Why the teaparties mattered

Xenophon · Apr 21, 2009

Over at lowbrow MSNBC, the jokes about tea parties have been lewd and crude. Some other commentators think such protests are just stupid. And the federal government has been worrying about right-wing extremists.

So it seemed a kind of truth-seeking mission to visit Denver's Tax Day demonstration, a gathering of men and women whose ideas were pretty well summed up in the posters they were carrying.

"Haste, waste and fear is not a plan," said one. "200 years to build a nation, one election to destroy it," said another. In large, Magic-Marker letters, readers were told of the threat of socialism and the blessings of free enterprise. Anyone still suspecting President Barack Obama was the day's hero need only have glanced at this message: "Hail to the thief."
But in contrast to any federal paranoia about a recession-bred willingness to sign up with militias or supremacist groups, the 5,000 or so people gathered in front of Colorado's golden-domed Capitol were everyday folks, mostly cheerful, laughing, having a good time, carrying flags, singing patriotic songs, saying the Pledge of Allegiance and focused on one overriding theme: the government's Obama-directed spending binge.

Repeatedly, a speaker referred to the trillions in debt being piled up, and repeatedly, he and others worried about the burden on future generations and the implications to individual liberty. There was some play with an Obama rhetorical trick his asking people whether they could do this or that and having them say, "Yes, we can." A speaker asked a series of questions at this session such as whether the government can take over the economy and was told by the shouting audience, "No, you can't."

This wasn't a Republican deal, even though some Republican state legislators stood above the crowd on a balcony, encouraging everyone with thumbs-up gestures. How do you suppose they felt when the speaker said, look, Republicans helped get us in this mess they spent like crazy when it was their turn? The Denver tea party was mostly a grassroots, Internet-coordinated occurrence like some 730 others that took place across the country.

Nor was this an act of mob imbecility, even if Obama insists that economists of all ideological persuasions agree that spending is the only available means of getting us out of the recession. In fact, dozens of economists, including Nobel Prize winners, say differently that lowering spending would serve us better and that the government should at least not spend crazily.
To me, it is encouraging that at least some Americans care enough about a mindless tumble into jeopardy to make themselves heard. This whole tea party phenomenon patterned after the 1773 Boston tea party is at least one signal to Washington that some get it that this spending spree coming on top of an already huge debt could be economically devastating, and that there's a plan for unprecedented levels of spending on new and expanded programs even when the recession ends.

Unlike liberal pundits, these Americans also understand that Obama has already increased tobacco taxes mostly affecting low-income Americans, that his carbon tax plans would hit everyone and that government at all levels is grabbing increasingly outrageous percentages of income from society's most productive members to the detriment of all of us.
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Rest of article here.

Quite enjoyable and spot on.

Terry · Apr 21, 2009

nay sayers are so out of touch.

Annie · Apr 21, 2009

Terry said: ↑

nay sayers are so out of touch.
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Ah but here's hoping that they will find out. In my best dream, a third party emerges and submerges the GOP. In any event, I'm quite certain that the politicians are going to hear our voices, if 'we' show for tea parties, they KNOW we'll show for the vote.

Terry · Apr 21, 2009

Annie said: ↑

Terry said: ↑

nay sayers are so out of touch.
Click to expand...

Ah but here's hoping that they will find out. In my best dream, a third party emerges and submerges the GOP. In any event, I'm quite certain that the politicians are going to hear our voices, if 'we' show for tea parties, they KNOW we'll show for the vote.
Click to expand...

Oh so true! They also know for every 5 that did go there is probably another 2 that didn't. Well something like that....probably more than that.

Annie · Apr 21, 2009

Terry said: ↑

Annie said: ↑

Terry said: ↑

nay sayers are so out of touch.
Click to expand...

Ah but here's hoping that they will find out. In my best dream, a third party emerges and submerges the GOP. In any event, I'm quite certain that the politicians are going to hear our voices, if 'we' show for tea parties, they KNOW we'll show for the vote.
Click to expand...

Oh so true! They also know for every 5 that did go there is probably another 2 that didn't. Well something like that....probably more than that.
Click to expand...

I'd think those numbers are inverted. For every 1 that went, 10 agree with them. Or some correlation.

Terry · Apr 21, 2009

Annie said: ↑

Terry said: ↑

Annie said: ↑

Ah but here's hoping that they will find out. In my best dream, a third party emerges and submerges the GOP. In any event, I'm quite certain that the politicians are going to hear our voices, if 'we' show for tea parties, they KNOW we'll show for the vote.
Click to expand...

Oh so true! They also know for every 5 that did go there is probably another 2 that didn't. Well something like that....probably more than that.
Click to expand...

I'd think those numbers are inverted. For every 1 that went, 10 agree with them. Or some correlation.
Click to expand...

yeah I knew it was something like that.

Truthmatters · Apr 21, 2009

They matter, they were just small and matter to only a small fraction fo the populace in the way you want them to.

Annie · Apr 21, 2009

Truthmatters said: ↑

They matter, they were just small and matter to only a small fraction fo the populace in the way you want them to.
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Now would be a good time for you to stop posting on them. How many threads have you begun on this topic? You are displaying your OCD side.

Truthmatters · Apr 21, 2009

Go count them Annie.

I didnt start this thread

Annie · Apr 21, 2009

Truthmatters said: ↑

Go count them Annie.

I didnt start this thread
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Didn't say you did. If memory serves at least 4. Had to post in all though, right?

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Why the teaparties mattered

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Terry Shut the $%$ Up!

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