By: Gene Clem

(WKZO) -- This is the 'View from the Bunker'.  A column from a Tea Party activist who is a GOP retread from the 80s.  In March of 2009 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a guide to detecting terrorists among us.  They identified folks who attended Tea Party rallies or spoke about how the Constitution is not being honored as possible terrorists.  (If you own an Gadsden flag, you just might be a terrorist!).

Well, remembering how the mainstream media (MSM) made light of Vice President Cheney being in a bunker in an undisclosed location in September 2001 and the fact that I live on several acres of wooded land west of Kalamazoo, I hit on '...from a bunker in an undisclosed location in the forest of Southwest Michigan' as my signature line for email correspondence from myself early on in 2009.  Which now leads to 'View From the Bunker' as the moniker for this column.

So, 'view' of what?  I intend to highlight what is happening in the Tea Party from my observation post 'on the ground' in Southwest Michigan.  Full disclosure: I am a card carrying member of the Kalamazoo County Republican Party and currently an elected precinct delegate.  However, I am also currently the president of Southwest Michigan Patriots (swmipats.org), a member of the VanKal Patriots, a director of the 1st Michigan Tea Party Alliance (michiganteapartyalliance.org) and president of TeaPAC (a federal PAC).  It is also my intent to report on the ongoing integration of Tea Party and Campaign for Liberty activists into the Republican Party, again from what I can see from 'the bunker' (and no, I cannot see Russia!).

I do not intend this to be a political column which reports the latest rumor and innuendo about the intrigue within the Michigan Republican Party or 'campaign dirty tricks'; there are others who already perform that service and clearly enjoy doing so, which I do not.  I plan on taking a 30 thousand foot look at what is going on as an observer of the efforts of the Tea Party to change the culture of the GOP and return America to the Republic that the Founders had in mind in the 18th century. 

My intent is to write weekly which will allow me to reflect on current affairs and speak with other Tea Party leaders across the state in order to get a better view of what is happening from as many viewpoints a possible.   

So, feel free to communicate ideas, tips and even 'plots' to me.  I will be at forest.bunker@gmx.com.