Seriously guys, get a life. You’re not Samuel Adams or the Sons of Liberty.
As Shaun Kenney pointed out, when you have a “tea party” organizer apologizing to the EPA after the EPA told them not to dump tea into a river because it would affect the river water’s color, you’re a joke. If someone had told Samuel Adams that, he — after someone explained to him who and what the EPA is — would have tarred and feathered the EPA bureaucrat.
You people are not living under a constant threat of a dictatorial government’s control. You don’t have soldiers boarded in your house, you don’t have soldiers shooting people in the street for throwing snowballs (the Boston “Massacre”), and you’re not freezing to death at Valley Forge in the winter. And by acting like you do, you’re mocking and trivializing everything that the founding fathers suffered, fought, and died for.
And the same goes to the folks on the other side of aisle with their antiwar protests. You’re not getting shot at and killed by National Guardsmen at a college campus like happened in the ’70s (Kent State shootings), so stop acting like you are. And the same can be said about certain civil rights protests nowadays. This isn’t the ’60s and the country isn’t Selma, Alabama anymore.
And for those attending these “tea party” protests claiming that they’re fighting against government expansion and the national debt…where have you guys been for the past 10 years? Not to bring up Bush, but where the hell were you guys when that first economic stimulus bill in 2008 that cost $158,000,000,000, and was not a tax cut, but government handouts to everyone? And where were you guys when Republicans supported a $290,000,000,000 “farm bill”, which was nothing more than a corporate welfare bill?
And where were you guys last year in recruiting candidates that would oppose increases in government spending and actually try to cut spending? Where were you guys before the November election helping to get someone besides Barack Obama elected? And better yet, where the hell were you guys when John McCain was in process of being nominated as the Republican candidate for President? A bunch of the people going to and promoting these tea parties are the same people that supported John McCain last year. You know, John McCain, that same guy that voted for that first economic stimulus bill and the first bailout bill.
So, maybe instead of you guys sitting in a park for a couple hours on the 15th, you should go find a political candidate that you like somewhere (I suggest Bill Bolling or Ken Cuccinelli), and go door-to-door trying to get people to support the candidate.
wow, worst blog post ever.
Go cry me a river and while you’re at it take your lousy example of a structured argument with you.
Back at you, buddy.
In most cases people are rationally ignorant (cost exceeds the benefit) of most of the political decisions made around them. I would argue the Stimulus is no different. At first people were confused by what they were being sold and didn’t invest the time to figure it out.
Time has now past and information concerning the true burden of the Stimulus has been both deciphered and filtered down. This albeit delayed action, is not just appropriate, but a good starting place to reclaim America’s free market approach to economics.
Your post reads like some elitist criticism, which sneers at the participants because they are somehow debasing the actions of the Sons of Liberty. Instead of responding to this line of argument, I would ask you to tell me HOW?
I am not a Tea Party organizer and I actually won’t even be able to attend one, but I see them as a good grassroots starting point. They aren’t perfect (see Del. Harvey Morgan being invited to speak at the Gloucester Tea Party). But they are a decentralized movement that is motivated by national, state, and LOCAL consequences of departing from free market economics. Mary Buxton’s Tea Party in Middlesex County is a great example (they also plan to dump tea in the river by the way!).
Sorry but I agree with Grozet, “Your post reads like some elitist criticism, which sneers at the participants because they are somehow debasing the actions of the Sons of Liberty. Instead of responding to this line of argument, I would ask you to tell me HOW?”
I WILL be at the Fredericksburg, VA “tea party” and I hope many others will attend that event and other protests all over the U.S. We need to show how many of us disagree with this administration and this Congress.
I’m not being an elitist, I have a problem with a group of individuals that seem to think that sitting in a park, or on sideway, for a couple hours for a single day is somehow comparable to the actions taken by the Sons of Liberty and our founding fathers. It’s outright insulting to their legacy when you have these people mocking and trivializing their actions.
You yourself talk about the coward politicians that are showing up at these “tea parties”. Newt Gingrich taking over a movement that is supposed to be for limited government is laughable when Gingrich seems to think that the federal government growing at 2% is a smashing success for supporters of limited government. If these organizers of the tea parties were really for limited government, then they wouldn’t invite these people to speak during the events, for crying out loud!
And then there are the complete wackos that are showing up too:
http://belowthebeltway.com/2009/04/11/the-looney-right-the-tea-parties/
And there is also the problem that a nonviolent protest accomplishes nothing unless there is the persistent threat of force against the participants. Why were the civil rights marches in the ’60s so successful? Because there was video of the participants being brutalized that were shown to almost every American. The same can be said about some of the anti-war protests as well, especially the photographs of the aftermath of the Kent State shootings.
And if someone actually bothers to dump some tea into a river, I wonder what the response from the “tea party” organizers will be when the EPA and the Department of Environmental Quality show up.
“…the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”
Liberties which are guaranteed under the bill of rights, in which the citizens at these “tea-parties” are exercising. And just like the Boston Tea Party, they are protesting against taxes. Back then, it was the excise tax on tea, today, its the fact that our tax money is being used to fund superbanks who made bad loan decisions and for those who can’t afford their mortgage, not because they are now without a job, but because they have lived beyond their means.
I do believe you are making an elitist statement in regards to citizens participation of these tea parties. I would say that you are probably a card carrying follower of Janeane Garofalo, who stated that all supporters of these tea parties are racist rednecks who’s brains are misfiring!! (and didn’t that stupid, no talent ass clown state she was going to move to Canada if Bush won the election…..why didn’t she go????)
Rant all you want Timmy, but the citizens are speaking out…in a very peaceful manner, at their disapproval for our governments monetary policies. Pray that it doesn’t become more violent down the road, and hope that the actions of April 15th tea parties become a strong message to our elected officials that enough is enough.
By the way…I think I am going start calling you Stanley from now on….as in, you’re a tool!!
Funny Chipper, nowhere did I say that people couldn’t protest, just questioned the value in actually doing it. And where did I say anything about “rednecks”, “racist”, or anything else? You can read, right?
Oh, by the way, what are your thoughts on your candidate in the 99th district?
I have to agree with Tim. Simply put, people at tea parties are just not the thinking sort. What Tim states is hard to object to. Where were these poorly educated moronos when Bush was driving the whole country into the ground? These people are just cronies too stupid to realize when someone is trying to do something in their own best interest.
It is a sort of paradox that the rural poor and uneducated vote for the party that would just as soon step on them once they are voted in. They feed off rhetoric and bitterness.
Furthermore, many in this racist band of ignorant folks claim to be Christians. That is just a bad joke. I don’t think this is what Jesus was referring to when he mentioned the narrow path. This road is wide enough for truckloads of sheep.
I agree with Tim.
The “Tea Party” folks are just people who can’t deal with the fact that McCain lost the election. If it was a serious protest for the agenda they are pushing then how come the movement didn’t launch sooner and start with earlier presidents who pushed insane budgets through? Seriously grow up, a black man is president and beat a white dude to get there. Stop being babies.
The only thing worse then the “Tea Party” ignoramuses are people who assume all or most soldiers are Republicans. I’m a disabled veteran since 2005 and fought in a war I participated in because it was my duty and not because I believed in it. Also I’m not a member of either party but I do lean towards the Democrats in most cases. We are supposed to be the most advanced nation in the world yet we don’t guaranty health care as a right for it’s citizens? WTF? Canda, Great Britain and many other nations are showing us up and you guys spew out crap some insurance company has handed to you as an agenda?