Weak Tea: The Astroturf Movement

April 15th is "Tea Party" Day. Protesters are protesting against taxes. They say "enough is enough". But what exactly are they protesting? First, they don't like the fact that Obama wants to raise the top rate from 36% to 39% (by the way, I think that rate would still be lower than the top rate during the reign of Saint Reagan). They are also protesting the massive government spending. All Obama is doing is using the lessons of the past to try to get out of this deep recession. During the Great Depression, it was the massive government spending required to build armaments to fight World War Two that got us out of the depression. And what do the Republicans offer as an alternative? Tax cuts. Well, we've just had eight years of tax cuts. Where did that get us?
These phonies are also protesting not just taxes, but anything that President Obama wants to get through Congress. In addition, they list these grievances on their website (http://www.teapartyday.com/), making sure to use veiled language and the hot button words that play on the latent hatred and fear lurking in the hearts of these know-nothings. Take a look:
Are you fed up with a Congress and a president who:
vote for a $500 billion tax bill without even reading it?
are spending trillions of borrowed dollars, leaving a debt our great-grandchildren will be paying?
consistently give special interest groups billions of dollars in earmarks to help get themselves re-elected?
want to take your wealth and redistribute it to others?
punish those who practice responsible financial behavior and reward those who do not?
admit to using the financial hurt of millions as an opportunity to push their political agenda?
run up trillions of dollars of debt and then sell that debt to countries such as China?
want government controlled health care?
want to take away the right to vote with a secret ballot in union elections?
refuse to stop the flow of millions of illegal immigrants into our country?
appoint a defender of child pornography to the Number 2 position in the Justice Department?
want to force doctors and other medical workers to perform abortions against their will?
want to impose a carbon tax on your electricity, gas and home heating fuels?
want to reduce your tax deductibility for charitable gifts?
take money from your family budget to pay for their federal budget?
If so, participate in the TAX Day TEA party rally, the Taxed Enough Already (TEA) party.

Wow! During the Revolution, the battle cry was "No taxation without representation". Pretty easy to understand. These dopes, however, are really confused. Take, for example, the accusation that the government "takes money from your family budget to pay for the federal budget". Well, isn't that the definition of taxation? The people pay taxes to the government from their earnings so that we can have a civilized society with running water, roads, a military, public education, etc. What about, "Appoint a defender of child pornography to the number 2 position in the Justice Department"? They are referring to David Ogden. The record shows that Ogden aggressively defended the constitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act and the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996. He did represent Playboy magazine, but none of those cases had anything to do with child pornography. There was one case, while serving as counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union, he argued on constitutional grounds to strike down the conviction of a defendant who received and possessed child pornography. That is a far cry from defending child pornography. Now why would the Tea Party people put this item on their list of reasons to protest taxes? You know why...to push the buttons of the uninformed and the angry. They want to portray Obama as a left-wing intellectual communist homosexual pornographer (to paraphrase Woody Allen). What about this one: "admit to using the financial hurt of millions as an opportunity to push their political agenda"? Well, didn't George W. Bush use the 9/11 attacks to push his agenda? Everything that happened during his reign was an excuse to cut taxes and invade Iraq. Pushing your agenda when you have achieved a decisive victory in an election is what you are supposed to do. It is what the winner does. In fact, in my opinion, President Obama needs to be even more aggressive in pushing his agenda.

How about this one: "Want to take your wealth and redistribute it to others"? Well, who would be the "others"? Let's see, how will the tax protesters will fill in the blank. I'm guessing they will fill in "others" with some specific group of people. Maybe "blacks" or "immigrants"? See, they are pushing the buttons. They know the "bible and gun clingers" will fall for it every time.

Now, who is organizing this fiasco? Fox News promotes it day and night. Right-wing think tanks organize it. It is NOT a grass-roots movement like the real Tea Party over 200 years ago. It is an AstroTurf Movement - plastic, fake, manufactured. Not organic, not real. I'd call it bullshit, but at least bullshit is real.