I am watching this thing, this Tea Party movement; I am watching it grow in speed, sound, and fervor, and I know what happens next. Just before it starts to rain, you can sometimes smell it coming: that's the odor of ozone molecules gearing up for the storm. And if you catch the scent of something coming in on the political winds today that you cannot place, it may just be the harbinger of further violence, illogic, and rage, the natural byproducts of mass hysteria.
If a presidential administration came to power in America and attempted to institute a socialist economic system, raise taxes to oppressive rates, and curb the cherished freedoms that have been enjoyed by (some of) her citizens for more than two hundred years, there would indeed be a rational basis for anger among the people. The Tea Party would make perfect sense in a world where passionate resistance was necessitated by unstoppable tyranny. Here's the rub, though: Barack Obama was the choice of more than 69 million Americans -- the most votes ever received by a presidential candidate in this country -- and has cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans since taking office. He has cut taxes on more than twenty-five separate occasions: for small businesses, first-time homebuyers, parents, college students, and basically everyone earning less than $200,000 per year, for a total of more than $300 billion in cuts. As for the socialism charge, it's one of the most ludicrous allegations imaginable. Socialism has a definition, and it makes zero sense to accuse a person of it when that definition has not even remotely been met by their actions. Until the government takes steps to control the means of production, dictate the allocation of resources, and replace free market capitalism with a purely public sector, it's utterly baseless. If you think health care reform or the bailouts were socialist policies, you are objectively wrong. It is not a matter of opinion.
So who starts a large-scale, mad-as-hell anti-tax movement at a time when taxes are at historic lows? People who have been misinformed, for one. A recent CBS News/New York Times poll of self-identified Tea Party members reveals that only 2 percent of them believe that President Obama has lowered taxes (the truth), versus 44 percent who think that taxes have increased under his watch (a lie). The sources of those and other grave misconceptions, of course, are the likes of Glenn Beck, the Michael Jordan of inflammatory innuendo and a zealous enemy of reality, and Dick Armey, whose non-profit organization, FreedomWorks, is dedicated to tricking the country into thinking that the Tea Party is a grassroots movement rather than a heavily funded, centralized political organization. If you go to a Tea Party rally and ask attendees what they hope to achieve with all of their righteous rage and equally righteous signage, they won't be able to tell you. It's not because they're ignorant, though; it's because the Tea Party doesn't have an actual agenda with reachable goals. Lower taxes? Already have you covered. Prevent socialism? Check. Revolution?
Here's the deal: you can have your revolution, but first you have to explain why. Tell the rest of us what it is you're rebelling against; speak those unspeakable evils, and if any of them turn out to be non-mythical, then by all means proceed with the great American refounding. You can't use higher taxes or creeping socialism, though, since they don't exist in reality, and you can't say that "they" are "taking away our freedom." Freedom is not a commodity, so it's important that you cite some sort of example of something the Obama administration has done to make you less free. When in the course of human events our Founding Fathers saw fit to declare a revolution, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind compelled them to explain themselves. I urge you to do the same, as many of us are dying to know why the political discourse of this country has been hijacked so urgently. I urge you also to keep in mind that while the rebellion we staged against Britain was largely over the issue of taxation without representation, you currently face the lowest federal tax burden faced by Americans in at least sixty years, and are free to vote for the officers of your government. In light of the fact that Bruce Bartlett, a former economic adviser to Presidents Reagan and Bush Sr., declared that federal taxes "are very considerably lower by every measure since Obama became president," in light of the fact that Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation reported that last year's stimulus bill will have reduced taxes by more than $320 billion by the end of 2010, in light of every single statistic there is -- including the little boxes on your own tax returns -- I make the same request to you that my third grade math teacher made of me: show your work.
The debate over the size of government is an important one, but those who are viscerally disgusted by the idea of federal authority (no doubt, Tea Partiers cannot stand the likes of Federalist icons George Washington, John Adams, and John Marshall), do their side of the argument a great disservice by failing to contribute anything but circular logic, hot tempers, and extreme conclusions to what always has been and what should continue to be a serious discussion about the nature of our political system. Until I hear what the motivations of the Tea Party are, I have to assume that the entire movement is based on some mix of misdirected anger over the economy, lies being fed by the media, and personal dislike for the president.
