Pouring Some Tea on the Ground for All My Dumb Homies...

In the grand scheme of things, getting people to complain about taxes on April 15th might be the easiest thing in the world. It's right up there with "eating ice cream on a hot summer day" and "laughing whenever Glenn Beck cries". Bitching about taxes is America's true pastime. So when a few thousand people gather on tax day to whine about their taxes (after getting massive tax breaks, by the way), it's hardly the second coming of the American Revolution. Hell, I remember a time six years ago when millions of people took to the street to protest the government. We all saw how well that worked out.

When their rallying cry is "Grrrr...I hate you TAXES!", there won't be a whole lot left to keep the tea bagging movement together after April 15th. Manufactured-populism and a fractured-understanding of American history will only take you so far. The great-great-great-great grandchildren of liberty will have to find some other crusade to motivate them like birth certificate forgeries or investigating whether Bo Obama was really a rescue dog. Sure, some die-hards will stick around like the asshole who keeps flipping through your DVD's at three in the morning oblivious to the fact that the party is over, but within a few weeks, the only people left to carry the "tea party" torch will be the GOP & Fox News personalities trying to recapture the "good times" with all the subtlety and humility of Chubby Checker trying to get everyone to do the twist.

I'm going to miss the "Tea Party" movement. I'm going to miss the powdered wigs and the lunatic ranting. I'm going to miss the ideological uncertainty and the unpragmatic futility (seriously, you're mailing tea bags to the White House to demand lower taxes after you just got a tax cut?). Most of all, I'm going to miss the jokes. These last few weeks have been a golden age for juvenile humor that passes for insightful political commentary. It's a rare movement that chooses to describe itself with terminology that also means "testicle slapping" and those of us who relish in the foolishness of conservative activism will be much worse off for it.

Comments

[melmoid]

Americans have become a nation of whiners. I would have hated to fight WWII with this bunch.

[Truthahn]

Laugh while you can. People who pay attention to the hard numbers are well aware that a humongous tax hike is unavoidable in the next presidential term, thanks to the spending habits of the current regime. Repealing the Bush tax cuts in the current term won't even come close to paying for Obama's promises, and more and more people are figuring that out.

[ckfan]

Economist from both sides - left & right - all agree that the gov't must spend to get the economy moving in the right direction. An economic downturn that occurred while BUSH was in office. What about Bush's spending??­??????????­??????????­?

Please respond with facts.

[blaqntelligence]

More and more, huh?

Like the "more and more" who voted for him?
Or maybe the "more and more" who support him now?
Or maybe the "more and more" who didn't vote for him but support him now?
Or maybe the "more and more" who, fed up with the lies and smears, support him now?
Or, the "more and more" who believe the gop has a better plan and are prepared to impeach President O and elect them?

[blaqntelligence]

"Pouring Some Tea on the Ground for All My Dumb Homies..."

This title is priceless.­.....

[not one of the sheep]

I don't have a problem paying my fair share of taxes. Why do so many of the Obama cabinet have a problem paying theirs? That's right, do as I say, not as I do.

[JimR]

They have all paid the taxes they owed. Next question?

[not one of the sheep]

After they got caught. Turn a blind eye unless they a repub? Keep those blinders on.

[JerryLevy]

Here in California, they have passed so many spending bills and created so many entitlements that we are now bankrupt. So what do they do? Instead of reducing spending, they give us the highest sales tax and highest income tax in the U.S. And our economy is on the ground. This is just an example of what will happen in the U.S. if we keep passing more and more spending programs. The government just cant afford the healthcare, education, housing, food assistance and other assistance to 300 million people. And now some want to grant amnesty to several million more people. Not paranoid, not angry---- just very concerned. Don't dismiss the tea parties---they represent a large minority of people.

[ckfan]

A large minority??????????? Do you even understand what you're writing about? And please provide us with details of what you did when Bush was spending. Tea parties, coffee chats?

[City of Evil]

Laughing at those people is easy, but don't think for a second that it's enough. We laughed at Bush four years ago. We didn't think anybody could take that guy seriously, certainly not 51% of all US voters.

[toad3000]

So this may be a moot point now, as April 15th has passed us by, but...
For future reference, you may want to straighten out the definitions of "tea bag" and "bag tag". They're different, you actually picked the less funny/gros­s/disturbi­ng one to reference here.

[sueno]

Great article!
I love the title-

[sdskelton03]

"A few thousand"?

We had somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 in St. Louis alone.

[Petey131]

Biggest clanrally in america?

[sdskelton03]

Not a Klan rally. Far from it.

You have just proven you know absolutely nothing about these people or their grievances with the government.

I would go so far as to say you have shown yourself to be an uninformed bigot.

[CrzyRussell]

There were Democrats at our rally. There are a lot of concerned people. I wouldn't dismiss them.

[Ouroboros]

Sadly, however, the photos from these rallies reveal that it wasn't just about being mad at paying taxes. It was about being mad at paying taxes in a country which permits a black man to be President. It was about paying taxes and feeling culturally shattered at the same time.

[tiredofthestupidity]

As a life-long resident Democrat of a southern red state, my answer to your question is: yes, they really are that stupid, or maybe gullible, brainwashed, or easily led is a better description.

This was a laugh out loud funny article and I passed it on to the Democratic Party members in my community, just to make sure they didn't perceive this pseudo-protest as a real threat. This was a gimmick orchestrated by the GOP, the likes of which Karl Rove would have been semi-proud, and nothing more. Of course, if Karl Rove had orchestrated it himself, it would have been much more successful, instead of the raving joke that it actually is.

Like Sarah Palin, the party of "no", John McCain suspending his campaign right before the election so he could boldly deal with the financial crisis, and all the other marketing gimmicks, sound bites, slogans, smoke and mirrors, and bait & switch trickery of the GOP we all know and love, (oops!) I mean are completely disgusted with, this is just one more political stunt that will be forgotten within days and have no impact whatsoever on anything of relevance.

All they really accomplished was maintaining their ignorant base, which (thankfully!) is way down in the minority.

[tbrnotb]

Great post! I often say these people would be dangerous if they weren't so incredibly laughable!

[maryyooch]

The Tea-baggers won't disappoint us. They will always have something to b*tch about.
I just cannot understand how the think that they are victims of injustice? Are they all really that stupid?!?