TEA Parties

At the moment there are no final numbers available for the April 15th “Tax Day Tea Party”, but the present estimates are that over 650,000 upset American citizens showed up at more than 850 locations to protest a number of government policies. Unlike many of the somewhat “riotous” left wing political protests of past decades, this was a peaceful demonstration of conservative American citizens’ reaction to the loony left’s aggressive and rapidly accelerating efforts to create a radical, socialist country out of the once free United States of America. The Tea party folks did not just demonstrate what they are against, but what they are for as well, minor little things like free enterprise, limited government, accountability, lower taxes, and less spending. Much like the 1773 Boston Tea Party, the 2009 version was in response to the actions of a government that treats American citizens as if they were subjects/slaves to be ordered about, rather than as citizens of a free country with constitutionally guaranteed rights. For the most part the elitist media are trying very hard to ignore this citizen’s protest, which the leftist government promptly labeled as a right wing “extremist” plot, and that has the loony left hysterically up in arms denying that any sane person would oppose their political agenda. That’s nothing unusual I guess, considering all the weeping and wailing (along with the rioting) that happens whenever they don’t get their way. The Tea Party showing was rather impressive, especially since the media virtually ignored the entire movement, no big donor was behind it, and conservative Americans usually have jobs that severely limit their chance to do much more than work and pay taxes. For the most part they also lack the professional “community organizing” experience of the left, experience that began with college students who had nothing better to do than violently protest the Vietnam War. David Axelrod, President Obama’s chief strategist, told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the Tea Party movement was potentially “unhealthy.” He might be right with that one, as it indicates to me that the “silent majority” just might be getting completely fed up with the leftist demands for a socialist nanny state.

The intensity of the liberal response quite surprised me with its vitriol. It’s common practice on internet news sites to have a space where people can leave comments about whatever story they wish to respond to. I’ll quote a part of one such comment about the TEA parties: “Attention Tea-Baggers, (CENSORED), Red-Neck White Trash, racist pigs, Neo-cons. red-staters, in-bred, Appalacia, Sheet Wearers, War Hawks, Porn-lovin' bible thumpers, and Hillbilliys and Cowboys: I put up with your sorry (CENSORED) for 8 years. You go straight to (CENSORED) or Texas which ever you get to first. Keep your (CENSORED) guns and put those where the some (?) don't shine. You are so disgusting I could and have vomited thinking of you. Take your Confederate States and GET OUT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are morally repugnant. (I'll pause while you look that up). As an aside; I was raised in Applacia - I know what you scum bags are, what you do, and what "feeds you stupidity." Just go NOW.” (As this paper is intended for reading by mixed company, I did censor a few of the more descriptive terms.) If the writer of that particular literary masterpiece is typical of American liberals, I’m going to be really concerned about Mr. Obama’s choice of office holders in his radical leftist government! The “Left”, according to one government report, is much better educated that the “right wing extremists”, more “gainfully” employed, much better paid, and of course totally unlike us “inbred” redneck conservatives. They are I noted, much more likely to be college graduates, and prone to include Doctors, Lawyers, entertainers, Government employees, and with that I presume social workers as well. If the above is an example of what the “educated” American left thinks and says, I’ve got an eight year old granddaughter that does a much better job of writing, if she dosen't know anything about politics!

Every American is, or at least should be, concerned about the harmful effects of big government, big deficits, big bureaucracy, big politicians and big taxes. Left leaning economists admit that spending a few hundred billion dollars hasn’t done any good so far (read that as “failed”), so they consider that as proof that we need to spend a few trillion more dollars that we don’t have! But today’s vocal liberals want to know where the conservative TEA Party protesters were when Mr. Bush was busily running up a trillion dollar deficit, if we’re so concerned about spending deficits. Well boys and girls, for your information we were here, and busily protesting, but we aren’t in the habit of burning down cities, throwing rocks at police officers, or blowing up college campuses when we protest. That of course means that we’re not newsworthy, so nobody hears about it.

Left leaning politicians and pundits are doing their best to discredit the Tea Parties by describing them as a partisan Republican movement, and as a revolt of greedy rich people who don’t want to pay more income tax. After all, we did get a tax cut they parrot… which only means that I get to keep a couple of extra dollars of my own money each week. What the media missed is the fact that state and local taxes are spiraling out of sight for everyone. Add higher gasoline taxes, corporate taxes, “sin” taxes, death taxes, Social Security and Medicare taxes, along with the threat of an energy tax. All of these are convincing people that the overall tax burden is still getting bigger despite Mr. Obama's "tax cut".

Tea Party participants are not just angry about higher federal income taxes, but are alarmed at the growing burden of government on all Americans. Keep in mind that California tried the Obama soak-the-productive "stimulus" plan years ago. In just a few years Democrats had turned California into a state (it's now known as a "job-free zone" I understand), with a $41 billion deficit, a credit rating that has reached junk-bond status, and a middle class that is now living in Arizona. Democrats governed California the way Democrats always govern, they bought votes with taxpayer-funded jobs, salaries, and welfare benefits, and then accused productive people of "greed" for not wanting to have their taxes raised yet again. California was a laboratory for Democratic fiscal policies… the rabbit died, so now they want to try it on the entire nation!

So let me see if I understand the “change” we’ve been promised, and apparently are about to get. Spending trillions of dollars we don’t have on social engineering experiments is good for the country. Check. Taxpayers supporting a few million illegal aliens is good for the country. Check. ACORN subverting our election system is good for the country. Check. Cutting national defense yet again is good for the country. Check. Liberal activists disrupting Congress and vandalizing Marine Corp recruiting stations is good for the country. Check. Conservative citizens defending the Constitution and protesting runaway government spending is unhealthy. Humm….