea Party movement is that it has brought people into the political realm that have never been involved in politics before. 

For most, an election only appears on their radar a few weeks prior to actual election day, when primaries and elections start to dominate the news cycle.  The truth is, many of the elections, particularly the Presidential election, are being decided now. 

The Tea Party movement is only two years old, yet it has already had an incredible impact.  In 2010, many candidates embraced this movement.  Some were successful, some not.  Now, the first Tea Party candidate has emerged, Jamie Radtke of Virginia is running for the United States Senate.

She may be the first candidate to come out of this movement, but she certainly should not be the last.  That is the message of this movement.  Not only is it not business as usual, but now the people are going to step in and take the place of the professional political class.

Do you remember the old military recruiting poster that says, “Uncle Sam needs you”?  Well, Uncle Sam does need you.  Not for military service but for political service.    We need Tea Party candidates from across the country to step up and run.

I received an email from a friend of mine the other day, saying that a certain RINO Senator was vulnerable and he showed a poll reflecting that.  I sent an email back asking who was running against the RINO.  My friend said, “no one,” to which I answered, “Then he is not vulnerable.”

We will never change this country if we do not replace the people who are causing the problems.  

This is where you are needed.

We need good candidates to run for office.  We need you for the United States Senate and for the Congress.  But we need more than that.  We need good candidates at the State level as well.  We need candidates for local offices too.  We need candidates in the PTA and on the school board.

How can you continue to complain about bad leadership if you are not willing to step up and offer yourself as a replacement?

Not everyone is cut out to be a political candidate.  Being a candidate takes a special set of skills and in some instances, a willingness to have your private life dissected under a microscope.  However, candidates do not do the job themselves.   There is a whole team of people who are needed to help get candidates elected.  These include campaign managers, finance directors, media specialists and social media experts.  Even if you are not willing to run yourself, you have valuable skills you can offer a campaign. 

These campaigns are getting started now and candidates for office in 2012, who do not get involved in the next couple of months, will not be serious candidates.  And those candidates will need help.

In 2009, in Nashville, Lonnie Spivak attended the Tea Party rallies and became motivated.  He had never been especially politically active before and certainly never run for office. But he ran in the Republican primary to try and replace a very liberal Democrat.  Howard Luartes of Nashville also saw what was going on.  He volunteered.  He had never managed a political campaign before or even been involved.  Yet he stepped up and became a crucial member of not one, but two campaigns.  

Both Howard and Lonnie are TPN members and if you ask them, they will tell you what an incredible experience it was.

2012 is going to be the year that will define politics for the next generation.  Where will you be?   Will you be watching history being made on your flat screen TV or will you be a part of history being made?  Will you help make the difference?

The choice is yours.