Jim Hightower

Would you have tea with me?

I'm talking to you authentic tea bag folks – those who are not corporate-funded, Republican party spin-offs, and those whose minds are not nailed shut by a simplistic, anti-government, laissez-fairyland ideology. Let's talk. You tea partiers who are fed up with Washington and the leaders of both political parties – hey, count me in! And the target of our anger doesn't stop there, does it? Politicians are the face of our problems, but we all know that behind those faces is the real power that's stomping on us: Wall Street banksters, corporate downsizers, the 13,000 corporate lobbyists swarming our government, and the political consultants and media yakkers who exist only to segment and divide us.

Let's talk about it all – the whole corrupt insider system of moneyed elites who're systematically destroying the middle class and perverting the political process to shut out the voices of America's workaday majority.

Let's discuss this Big Theft, but most importantly, let's figure out what to do about it. Whether you call yourself conservative or progressive, what can we do together to decentralize and democratize our country's economic and political power, putting America back on its historic mission of trying to build a nation of, by, and for the people?

Another organization has suddenly sprouted across the country that might help get us together. It's called the Coffee Party – not meant to counter the Tea Party, but to engage it positively. Check it out at coffeepartyusa.com.

Who knows – maybe we can all merge into a Beer Party! Beverage preferences aside, the important thing is for ordinary grassroots Americans to reach across false divides, see what we have in common – and start acting like the bosses of our government, our society, and our mutual destiny. That's what it really means to be American.