Dr. Rich McCormick draws large crowd to Tea Party meeting

FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — A standing-room-only crowd was on hand at the VFW in Cumming Monday to welcome former State Senator Dr. Rich McCormick, a Republican candidate for United States Congress, as the guest speaker at the Forsyth Tea Party monthly meeting.

Tea Party President Bobby Donnelly welcomed guests and members, reminding them to vote “No” on the education special purpose local option sales tax (ESPLOST) that is on the ballot for a Nov. 2 vote.

“Right now what we are recommending is for you to vote against that,” Donnelly said. “We feel like the Board of Education has raised property taxes through assessments and their spending is out of control. We also feel like they aren’t being responsive enough on DEI and CRT.” He also said defeating the ESPLOST referendum would bring them to the table and “make them listen to us.”

McCormick wasted no time in criticizing the Biden Administration for its spending overreach. “There is nothing more jeopardizing to our future than the way we are spending,” he said. “I was appalled by their infrastructure bill that has trillions of dollars on the table. They’re not really investing in things we know as important to the infrastructure of the Unites States. It’s going to special interest projects like Planned Parenthood.”

He pointed to countries like Greece and Venezuela who, he argued, overspent and went bankrupt.  “Most countries go bankrupt at about 113 percent spending over GDP,” he said. “We are right now at 130 percent over GDP. If that is not alarming to you, I don’t know what is.”

He also went after the Biden administration for turning its back on America’s allies.

“We have strategic alliances with countries like India and Israel who are totally surrounded by bad guys, people who hate us and hate them. And yet we have a president who doesn’t understand how to reinforce those relationships. Instead, he wants to gut them and have closer ties to China, a country that wants to destroy us.”

McCormick is an emergency room physician and decorated Marine helicopter pilot who served in Africa, the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan.

He said he was “outraged” by the way America left Afghanistan, saying, “It was worse than Viet Nam.”

“We left $87 billion worth of brand new equipment. We lost our advantage in nighttime operations. Now they have armored vehicles and helicopters. It was embarrassing.”

He said he had friends who were in the room when President Trump laid out his plan for withdrawal which called for bringing every piece of equipment home. “He said, ‘if there is a cooler with an American flag on it, bring it home.’”

He also said there are no more important elections than those for school boards. “We need to take back the school boards,” he said. “If you think Forsyth is so conservative, take a look at your school board. See what is happening. When someone in the audience spoke out and said “Our children are being indoctrinated,” McCormick agreed and added, “They are making many future democrats and that is by design.”

The next meeting of the Forsyth Tea Party is Nov. 29 at the VFW hall at 7 p.m.