The Tea Party movement mocks educated reactions to its ire, so I'd like to start with a folksy observation. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it's probably a duck. That duck can insist that it's something else -- say a patriotic, bald eagle -- but it's still web-footed waterfowl. In exactly the same way, the Tea Party movement claims to be something that it isn't.
1. Not A Tax Revolt. Federal taxes have not been lower at any time in the past fifty years; 47% of Americans don't pay any federal taxes at all. No one likes taxation, but it has been many generations since anyone has had less reason to complain.
2. Not Opposed to Big Government. The Tea Party movement generally favors Social Security, Medicare and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The first two are positively socialist, and supporting nation building does not qualify as libertarian. Big government is fine when it works for them.
3. Not Inclusive. According to a New York Times/CBS Poll released last week, "...Tea Party supporters tend to be Republican, white, male, married and older than 45..." 90% of those polled think that Obama is a socialist; nearly one in five believe that he was not born in the US. Many also think that he's a cryto-Muslim. And the movement's 'ideological' leaders -- e.g., Anne Coulter, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck -- all share a very pale skin color, as well as a incoherent demagoguery.
Rhetoric aside, the real purpose of the Tea Party movement is clear: prevent the sort of change that might threaten the privileges traditionally enjoyed by middle aged, white Republicans. These are the people who feel that the 'real' America is under assault by the poor, people of color, gay Americans and all immigrants. They wrap themselves in the rhetoric of democracy and tradition, but they are just elites trying to find an acceptable language with which to justify their fear and defend their self interest.
Unfortunately, "Securing Our Self Interest At Your Expense," isn't much of a campaign slogan. And so, we talk about Tea Parties instead.
Follow Michael B. Laskoff on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mlaskoff
1) Yes we all know the current tax is not that bad, but a large percentage of the voters are worried about taxes that will be imposed on them in the near future.
2) I don't think anyone in the tea party movement is happy about the wars we are in. However, defense of the nation is the primary reason we have a federal government instead of a collection of nation states. Social Security and Medicare were voted in by a majority of both Republicans and Democrats..a coalition building process that is conspiciously absent in today's administration.
3) Conservative commentators speak almost exclusively about overwhelming and destructive national debt and socialist policies. Almost nothing is said about race or gay rights yet the left constantly wants to focus on those issues. The economy and the damage being caused by both the present and past administrations is the focus of the tea party movement and of conservatives.
Now watch some troll yell "teabagger, teabagger" which is kind of funny because they use the reference as an inside joke, the word also describes a gay act, so they are using "teabagger" to call someone gay as if that was a slur. So sad.
(2) Iraq wasn't attacking the US, and we don't make it our business to remove all the evil in the world.
(2a) The Social Security Act was passed after Democrats won both the House and Senate in 1964. They had a 2:1 majority in Congress. The Act passed in 1965. Republicans may have voted for it, but that may have a testament to the fact that they were less intransigent than today's GOP.
(3) Conservative commentators didn't say a damned thing about borrowing to fund wars. That's antithetical to Republican Party ethos.
By the way, it's interesting that you seem to confuse GOP and Tea Bagger.
I think that the driving force is simply an impotent rage, fueled by those commentators that you mentioned. There is no thought, just feeling when it comes to those protesters, for the most part at least.
For example, the guy who responded to you mentioned that he wasn't mad about taxes NOW, but on the future for paying taxes, despite the fact that there is no real reason to believe that taxes will be raised, other than an unthinking, gut reaction to legislation.
I think that this is most evident when you look at the folks who were out doing a gun rally this week, despite the fact that there is no federal legislation in the works, or even talk of legislation, to create more strict gun laws. To the rally people, this is suddenly necessary because they are afraid and angry and these feelings are fanned by the incoherent demagoguery from those talkers that you mentioned.
I really only started following US politics and Huffington Post because of the HRC and the reactions to it. Sadly I am seeing a side of Americans that is shameful, ugly and downright scary. The gloves have come off and it is seemingly now totally appropriate to finally verbalize all the pent-up racism, bigotry and classism (is that a word?) that the Right have been repressing for so long.
The fear-mongering has them focusing on the anomalies - illegal immigrants, welfare 'bums' - rather than the majority of the population: the underemployed and the working poor. That is the group who will and should benefit from HRC, that is the group that enabled the typical right-wing demographic to get where they are today. They are truly the stitching holding the fabric of the country together.
Time and again I hear and read of the fear that these reforms will cause the 'underlings' to feel some sense of entitlement (GASP!) but so far the only group displaying ENTITLEMENT is the TP and Republicans themselves. The selfishness is appalling and worse - they don't even recognize it in themselves.
These are sad times watching the layers being peeled back to expose the real thoughts and feelings of far too many Americans, more numerous than I ever imagined.
Some of you are very confused.
It is true that 47% pay no Federal Income Taxes. Social Security is a Government run insurance plan that you pay premiums to (Federal Insurance Contribution ACT (FICA).
It is akin to an insurance annuity. Your premiums are based on earned income. Your annuity is directly tied to the premiums you paid.
