Many of our young have been mesmerized by the promise of this “new and improved” ideology with the promise of all things free with a heavy dose of class and race warfare mixed in for good measure. They have been taught that it is exciting to get even with the achievers and, to not have to pay for things, is a nice added bonus. It is In with the new, out with the old. Life is good!

   Well, socialism is not new, it is old. Its variations have had many names through the ages, but there is one constant that remains the same. It is the enriching of central authority with all its minions at the expense of individual freedoms and rights. It is the creation of a society that condemns the achievers, disregards the innovators and hard workers, and with it, the hope for a vibrant and prosperous future for your nation. All that is individual freedom is necessarily eroded as the choke hold of socialism expands.

   When I was 13, I lived in Guantanamo, Cuba. For a couple of years, I spent almost every day in a small little community known as the Cuban Village. It is there where I heard the stories of terrible horrors of children being taken from the arms of their families in the dark of night. The stories of kindly priests and people of faith disappearing, churches being burnt to the ground, property being seized, and children being weaponized against their own families. The torture, killings, and the loss of freedom with the rise of the socialist police state were told with passion and regret by these old Cubans. I raptly listened as they spoke of freedom fighters rising to fight the socialist threat with everything they had, but ultimately, losing in a final battle on a lonely beach known as the Bay of Pigs. They were outgunned, out manned and were poor. But the main thing that in the end sealed their fate, was that the people did not respond to the words of freedom; the call to liberty was not embraced by popular support and without the people’s support, freedom would die. And on that enclosed beach in the Bay of Pigs, the light of liberty was put out forever. These old men were the survivors of that last fateful fight and it is their stories that have made me into a fierce defender of our freedoms and a sworn enemy of socialism.

   In a fundamental way, it is our Tea Party movement that is the natural enemy to the rising specter of socialism. It is our mandate and our mission to counter any and all threats to our freedoms, our Constitution and our Republic. It is natural and right that we would be the vanguard against such a threat. It was just such a threat that gave rise to our great and historic freedom movement a decade ago. After all, it was the socialist threat that an Obama Presidency threatened to impose on our nation that gave rise to our movement. Now, in 2019, the terrible seeds planted by Obama have taken root and begun to blossom. It is time that we rid our nation of this rotten fruit. It is time we finish the job we began a decade ago.

With Enduring Appreciation & Gratitude,

Nelson Velez
Chairman
Virginia Tea Party