Politics & Government

Joe Walsh at TEACON2011: 'America Is In the Midst of a Revolution'

Republican Congressman Joe Walsh spoke at the lunch session of the Tea Party's Midwest Convention in Schaumburg.

Republican Congressman Joe Walsh compared his decision to join politics to a farmer leaving his family to take up arms in the Revolutionary War.

“Financially I was a mess,” he said during his lunch speech at the Tea Party's Midwest convention. “I had lost a home a couple of years ago. Life was a mess. I had no business running for Congress two years ago. But I felt called to do my part.”

Walsh told the crowd to embrace the candidates who understood that revolution in the 2012 election.

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“If any candidate treats what’s going to happen in 2012 as just an election, do not vote for them. We are in the midst of a revolution to take this country back,” he said to loud applause.

Walsh then said he was going to say something to shock the crowd.

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“Grab something,” he said. “Thank God President Obama got elected. The American people woke up.”

 Walsh added “too many Democrats” and “too many Republicans” have been in office too long, and voters responded to Obama’s presidency by voting in Tea Party members to Congress.

“You sent — is this on film? — terrorists like me to Congress,” Walsh said. “You sent us there. We didn’t get there on our own. They sent us there to be bold.”

Walsh said President Barack Obama is “destroying America.”

“Each and every day he is in the White House, he is destroying what makes this country great,” Walsh said. “This president doesn’t understand what makes this country tick. If he understood what makes this country tick, he wouldn’t demand that government takes care of all of us. He’d understand that we can and do take care of ourselves.”

During the speech, Walsh recalled a speech he gave to McHenry County College.

“My name is Joe Walsh,” he said he told the crowd. “I feel like I am losing my country. I’m angry at both political parties for putting us on a path that will bankrupt future generations. And away I went.”

Walsh said he goes to bed every night telling his wife, “This job is almost killing me.

“And it is almost killing me,” he said. “But I truly believe we’re going through something right now that our country goes through every 100 years or so, and you ought to feel blessed that you’re a part of it.

"You ought to feel blessed you’re part of a revolution.”

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