The recent rash of announcements that prominent Tennessee Democrats are retiring from Congress or ending their campaigns are the fruits of the labor of countless Tennesseans committed to the causes of less government, lower taxes, more freedom and a strong America.

From the days of the founding of the modern Republican Party in Tennessee by names such as Dunn, Brock and Baker, stalwarts have worked for years to strengthen the message of fiscal responsibility and for a government that is accountable to our citizens.

In 2000, Tennesseans shook our state capitol with the first rumblings of what we now call the Tea Party movement, rallying against our state adopting an income tax. I was honored to be in the trenches with you and then-State Senator Marsha Blackburn. In Hamilton County, our Republican Party stood up to the politicians and passed a local resolution against the tax.

Thanks those of you with whom I worked traveling the state in 2006 for TN’s constitutional amendment defining marriage in our state as recognized between one man and one woman. Your efforts led to an affirmation of this belief as supported by 80% of Tennesseans.

Thank you, Conservative Stalwarts, who joined me in trumpeting the reckless policies of then-candidate Obama when it was not fashionable or politically correct to draw attention to his brief, but radical record. Now, you are vindicated as the “buyers’ remorse” is evident among those who didn’t heed the warning.

We can now look back with pride on the Tennessee Republican Party running against the national trend and electing majorities to the Legislature for the first time in 140 years. While it was my name on the door as Chairman of the party, it was your hard work and the work of those who preceded us in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s in building the party that made 2008 possible and stands on the verge of making Republicans the dominant party in Tennessee.

I was proud to stand beside those of you at the very first Tea Party rally in Nashville calling for a halt in spending and a warning against passage of the “emergency stimulus” that has driven us further in debt and has, again, proven ineffective.

These, and countless other examples, of your tireless work have created the environment for an opportunity that declares, “Enough. We want more than promises and a record of words and talking points. We want true, proven conservatives in leadership.”

I offer my deepest thanks for not giving up over the many years. Make no mistake; we have more work to do. Our nation faces serious problems that will require us to work just as hard to solve. But I am honored to know our community and state are leading the nation in working to restore a Constitutional government by electing those with principled and proven records, while removing those with empty words and no matching deeds.

Robin Smith
Hixson
robin@robinfortennessee.com