A bigger wave

Former Rep. Dick Armey says the 2010 election will have more lasting effects than the 1994 'tsunami' because this time it's about ideas | Marvin Olasky

Associated Press/Photo by Cliff Owen

Dick Armey represented a north Texas district in the House of Representatives from 1985 to 2003 and was House Majority Leader during his last eight years in office. In 1994 he worked with Newt Gingrich to develop the Contract with America and now, as chairman of the grassroots group FreedomWorks, is heavily involved in the Tea Party movement. Armey, 70, earned a Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma and was a college economics professor before heading to Washington. Here are edited and tightened excerpts of our interview before a student audience.

Will the upcoming election be another 1994? Better than '94. It is the most authentic and widespread grassroots uprising that I have ever seen. It is about ideas, not about personalities—no allegiance to persons or political parties, but to the great ideas, starting with the Constitution of the United States. It is also an internet phenomenon. Poor old Al Gore has to live with the fact that he was the inventor of the demise of the left.