My Tea Party Rant
By omb on Apr 16, 2009 in Conservatism, Obeyme, Porkulus, Uncategorized, liberty
I mentioned in my earlier post about the tea parties, leading up to April 15th, that I didn’t like the fact that members of the media and former politicians were positioning themselves to take advantage of the grass roots efforts. Newt Gingrich, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and the two most egregious examples; Mike Huckabee and Neil Boortz of the ‘Fair Tax’ movement. It even happened at our local Boise Tea Party – politicians sticking their mugs in front of the cameras and microphones, trying to gain as much sway as they could from rallies. I don’t doubt that on most levels, they genuinely supported the purpose of the Tea Parties, but there was definitely too much of their viewpoints covered.
My problem with Beck was that he was trying to ‘shape’ the rally into something he could ‘safely’ attend so as to, I can only assume, boost his ratings. Today, I want to address Huckabee and Boortz and their ‘Fair Tax’ rally, being stuffed in front of the cameras. First of all, they offer what they consider to be a solution to what they consider to be ‘the problem’, in Borrtz’s words; the Federal tax code, and I have no problem with them putting that forward, even though I a) disagree that the tax code is the biggest problem we face, and b) that the ‘Fair Tax’ is the best solution. ( There is a good article over on mises.org about the Flat Tax and the Fair Tax, and how they distract from the real problem – out of control spending) However, the opportunistic manner in which they leveraged Huckabee’s position with Fox News to get their rally in the middle of Hannity’s coverage of the Atlanta tea party was way over the top, in my opinion.
Hannity, in my opinion, represents the lowest common denominator of commentators on the right. I think he’s a good guy with a pretty good message, but I don’t think he’s all that sharp. Huckabee, on the other hand, is a snake, in my opinion. Let me remind you, this is the guy that stayed in the campaign way past the time that it was obvious that he would not get the nomination, for the express purpose of damaging Gov. Romney in the remaining primaries. He saddled the Republicans with McCain and, in my opinion, very likely secured the defeat in November.
I, for one, think that Romney , of the remaining pre-convention Republicans would have been the best candidate to take on Obama, and would have shredded him in the debates. Huckabee saddled the Republicans with McCain, period. Romney would have been the candidate to have on the podium when it was obvious that the economy was in trouble. Now remember, with no Obama in the White House pursuing his Marxists policies, it is very unlikely that these Tea Parties would have ever occured. So, I find it particularly outrageous that Huckabee was out in front, co-opting the Tea Parties to the benefit of his ‘Fair Tax’ issue, when he in large part, contributed to the eventual election of Obama by saddling us with the inept John McCain.
Now, Huckabee has parleyed his campaign presence into some sort of Fox TV show and we can expect him to be putting his mug in front of any populist movement that he thinks he can use to further his cause – him. I should have expected him to try to co-opt the message of the tea parties to his own ends, after all, he’s a bass player, and its a scientifically proven fact that bass players suffer from extreme inferiority personality disorders.
For the tea party attendees that I know, this was their first political rally. For many of the organizers as well, this was their first as well. I hope in the future that the organizers can keep the political hacks and media personalities out of the mix and keep the movement and the message in the hands of the people. The obvious vitriol on the part of the main stream media towards the tea party protests is evidence of one thing – this scared the shit out of the left. They don’t know how to react to it because it is genuine, and largely unheard of from the working taxpayers in this country, so they attack the movement and try to make the participants look like morons for attending. This is an attempt to intimidate, reduce participation, and perhaps snuff out the movement all together. All are indications that the message is being heard loud and clear, and as long as they(the media) can’t attach a national face to this movement, it will grow and flourish. That’s why I’m against the folks I mentioned getting out in front of this thing.
-OMB
Brilliant post OMB! Oh, wait a mintute, I wrote it…
-OMB
omb | Apr 16, 2009 | Reply
Hey OMB! This IS a brilliant post! And I think that people should take a look at what you are saying about these folks who are inserting themselves into the middle of this protest before just jumping on their band wagons! They have their motives and we need to be wary.
EAP | Apr 16, 2009 | Reply
a history lesson …with first-person accounts of the first tea party.
it is much easier to send this link than try to re-write things, or quote others. give it a read!
Fluffy | Apr 17, 2009 | Reply
If you look around, you’ll find that these “tea parties’ are not grass root movements, but are well organized by ‘Freedomworks’, an organization run by Dick Armey. in an excerpt from an article on Slate , Timohy Noah writes about Armey’s lobbying firm CSE ;
The lobbying CSE does is of a kind usually described by its practitioners as “grass-roots” and by its detractors, more accurately, as “Astroturf.” According to a spokesman, two-thirds of CSE’s money comes from corporations and other conservative foundations (which are in turn funded mainly by corporations), and in 2000 the combined income of its charity and foundation arms exceeded $15 million. (Click here and here for the details.) The Internal Revenue Service, bizarrely, doesn’t require 501(c)3s and 501(c)4s to make public their funding sources. But in the past, CSE financed a “grass-roots” campaign against Everglades restoration with $700,000 from Florida’s three biggest sugar growers and waged a “grass-roots” campaign against higher cigarette taxes with more than a million dollars from Philip Morris.
