This weekend, we stand on the doorstep of the 2012 Republican Convention.

That convention will begin on Monday, come rain or shine…Hurricane or not In Tampa and just like the expected weather, the event itself will be somewhat stormy.

Not every Republican is happy with the event because not every Republican is happy that Mitt Romney will officially become the GOP Nominee.

Various factions of the Tea Party are holding out hope that their choice, somehow, will become the nominee.

Such is the nature of the Tea Party with which I am proud to identify.

In those early months of the Tea Party, liberals tried, in vein, to label us as everything from racists to angry mobs, to ready for the padded rooms at Bellevue.

But, do you remember the first label? The very first one so falsely attributed to the Tea Party?

Astroturf.

It was April 15^th, 2009. TAX DAY. That’s when Nancy Pelosi stepped to a microphone and stated, “This [tea party] initiative is funded by the high end — we call call it astroturf, it’s not really a grassroots movement. It’s astroturf by some of the wealthiest people in America to keep the focus on tax cuts for the rich instead of for the great middle class. “

Astroturf.  NOT a real grassroots movement.

Some of the wealthiest people in America trying to keep the focus on tax cuts for the rich.

Aside from the fact that liberals have a history of identifying what they know is a treat to their socialist ideology and trying to brand it as the opposite of what it really is and escalating their rhetoric to try and swing public opinion against those entities or people, there is something else which flies in the face of Pelosi’s original false label and nothing highlights that mischaracterization like this particular election.

Astroturf.

With Astroturf, each and every single blade is exactly like the next blade. They are all the same color. They are all the same height. One exactly like the next. Astroturf just lays there. It never grows and it never needs the nurturing of water or nutrients.

And perhaps, most importantly, Astroturf has no roots at all.

As Pelosi and the rest of the liberals discovered in 2010, the Tea Party was much, much more than a carpet.

Now, as we stand on that most important doorstep, with the GOP convention set to begin in a matter of hours, the false premise of “Astroturf” has never been more clear.

The Tea Party is composed of so many different types of grass. Kentucky Blue…Fescue…Rye…Bent and Buffalo grasses…There are Bermuda, Bahai, Wheat and Centipede too.

There are ornamental grasses in every size and color.

There are grasses from St. Augustine to  Zoysia.

The Tea Party is a lot like that. People of all different sizes, shapes, colors and backgrounds.

Like the Tea Party movement, all those grasses need nurturing and they will grow. BOY will they grow and what Pelosi and liberals never thought of in those early months while they tried to villainize the Tea Party is that for decades, it has been the liberal manure spreaders who have literally fertilized the grassroots movement.

Thanks to the shear amount of crap spewed forth by liberals, the Tea Party’s grassroots have grown strong and very, very deep.

Anyone with a lawn knows that you can’t just toss down some seeds and walk away. You have to work at it.

In the political lawn, there are the Tea Party grasses, liberal weeds and yes, some well-established GOP crabgrass too but I’d rather have a little crabgrass than a bunch of liberal thistles and eventually, if we work at it, we can remove both.

As Tea Party Patriots, this time around, we’ll deal with the thistles and little by little, election by election, we’ll deal with the crabgrass too.

Like the different kinds of grass, Tea Party Patriots like different things. Some grasses grow better in sun, some in shade. Some do better with more water, some less. Some like rich soil while others like clay. In the Tea Party…Some like more Newt, others…Mitt. Some like Paul while others prefer Palin.

What’s important is that we see the whole lawn rather than just our own little corner of it and work together to create a lawn with fewer and fewer weeds.

As we so rapidly approach the Convention, a turf war is not what we need when it’s over. We need a cohesive lawn that we can begin to manicure over time getting rid of the weeds and replacing the crabgrass with a variety of other grassroots.

Just as we can’t turn a field of kudzu into a well-manicured lawn by throwing out a few handfuls of grass seed and walking away, we can’t expect to get everything we want in one election and then, just walk away either.

Romney/Ryan may not have been the first choice of some when it comes to grass seeds but believe me, they will make a much better lawn that the Obama/Biden Kudzu that eventually chokes out all other growing things and if we try to spray herbicide where our Romney/Ryan is about to grow, nothing will survive but the Kudzu.

One thing though is certain.

We are not, as Pelosi tried to make others believe, Astroturf and we will not be the door mats where liberals wipe their feet any longer.

We will grow, our roots will get deeper and if we can blend our differences to create a political landscape  of different colors and textures now, we can work to toward seamless perfection from election to election thus, restoring the vision of our founders and framers.

Trust me, thanks to the existence of liberals, we’ll never run out of fertilizer.

Craig Andresen

The National Patriot

Weekend Edition 8-25-12