It's the mandated purchase of insurance from a single provider/payer.
Income taxes are not entered into your account ledger to be used to compute future payments to be made directly to you based on what you paid in.
You can argue about how to calculate premiums or how much any given person should pay.
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it's probably a duck. SS is mandated insurance.
So when the Progressives tout all the other taxes the 47% pay, leave FICA out.
Progressives 'boiling the frog since 1913"
Mandated yes, a social program yes, socialist no. The very nature of how its insurance premiums are paid in and its benefits are paid out precludes it from being a socialist program in the traditional sense.
It is not a retirement savings program. If it was, one could accrue property rights.
It is an insurance program based upon a long outdated actuarial model.
Medicare is a socialist program and a tax. The revenues paid into the program are in essence a flat tax on earned income. Those revenues are not credited to an Individual's account and the benefits are not computed based on what an individual has paid in.
It is true that everybody who has earned income are subject to a 2.9% flat tax and an insurance premium of 12.4% of their earned income up to 106.8K. It is also true that 47% were not subject to the progressive portion of the income tax system.
Just trying to call a duck, a duck.
Also all those defending the Health Care bill's insurance purchase mandates should look to FICA. It is not private, but it is without a doubt insurance.
So the question remains . . . what is it you're REALLY upset about?
Said 'So What' to self-interest. This country as in most is just a collection of special interest.
My wife is a Chinese immigrant, and nothing infuriates her more than this. With all of the hard working Chinese immigrants she knows, she also knows of wealthy Chinese businessmen who are living in public housing because they master hiding their wealth from governments. It makes her blood boil - does that make her racist?
And it seems that you're of the opinion that I don't believe in fraud. In fact, I freely acknowledge that this is a problem, but that does not eliminate the reality that much of our system has been stacked in ways that benefits the very people who set up the rules. Is that really a controversial opinion?
Funny how the "out of control" run away spending of the Dems, they still just does not get it......
How can any liberal, progressive, moderate or conservative be mad about a group of Americans taking to the streets to protest the actions of the country? What they are engaged in is constitutional.
The freedom to assemble, march, walk, scream and yell is right there in the document we all abide by.
Do I object to idiots holding up clearly racist signs, as well as the stupidity of images of President Obama as Hitler? Of course. That ignorance detracts from whatever commentary they are trying to make on the status of the nation.
It's clear that most of the folks attending Tea Party rallies are not bigots and homophobes. There are ignorant fools in all groups, and the Tea Party is no different."
I say, "The fact remains that the biggest tax hike in US history is on the way to the middle class, even though taxes are low now. "
As one opposed to the IRAQ war, one who wrote my Senators, Congressmen, Governor, and President to promote immigration. I don't fit neatly into Laskoff's little category. Furthermore any Rachel Maddog conspiracy that you try to apply to the tea party is absurd....
Bush went against the will of the people to pursue an IRAQ war that cost a trillion, and how much corruption we don't even know yet. I was against it, but it was "ramrodded through". Think about it for a minute, were the American people really consulted about this?
Now in 2010, the shoe is on the other foot with the Dems in power, and they "ramrodded through" contentious legislation. Now if U R logical and U remove the emotions from the issues for a minute consider this: The Gallup Poll asked, "Regardless of whether you favored or opposed the health care legislation Congress passed this past week, do U
think the methods the Democratic leaders in Congress used to get enough votes to pass this legislation were an abuse of power or were an appropriate use of power by the party that controls the majority in Congress?" The results: 53 percent say the Democrats' methods were an abuse of power, while 40 percent say they were appropriate.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Poll-Majority-says-Dem-health-care-tactics-an-abuse-of-power-89624142.html#ixzz0lLouBJIq
But are you going to tell me that those 'folks' aren't really part of the movement or what its about? Then why were all the other Teabaggers just standing there, right alongside them, allowing them to express their bigotry as part of the Tea Party group?
As for your magical prediction about the biggest middle class tax increase being 'on its way' - what are you, a time traveler from the future? A fortune teller? Bill Murray in Groundhog Day? Lol, so you are protesting hypothetical FUTURISTIC tax increases that have not actually occurred and ignoring the LOWER taxes that the majority of the middle class payed this year?
In what twisted insane troll logic does that make sense??? Do you wonder how magnets work too??
"How can any liberal, progressive, moderate or conservative be mad about a group of Americans taking to the streets to protest the actions of the country? What they are engaged in is constitutional. The freedom to assemble, march, walk, scream and yell is right there in the document we all abide by.
Do I object to idiots holding up clearly racist signs, as well as the stupidity of images of President Obama as Hitler? Of course. That ignorance detracts from whatever commentary they are trying to make on the status of the nation.
But it's clear that most of the folks attending Tea Party rallies are not bigots and homophobes. There are ignorant fools in all groups, and the Tea Party is no different"
I say Laskoff who wrote this article is looking for conspiracies like that Rachel Maddog, part of the radical, socialist, fringe, Dem group trying to justifiy everything Obama does. And for the record the
taxes are in fact low now, but set to "kick in" is the highest tax increase on the Middle class in US history......