Armeys lobbying firm DL Piper represents AIG, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch.
I am in favor of protesting, was NOT in favor of bailouts, but have no illusions about who pulls your strings!
Fluffy | Apr 17, 2009 | Reply
Fluffy,did it ever cross your mind that even though there may be some level of this type of “organizing” going on,for the most part people are genuinely frustrated at the level of taxation? That perhaps these people you say are running the show may have jumped on board when they saw the anger of the people? Maybe it is the other way around. And to tell you the truth, I don’t really care either way at this point as long as people are waking up to the fact that yes we are taxed too much already and there is more coming.
There is no one “pulling my strings” except those in washington who think they have a right to spend my money on crap social programs that are failing miserably.
So anyone on the right who protests-obviously has their strings pulled, obviously they don’t read, obviously they don’t cross reference. Once again you are insulting.
EAP | Apr 17, 2009 | Reply
Fluffy,
You sound like Nancy Pelosi with the Astroturf comment – right out of the Democratic talking points. Whose pulling your strings? I’ve seen the finances for the Boise Tea Party. The money was from small, local donations. This movement started with Rick Santelli going ballistic on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on CNBC, which I saw live. That was the beginning, it was spontaneous, and it was not funded by Dick Armey. But even if the tea parties were funded by some evil corporations, why would that matter or delegitimize the events in your mind? I don’t hear anyone on the left complaining when Acorn, who gets their money from the U.S. Government and Democratic party, rents a bunch of bums and dirty hippies for the day and busses them to one protest or another, or as many voting locations as they can. The left seems to think that organizing and protesting is their exclusive turf – they just found out that they are wrong about that and really don’t know what to do about it other than whine.
-OMB
omb | Apr 17, 2009 | Reply
Where’s the link? I don’t see it. Anyway, I have actually read quite a bit about the original Tea Party. I don’t know what your article says, but did you know that Ben Franklin and others got private donations to reimburse the East India Tea Company for the loss? They were refused. There was a bit of thuggery, no doubt. Dressing like Indians and whatnot – but that was Sam Adams. He was frustrated and they did a lot nasty stuff.
-OMB
omb | Apr 17, 2009 | Reply
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/04/15-10
sorry, i forgot! …busy life.
Fluffy | Apr 17, 2009 | Reply
EAP, it wasn’t my comment, read again.
Fluffy | Apr 17, 2009 | Reply
Fluffy, you say at the beginning “If you look around, you’ll find that these “tea parties’ are not grass root movements, but are well organized by ‘Freedomworks’, an organization run by Dick Armey.” And then you head into your quote from the article. It seems to me as though you agree with the article. So maybe not your comments directly, but your sentiment exactly.
EAP | Apr 17, 2009 | Reply
What I’m saying is that this event was sponsored from the beginning by corporate entities and fox news. I’ve never heard of or ever attended a rally/protest that was advertised on national ‘news’ programs. I’m not being bailed out of anything, and I don’t agree with most of this nonsense, especially when it comes to corporate welfare. I just don’t think it was so ‘grassroots’.
I basically agree with OMB’s article, I am just taking it a step further. Grassroots movements, in my mind, are not funded or organized by lobbyists.
Fluffy | Apr 17, 2009 | Reply
Well, exactly how was it funded? All of the signs I saw were hand made, there was no bus bringing people there. There was a radio station. There was no podium. There was a man who had a mega phone. So maybe the these well funded, evil corporations handed that guy a mega phone. I don’t know. I guess it’s possible.
By the way, it is not only ‘corporate welfare’ that is a problem. It is ALL welfare. Do some research.
EAP | Apr 17, 2009 | Reply
EAP,
Free publicity by Fox News couldn’t get any better.It was priceless. I’ve read a lot about the thing..from both sides, because I really wasn’t sure how I actually felt about it. I can’t get past that it all seems like a big Republican stunt to motivate and rally the base over something. If Obama is true to his promises, The tax rate for those making over 250 thousand a year will still be less than what it was under Reagan!
Fluffy | Apr 18, 2009 | Reply
Fluffy, I agree that Fox news over kills everything it covers. True enough. But at least they covered it and were not calling me a racist or using a vile term as was the case on some other channels/radio stations and some papers(whom I will not mention ever). As for the “big Republican” thing, maybe in that there are lots of disgruntled republicans out there, but there really isn’t a big republican anything anymore. I for one, as a registered Republican voted against my Rep. senator last fall after he voted for the Bush bill. And I let him know I was going to. And guess what? I thanked the liberal Dem who voted against it. I would have voted for him if he had been up for re-elect. I will continue to watch how my reps vote and I will continue to write and call them in opposition to any more federal spending from any one. OMB says it correctly in his article. We need to watch who trys to get out in front of this thing! (Also, when I said all welfare needs to go, I do mean at the federal level. The states have the right to have welfare plans if the people in those states want to pay for it.)
EAP | Apr 18, 2009 | Reply
One more thought. The term “tea party” has nothing to do with the Boston Tea Party with the exception of the fact that it is a revolt. People are angry. It gave it a name. That does not mean it is replicating the manner or cause of the revolt.
EAP | Apr 18, 2009 | Reply