Teabaggers Redux. Where were these guys 8 years ago?

[Sigma]

http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=324775037199992

Tea Party System
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Thursday, April 16, 2009 4:20 PM PT

Politics: The hundreds of tea parties thrown Wednesday were part of one of the most extraordinary grass-roots uprisings in our history. And they spell a golden opportunity for freedom-loving politicians.

Less than three months after a landmark election, throngs of demonstrators everywhere gathered to object to the revolution that our new president is steamrolling into law. It was a landmark protest in the history of the republic.

But how can the voices of tens if not hundreds of thousands of angry taxpayers be turned into concrete political action?

Investor's Business Daily attended one of these historic events, the Fishkill Tea Party in upstate New York, just east of the Hudson River. The original Fishkill Tea Party took place Aug. 26, 1776, when 100 women forced a storekeeper named Abram Brinckerhoff to sell them tea at the lawful price of 6 shillings per pound. This year's Fishkill Tea Party nearly filled Dutchess Stadium, the county's minor-league ballpark.

In a region of liberal New York state where Democrats have been consolidating their power during the last two elections, thousands traveled long distances to support pretty much the classic Reagan political agenda â€" and not just on taxes and spending.

Banners and placards sported slogans that included "Don't Spread My Wealth. Spread My Work Ethic," "Who'll Bail Me Out?" "Atlas Will Shrug," "Tea Today. No Kool-Aid," and "Acorn Didn't Have To Bus Us Here," referring to the left-wing activist group that specializes in voter registration drives benefiting liberal Democrats.

The crowds responded with thunderous applause to the various local activists' rallying cries, ranging from "How about those Navy Seals!" referring to the recent rescue of Americans from Somali pirates, to attacks on Hollywood for its role in moving America away from traditional Judeo-Christian values.

The audience roared when resentment was expressed toward illegal aliens who eat away the social welfare resources funded by taxpayers. When unemployed information technology manager Troy Johnson took the podium, he elicited an ovation with the quip:

"Just to prove how radical I am, I believe we should all be speaking English!"

The throng cheered calls for term limits to curb the power of elitist career politicians; applauded taunts that the establishment media would proceed to underestimate and misreport the size of the turnout; shouted in approval for blocking the president's planned federal intrusion into health care; and rose from its seats for a speaker who called Washington's march toward socialism "a slap in the face to those who have served in the military."

It was quite clear, however, that the tea partiers feel betrayed by Republicans, not just the Democrats now in power in both the executive and legislative branches in Washington.

One youthful speaker described the cause of the financial crisis as an "assault on our free market system paired with corporate bailouts." The Bush White House late last year lobbied skeptical congressional Republicans hard on a $14 billion auto industry bailout.

Johnson pointed out that "we know that they know that nobody can read 1,000 pages overnight," referring to the rush to get a stimulus bill passed and to the lawmakers who signed it without knowing much of what was in it.

The crowd may not have been aware that apart from liberal Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe and Arlen Specter, the GOP in Congress formed a united front against the Democrats' tax-and-spend behemoth. But the Republican brand is blemished.

During 12 years of dominance in Congress and eight years in the White House, the GOP failed to kick its addiction to pork and make tough decisions on controlling entitlement spending. It found it too politically risky to secure the U.S. borders â€" even in the post-9/11 years when homeland security trumped all other concerns.

It's almost as if Republicans were daring the kind of people who attended this week's events to go the dead-end route of starting their own third political party.

The tea party movement proves that even in the left-leaning Northeast, a huge natural constituency exists for these bread-and-butter American issues â€" lower taxes, less government, a strong military that's allowed to win, tough measures to end illegal immigration, term limits and family values.

It's all there, waiting to be tapped into â€" if only a few smart politicians would grasp the opportunity.