Back in the 1840s, a political party called the Know Nothings enjoyed a brief moment in the sun. They were a fervently nativist organization who believed that the America they loved was being unraveled by the presence of Catholic immigrants, and they vowed to stop at nothing to prevent their country from collapsing at the hands of their perceived enemies. The Know Nothing agenda included calls for complete bars on immigration, criminalizing the use of languages other than English, mandatory Bible study in public schools, and restricting elected offices to Protestants. In Baltimore, St. Louis, Washington, Louisville, and New Orleans, Know Nothings sparked riots in an effort to kill immigrants and influence elections, and they did so successfully. They got their name from their unwillingness to divulge who they were and why they did what they did; when questioned about the party, members were under orders to respond that they "know nothing." History has discredited the Know Nothings, but their furious blame-placing, justifications of rage and violence, and antipathy towards discourse and rationality live on today in the Tea Party. For a group whose favorite pastime seems to be completely misunderstanding historical flags, I offer up this one: Join or Die. Join the world of reason, and I guarantee your outrage will be taken more seriously. If your fanatical umbrage has a sincere basis, let the world know; skip the hyperbole, the death threats, and the costumes, and do as Jefferson and Madison did. Talk. Write. Argue in good faith. Or die. Continue down the bold, feel-good path of inexplicable revolutionary fantasies, and it won't be long before the meteor falls, and knowing nothing will be all that's left of your party too.
Follow Daniel Cluchey on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dancluchey
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http://www.fivecentnickel.com/2010/02/15/2011-federal-income-tax-brackets-irs-income-tax-rates/
The best question that I can imagine, to this "movement" is the one unstated. Exactly how can those of us in the "progressive" camp reconnect with these folks, to assure them that such fears are genuinely unfounded? How might we as progressive Americans, begin the healing process, and thus take some of the wind and hate out of this bit of corporate manipulation?
ah.. perhaps Walt Kelley and Pogo got it right so long ago... "We have met the enemy and he is us!"
Peace
Let dial the clock forward on just the tax increases already passed by this administration:
1) Top Federal rates move from 36 to 39.5% at year end
2) Capital Gains moves from 15 to 20% at year end
3) The new Medicare tax (part of health reform) that impacts all forms of income adds 3.9% starting in 2013
4) State taxes have moved up by an average of approximately 25% in order to gap their budget spending
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY
Current deficit spending and pending deficits from social security losses and Medicare losses will create massive Trillion $$ deficits for years. Even with these tax increases, increases in spending through new entitlement (healthcare reform), old entitlements, war spending, etc, we are still spending our children's future.
So, go ahead increase taxes but don't control spending, make sure that we are as uncompetitive as we can against China, India and Brazil. It will be really great to be a part of the generation that made the US second class nation.
Source for who pays taxes - IRS (published data on IRS web site for taxes by income group)
GDP data - US Government data
Tax Policy Institute - Brookings Institute
New tax rates ordinary income/cap gains - sunset provision of Bush Tax Cuts
New Medicare tax - straight out of new healthcare legislation
OMB Baseline budget projection 2010-2019 (August estimate) $9.05T deficits for period - revised upward after healthcare passage
Yes! We will be uncompetitive with China, India and Brazil in the near term due to our taxes and regulations. GOOD!!!!! That means we are protecting our workers, enforcing environmental regulations and ensuring business operates on a level playing field. The Chinese, etc. have only begun to come to grips with the legions of social, economic and environmental problems brought about by the unchecked and inate aggression of capitalism in their countries and in time they too will be forced to impose the very controls you lament. Until that time they will make goods and services cheaper by cutting corners, avoiding regulation, damaging the environment and exploiting their workforce. Spending does need to be controlled...eventually. Now is not the time to do so when people are unemployed, scared and dependent on social programs to keep them afloat through this recession (or depression for those of us not making $100,000+ a year). Spending during a period of economic contraction is a key principle behind Keynesian Economics and is the very thing that pulled us out of the Depression (gov't spending on roads, bridges, etc. or spending on tanks, guns, planes and ships).
I think the article should have started with portions of this last paragraph.
But overall an interesting read.
The primary cancer is corporate controlled and funded misinformation beginning on talk radio. This format reaches 40 million per week and is 90 percent the likes of Rush, Beck, Savage, Liddy, Hannity,Ingraham etc. After they finish their national syndicated shows then these channels play a parrot local host for hours and hours. When Reagan repealed the Fairness Doctrine the big industries took advantage and now have built a powerful propaganda monopoly. Free speech is very important to protect, but an honest, accurate media is fundamental for a democracy to thrive.Until we deal with this "the Ministry of disinformation" in America will continue.
It is killing the GOP that spawned it. That's the problem with catering to conspiracy types who are convinced the world is controlled by a cabal of bankers. When you start catering to the bankers you prove you are the enemy.
Am I the only one laughing evilly?
But be careful of all that history stuff! Read the text books, we're generating out of Texas. That may not be in next years' books! Heehee.
I know that a huge part of that is because he actually included the wars in the budget and that deficit spending is necessary in a recession, but it is at least a legitimate point that those folks make.
Though it may be the only one.
It's curious how that ignore all the "off the books" accounting of the Reagan and Bush(s) years.
Unfortunately as long as having an education and being informed is somehow equated to being some sort of intellectual elitist the people who need to read this will willingly avoid it. Logic and reason have long been abandoned in political discourse. Keep fighting the good fight.