Has everyone taken leave of their senses? The president of the Teamsters Union, James Hoffa Jr., shouted, “Take these (expletives) out,” at a Labor Day rally while Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, attacked the Tea Party by saying, “As far as I’m concerned, the Tea Party can go straight to hell.”
Vice President Joe Biden called Tea Party members “terrorists,” and Jesse Jackson said the Tea Party supports the “slave amendment.”
Where is all of this vitriol coming from? Do ladies and gentlemen talk this way today? Do we, as a nation, no longer understand how to treat others with courtesy? More importantly, what is behind these hateful statements?
How does Hoffa expect his teamsters to earn a living if America does not manufacture products that need to be moved across the country in trucks? And I’d like to ask Biden which terrorist attack the Tea Party committed. Has anyone told Maxine Waters that the unemployment among African Americans is at a 27-year high under the current administration? And would Jesse Jackson be satisfied if he didn’t make every issue an anti-black issue?
As an American citizen, do you want the government to grow to the point that politicians tell you how to live your life? Do you want your freedoms won as the blood of our young soldiers is taken away? Is freeloading your way of life? Is our 224-year-old Constitution a worthless piece of paper? Do you want the federal government to tell Georgia that its state laws don’t mean anything?   
The Tea Party is not a party at all. It’s actually everyday citizens — like you and me — who want our government to honor the Constitution and not take our liberties away. The Tea Party wants the core principles of our founders to be followed by our elected officials. They are called a party because millions of Americans have come together to hold our government accountable for its actions.
The original tea party tossed British cargo, which happened to be tea, overboard into the Boston Harbor to protest a government that controlled its citizens without their citizens’ input. That is exactly what is happening today.
The health-care act controls every aspect of our health without any say from us or our doctors. The government tells companies like Boeing where they can locate and who they can hire. Recently, federal marshals raided the Gibson Guitar Corporation over allegations the company was trafficking in illegally obtained wood, yet the government leaves our borders open to drug cartels. Our government is stealing our money and giving it away to special-interest groups.
The states no longer have a say in what laws they pass. Just look what the Justice Department is doing to Arizona — a state that is trying to protect itself from drug cartels.
The Tea Party consists of Republicans, Libertarians and Democrats who know the government cannot solve all of society’s problems. The group is made up of conservatives, liberals, seniors, students, blacks, whites and people of many other colors.
If our citizens cannot speak up and tell the government how “we the people” want to be represented, we no longer are a democracy. We are a dictatorship.

Calderone is a conservative who lives in Midway. He is a professional salesperson and for 30 years has written articles for trade publications in various fields.