[urbanlibertarian]

Janeane Garofalo quoted by the Washington Times:

"Let's be very honest about what this is about. This is not about bashing Democrats. It's not about taxes. They have no idea what the Boston Tea party was about. They don't know their history at all. It's about hating a black man in the White House," she said on MSNBC's "The Countdown" with Keith Olbermann Thursday evening. "This is racism straight up and is nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks. There is no way around that."

"Their synapses are misfiring. ... It is a neurological problem we are dealing with..."

I'm glad we have someone who can look into the hearts of these people who appear to be relatively average and show us their true colors.

[civil42806]

Janeane Garofalo quoted by the Washington Times:

"Let's be very honest about what this is about. This is not about bashing Democrats. It's not about taxes. They have no idea what the Boston Tea party was about. They don't know their history at all. It's about hating a black man in the White House," she said on MSNBC's "The Countdown" with Keith Olbermann Thursday evening. "This is racism straight up and is nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks. There is no way around that."

"Their synapses are misfiring. ... It is a neurological problem we are dealing with..."

I'm glad we have someone who can look into the hearts of these people who appear to be relatively average and show us their true colors.

well if Janeane Garofalo said it its got to be true,anyone have a quote from Troy Spelling?

[Sigma]

The Collectivist Threat and Capitalist Promise
By Jonathan Hoenig

Delivered at Chicago's Tax Day Tea Party Protest , April 15, 2009
Federal Plaza, Chicago IL

What an honor to be with you today!  I'm the finance guy here, so let me clue you in on some truly frightening numbers.  The US Government has pledged, promised or spent an unfathomable amount of your money over the last year.  The total amount, as calculated by Bloomberg, is over $12.8 trillion dollars, which amounts to $42,105 for every man, woman and child living in America today. 

It is 14 times the total amount of currency in circulation and approaches the entire GDP for 2008.  It's enough to pay off every home mortgage in the country and still have two trillion to spare.  To put it in perspective, twelve trillion is the number twelve followed by twelve zeros.   

To those who solely blame President Obama, remember that it was the Bush administration that expanded the federal budget by $1 trillion, passed the disastrous Sarbanes Oxley regulation and the Medicare Prescription Drug Program.   Bush added more than $4 trillion to the national debt, a 70% increase. 

It was Bush's administration who got the entire bailout orgy started.  You might recall him telling CNN that "I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system".  If that's not doublespeak, I don't know what is.

But today's protests, being held in over 500 cities nationwide, aren't simply about taxes, rather the philosophy behind those taxes.

It has been described as socialism, fascism or communism.  In various contexts, all are true, but let's refine it.  From loans to the automakers to the bailouts for the banks, the taxation, spending and control, the primary philosophy that's powering the country now is collectivism. 

Collectivism holds that the individual has no rights.  Your life and the product of your labor now belongs to the group.  If the group wants a bailout, heath care, green cars, low mortgage rates, a job, an education - anything at all, it now becomes your responsibility to provide it, whether you want to or not. 

You see it in taxes that take money from people who've earned it and give it to those who have not.  You see it in the language itself.  Phrases like "we're all in it together", "I am my brother's keeper" and "shared sacrifice" all speak to the same idea: you are here to serve.  And unlike charity of volunteerism, the "will of the people" is implemented by force, not by voluntary trade.

This is a profoundly un-American ideal.  From the original Boston Tea Party came the Declaration of Independence which put forth the morality of individual rights.  In this country, you are born free, not with a duty to serve the King but with a moral right to live your own life.  "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" refers to your life, your liberty and your happiness.  You do not owe society a thing.   

For socialists, collectivists, and others who support a high tax, high spending, government controlled economy, sacrifice is an absolute.  You're expected to sacrifice for your neighbor, your government, for AIG or Citigroup, or deadbeat homeowners or poorly run municipalities, whomever the geniuses in Washington decide deserves your money. 

This is wrong.  The Founding Father's view of government was that its scope was limited and clearly defined. 

