On April 15, 2009, I was one of four organizers of the inaugural Tea Party in Des Moines, Iowa. Charlie, Doug, Rochelle, and I began our work prior to that, along with hundreds of other organizers across the country, to protest a socialist government that had been installed in these United States.

In February of 2009, Newsweek had its cover of a red hand shaking a blue hand, headlining We are All Socialists Now, and it infuriated me. That's not what America is. Socialism leads to poverty. My children would inherit an America that was worse off than what I inherited from my parents. I was angry, and I was resolved to fight it.

4 years earlier, I was a vocal and written supporter of the Pork Busters movement, an effort to get rid of pork barrel spending, as it was known. Government debt leads to taxation. If you want less taxation, then you spend less, which also reduces the risk of inflation. I'd helped with Republican campaigns using my IT skills at first, and then with my marketing skills. It's been a fight for me spanning two decades, correcting this wayward government.

So, on that day in April 2009, we met. 3,500 Iowans on the capitol lawn before the gold dome itself. If you click the image, you'll see it larger. It's a collage of six images as I stood on the capitol steps that day.

I was the anchor speaker, and as I tussled with the Iowa Republican Senators who tried to hijack our day, and watched the media and other politicians mill about curiously as to what this was, I knew that our signs of protest weren't going to change much. I knew it was going to be a prolonged fight. I said as much in my brief speech that day, discussing "What's Next" to the crowd assembled.

And then we took our picture in front of the Declaration of Independence sign we'd created for the event and where over 2,500 people had scrawled their John Hancock. We were excited.


Afterward, the mostly losses and occasional wins piled up. Obamacare is still with us. Debt is higher than ever. We got one term of President Trump, only to have the deep state tackle him and steal his second-term election from him and us.

During the time of Joe Biden, people were jailed for their political beliefs. I personally know some visited by the FBI. Social media went from being social media to being censured media.

But when in battle, the loser is the one who quits first. We didn't quit. We persisted. President Trump was soundly re-elected and we're winning.

Yesterday, a good friend of mine texted me in the evening.

"CUTESY TIME IS OVER."

What? I replied...

In short order, I learned that Dan Bongino is now the deputy director of the FBI.

The Tea Party is about to have the last laugh. America is on a path toward restoration. We're getting rid of pork, and fraud, and waste, and abuse. The fight will continue and it will be rocky, but yes - elections work and when we persist, we can win.

We organize, or we die. Our momentum builds and we organize more and more each day.

This fight has been worth all these years because my family - my children and grandchildren - are worth it and I pray that before I die, I will hand them a stronger America than what I inherited. I owe them that, and that's why I have fought and why I continue to fight.

Let's go.