“Who are these ‘Tea Partiers?’  We want to bring them into the Party.”  

I’ve heard that same question asked by Republican leadership about four separate times now.  And every time I hear it, I smile.  When we get down to the brass tacks, I think it’s safe to say that the Republican leaders wouldn’t know a Tea Partier if she was sitting right next to them.  The leadership might find it useful to recognize, however, that to court this elusive elephant, one only needs to know what makes it tick.  The answer is simple.  Return to the core values of the Conservative Movement and the Tea Partiers will be yours.  And the idea that Republicans need to extend a hand of friendship to bring Tea Partiers into the fold completely misses the point.  We are already in the Republican Party and we're about to take it over.

These days, whenever I hear members of the party talking about the Tea Party Movement with this utter lack of understanding, the following poem comes pops my mind:

It was six men of Indostan, to learning much inclined,
who went to see the elephant (Though all of them were blind),
that each by observation, might satisfy his mind.

The first approached the elephant, and, happening to fall,
against his broad and sturdy side, at once began to bawl:
"God bless me! but the elephant, is nothing but a wall!"

The second feeling of the tusk, cried: "Ho! what have we here,
so very round and smooth and sharp? To me tis mighty clear,
this wonder of an elephant, is very like a spear!"

The third approached the animal, and, happening to take,
the squirming trunk within his hands, "I see," quoth he,
the elephant is very like a snake!"

The fourth reached out his eager hand, and felt about the knee:
"What most this wondrous beast is like, is mighty plain," quoth he;
"Tis clear enough the elephant is very like a tree."

The fifth, who chanced to touch the ear, said; "E'en the blindest man
can tell what this resembles most; deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an elephant, is very like a fan!"

The sixth no sooner had begun, about the beast to grope,
than, seizing on the swinging tail, that fell within his scope,
"I see," quothe he, "the elephant is very like a rope!"

And so these men of Indostan, disputed loud and long,
each in his own opinion, exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right, and all were in the wrong!

So, oft in theologic wars, the disputants, I ween,
tread on in utter ignorance, of what each other mean,
and prate about the elephant, not one of them has seen!

John Godfrey Saxe (1816 - 1887)