It must be our use of bulk tea instead of bags. I learned today that there are 600 registered convention attendees at the Tea Party national gathering in Tennessee. Sarah Palin is getting a big chunk of their money for her speaking engagement, if I understand things right.

So, we have more people in our party. Or, more memberships. See the front page for the most recent count.

It seems to me that we have an opportunity to be "the" tea party by undertaking the following:

1. Form county coordination councils in as many counties, parishes, and townships as possible. There are about 3,100 of these units of government. Government at that level is critical: county clerks register voters, administer elections, count the votes, county assessor collectors assess property values and collect taxes, county sheriffs are the highest law enforcement authority in each county and may evict home owners for failure to pay taxes.

By having county coordination groups in each county where we have at least one member, we can begin the important work of reducing the size and scope of government at that level. That may mean finding good candidates for county level offices, endorsing them if partisan politics applies, and running our own candidates if appropriate.

2. Form a long term program consisting of specific areas where cuts to government spending are obvious. These include foreign policy (reduce foreign interference and aid to foreign governments); military policy (bring the troops home, end WW2, Korea, etc.); monetary policy (eliminate the government's issue power over money, go to a free market system); education (end federal department of education); selective service registration (end it); energy (end the federal energy department); and many others. There are thousands of government agencies and millions of government bureau-rats. Let us be the party that identifies things that need to be cut. NASA delenda est.

3. Promoting our party's features: anyone may join, at any age; anyone may participate in our online convention; anyone may run for any office in our party; we have no national staff and no budget so no corruption should be possible. We are also the oldest Boston Tea Party in the country, founded 2006.

If you agree with our current chairman, Douglass Gaking, that party politics has a place in reducing the size and scope of government, in expanding understanding of the nature of government, and in bringing more freedom to more people, then add your suggestions for how to make this party the national tea party.

And let other tea parties be careful with their porcelain!