Why some people don't get the tea party

Recently the North American editor of the BBC reviewed my new book, "The Tea Party Manifesto: A Vision for an American Rebirth" – sadly, completely missing the point.

"In a text filled with quotes from the Bible, he warns the U.S. is becoming a fascist country, and fulminates against socialism, homosexuality, abortion and, a bit weirdly, turning Native Americans into heroes," writes Mark Mardell. "It is a fairly familiar mixture: a heated, almost panicky, focus on evils that stalk the land without anything like solid policy prescriptions describing what 'taking America back' (from the voters?) might mean."

One of the major points of the book is that the tea-party movement does not need to create a laundry list of policy positions upon which it stands. Nor would it be advisable. What I offer, instead, is the suggestion of a sweeping mission statement under which every tea-party activist I have ever met would rally. In fact, it is a mission statement so broad and undeniably American in its origin that it would be difficult even for those who are wary of the tea-party movement to resist.

That vision is captured and articulated in the Declaration of Independence. I don't know how a smart guy like the North American editor of the BBC could have missed that. Maybe it brings up bad memories for the British.

The appeal of a mission statement is simple: It defines an entity, whether it's a company, a nonprofit organization or a political movement in broad terms. It purposely avoids specifics, which, of course, is where division starts to creep in.

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Some have attempted to define the tea-party movement with an exclusively limited economic agenda. I argue that is the wrong approach for several reasons:

• It has been tried before and failed miserably. Remember those who sought to build a "Big Tent" Republican Party by emphasizing only fiscal conservatism? It's what nearly destroyed the GOP following Ronald Reagan's two terms as president. Ironically, it is precisely why we need the tea-party movement so desperately today.

• There has never been in the history of the world a successful freedom movement based on a materialistic agenda. A materialistic view was what led to the chaos of the French Revolution. Ever since, it has been the domain of totalitarian socialists.

• The American founders had a different view: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." That's the non-materialist, non-utilitarian worldview. It's the basis of the founders' vision of a self-governing people under God and a strictly limited constitutional government.

What I am prescribing is that the tea-party movement adopt not the agenda of politicians and 21st century activists, but the vision that resulted in the creation of America. I suggest we could do no better today – especially since we still all call ourselves Americans.

This vision allows tea-party activists to engage in "taking America back" from those who have betrayed the vision of the rule of law and the will of the people – politicians, unaccountable judges and mind-bending cultural forces.

We don't need more "policy prescriptions." We need to guard ourselves from the intrusions of government. We must demand that the rule of law and will of the people be respected. And we need to make ourselves worthy of living in a society in which we govern ourselves.

Mardell does get one thing right, saying, "The point of interest is that he says that it is time for the Tea Party to connect with its Christian roots."

Yes, reconnecting with their Judeo-Christian moral roots – the roots shared with their founders.

It's a necessity, they warned us. For only a moral people are even capable of the kind of self-government they envisioned 234 years ago.