It seems that tea party members are barking up the wrong tree. It is good they get together (as in Sandpoint and in Spokane recently) and talk to each other about issues real or imagined. But the “government” they denounce is “us.”

(Some of this protest is misinformed. In Spokane, the tea party rally on “tax day” was ostensibly to protest high taxes. Yet most Americans paid lower income taxes in 2009 than in recent years.)

If they want change – if they really don’t want the “government” reining in injustices by big health insurance companies and limiting big financial institutions from causing another economic meltdown, or helping create jobs by a stimulus package – then they need to campaign for candidates who support their views.

In 2006 and 2008, many who disagreed with Bush/Cheney policies – two wars going on simultaneously, a soaring national debt, and an economic freefall – campaigned for candidates of change. The elections of 2006 and 2008 indeed brought this change – with 254 Democrats and 177 Republicans in the House of Representatives and a new president.

If protesters want to repeal those changes, they need to campaign. Talking to themselves won’t do it.

James W. Ramsey

Kootenai, Idaho