Is the purpose of government to own and run a car company?  An insurance firm?  A bank?  A mortgage company?  Of course not.   We've become one of the state-owned basket case European economies we used to make fun of in this country. 

This country was the once land of "rugged individualism."

"Individualism" is a term you might hear a lot.  Fundamentally, what it means is that the individual, not the group, is what is important and valuable. Individuals have rights, groups do not, because groups after all, are only collections of individuals. 

You want to help a needy deserving homeowner?  Fine.  Write them a check.  Charity is a perfectly legitimate thing -- but government doesn't own you, nor does your neighbor, the needy, the children or anybody else.  In America, there are no masters, there are no slaves. 

In recent decades, and certainly over the past year, we've moved away from rugged individualism and toward a collectivist society that forces everyone to sacrifice for the group.

In a political context, individual rights means free market capitalism.  AIG never cost me a dime until Tim Geithner put my hard earned savings into it.  The financial crisis can be directly traced not from capitalism, but from a collectivist, interventionist government.  The Federal Reserve, Freddie Mac,  Fannie Mae, the Community Reinvestment Act, Sarbanes-Oxley, not to mention the $12 trillion bailout and stimulus efforts are not mechanisms of the free market.   

Tax Day Tea Party Protests are rallies against taxes, yes, but even more so against collectivism, that immoral notion your life, your energy, your wealth are Washington's property.

Look around at this incredible city.  It wasn't a bailout that created the most prosperous country in the history of human civilization, but a society that limited the role of government and protected the individual rights of each citizen to live his own life. 

A return to that philosophy is our only hope. 

Jonathan Hoenig is managing member at Capitalistpig Hedge Fund LLC 

[Sigma]

I think you mean Tory Spelling Civil.

And despite the relative niceness of the local crowd (a real credit to our city, I think)  the rest of the teabagging has been kind of nasty and racist in other cities, as thousands of videos and photos have shown.

Thousands of videos showing nasty and racist, Stephen?  Please.

[Sigma]

Please, I looked at a few last night.  It seems that most of the nastiness came from CNN and MSNBC trying to sell a story of bigots and racists.  No wonder they are getting their azzez handed to them by Fox.

[Sigma]

No, but they definitely set up and focused on a few signs that compared Obama to Hitler (not like the left did that to GW). 

http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=4498570&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/foxfriends/

[Doctor_K]

Probably not, Stephen.  But, they found the two or three (dozen) bad apples in a sea of thousands and singled them out, thus skewing the headline and story to reflect the overall event into a negative hate-fest.

It's nothing new.

And one of the field reporters was all "we're going to leave coverage now because it's not suitable for family viewing."  What?

Sigma - good find.

[urbanlibertarian]

Unfortunately, today's typical political discourse boils down to "Everyone who disagrees with me is either stupid, evil, racist, irrational or all of the above."

Why can't someone with a different opinion just be wrong but respected?

[civil42806]

Unfortunately, today's typical political discourse boils down to "Everyone who disagrees with me is either stupid, evil, racist, irrational or all of the above."

Why can't someone with a different opinion just be wrong but respected?

Just not possible these days, just look at the brew-ha-ha about miss california.  Loved Perez hilton response to her answer.  He set her up so nicely to give the correct answer and she dissapointed him.  Was watching Youtube and was waiting to see him explode into flames. He has been saying stupider comments ever since.   Boy has she been paying the price.  Hopefully someone will let him and the senior staff of the Ms usa contest know that there was actually a vote on the issue and sorry you lost.  Personally I am a supporter of gay marriage, but understand the position that those that don't, just don't agree with it. 

[chipwich]

Well here's the 8 minute Daily Show cover of the Tea Parties.  I thought it was pretty funny to see Stewart's comparison of protest coverage.

It is one sided, but like everything else on the Daily show, it is meant to be funny.  You can to agree with the protesters, you can disagree, but laughing seems to be the best political discourse for me.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=224275&title=Nationwide-Tax-Protests