Revolution Rekindled: Tea Party Movement Blossoms
On December 16, 1773, a group of colonists known as the Sons of Liberty boarded three English ships at Massachusetts’ Griffin Wharf. They pulled over 90,000 lbs of tea from the ships’ cargo holds and threw it into Boston Harbor in a symbolic act of protest that history would remember as the Boston Tea Party.
The Tea Party was a key step in the course from resistance to revolution in the American colonies. Less than a year after the event, the First Continental Congress presented the colonies’ British hegemons with a united American opposition — and, less than a year after that, the Revolutionary War began and the Second Continental Congress, which would adopt the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, went into session.
In 2009, when discretionary budget totals and annual deficit projections in the trillions of dollars are being bandied by an administration that speaks as though wasting that amount of money were a commonplace undertaking, those ruggedly individualistic, fiscally responsible Americans who have quietly suffered the effects of the government expansion and waste imposed by Presidents Franklin Roosevelt (New Deal) and Lyndon Johnson (Great Society), and who have witnessed the sullying of Ronald Reagan’s economic reputation, have decided to suffer in silence no more.
Fourteen years after Boston, America’s Constitutional Convention met to draft and ratify the document which governs our nation to this very day. Now, with many viewing our founding document and the principles it espouses, and upon which this nation was built, as being under attack, the memory of the Tea Party resistance has been resurrected and is being put into practice around America.
This Wednesday, tens of thousands of people across the country will join together in a protest years in the making, as a silent majority that quietly seethed through the Bush 41, Clinton, and Bush 43 years of fiscal irresponsibility and expanded government entitlements has been moved to action through the previously unimaginable profligacy of President Barack Obama’s administration. These protests are driven by the common sentiment that our nation’s government is already too big and too expensive to operate, that it acts too punitively toward those who work for success, and that it has increased its regulatory footprint far beyond an acceptable level — and that the current administration’s policies will only exacerbate that situation.
Red is the new Barack.
Where the hell were you teabaggers when our government was blowing TRILLIONS of dollars (sometimes millions by the pallet) on a fruitless war on foreign soil, letting our infrastructure crumble, our schools fall behind the rest of civilized society, and wasting billions more on government expanding, privacy invading drug war? Where were you then?
That you all choose to protest now instead of then belies your true intent, which is to stir shit and whine like a bunch of petulant children after your bitter defeat by the hands of the voting American Public.
Seriously, where were you teabaggers eight years ago? I’ll tell you where you were, you were suckling at the oxycontin laced milk flowing from republicans teats, too busy congratulating yourselves over voting in a guy you’d all like to have a beer with.
Conservatives don’t want small government, they want their government, at any cost. The last 8 years are clear evidence of that. History will reveal you as the selfish and shortsighted fools you are.
Dear “Theo,”
Thanks for pointing out to all that you can’t think or see beyond your deeply implanted leftist cliches.
There is a big difference between Republicans and “conservatives,” one being an established political party and the other – loosely described – a (political…or economic, or religious) philosophy.
But thanks for the morning laugh.
Today’s Tea Parties are events. Whether they will result in a movement toward smaller government is the real question. As #2 points out in his snarky way, the Republicans did not distinguish themselves by controlling spending during the 12 years they had control of Congress or the 6 years that they had control of both Congress and the White House. Even today, 40% of the earmarks in the last spending bill were attributable to Republicans, roughly in line with their numbers in Congress.
The problem is that too many Americans, while perhaps frightened by the sudden increase in spending and scope of the federal government, don’t have a real understanding of or commitment to limited government. Without an understanding of why free markets are better than government economic planning and a commitment to decentralized government rather than concentration of control in Washington, we will make no progress on this front. This is not about which party controls the reigns of government; it is about how much control we want the government to have over our money and our lives.
theo – You don’t know what you are talking about. This isn’t about parties – I hate them both. It’s about our freedom which we losing rapidly.
Six years ago (when the Republicans first controlled the Congress and Presidency), I was sending nasty letters to Republicans for their failure to reform tax reform and their free spending. I have not contributed to the Republican party since then.
I’ve fought the conservative fight in the primaries. For some reason the Republican bosses keep thinking that moderate Rinos are the way to win. The bosses and the open primaries which allowed independents to vote gave us losers like McCain. There is a reckoning coming for Spector, Collins, Snowe, and the rest of the Rinos.
I hope there is also a reckoning coming for tyrannical Democrats who are spending my kids’ money.
It’s not out-of-the-question that the 2009 Tea Party participants could someday be regarded by history as patriots who made a difference- same as 1773. This sort of public outrage might be just what’s needed to break through the media’s manufactured reality.
And you can believe that Obama and the left are plenty scared of the TEA party movement- how else to explain the dubious timing of the DHS report warning of “right-wing” radicals and their propensity to violence?
Barack Obama is rapidly liquidating everything that made this country great… and needs to be put back-on-his-heels with a major embarrassment that puts an end to the myth that everybody just loves Barack and his wacked-out agenda… because millions of us DON’T.
http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/
Moveon.org and Code Pink are sponsoring the protests in my town. There are rumors that say even George Soros might show up. I hope so! He always has the best signs.
It’s not out-of-the-question that the 2009 Tea Party participants could someday be regarded by history as patriots who made a difference- same as 1773. This sort of public outrage might be just what’s needed to break through the media’s manufactured reality.
And you can believe that Obama and the left are plenty scared of the TEA party movement- how else to explain the dubious timing of the DHS report warning of “right-wing” radicals and their propensity to violence?
Barack Obama is rapidly liquidating everything that made this country great… and needs to be put back-on-his-heels with a major embarrassment that puts an end to the myth that everybody just loves Barack and his wacked-out agenda… because millions of us DON’T.
Wow, these tea parties are bringing out the worst from everybody.
Lefties seem to be a bit upset, possibly because protest has always been seen as a preserve of the left. Listen, even if you think this is astroturf, people have a right to protest. If millions of people didn’t support Obama last November it would only make sense to have thousands of people come out and say they still don’t like him.
As for you righties, you guys are practiucally virgins when it comes to protesting so I can understand how you are all excited and see this as the dawning of a new age. I felt the same way when I attended my first mass protest back in 1975. Nothing much was changed from that protest (on wage and price controls in Canada), and you won’t find much changing from this one. Yet, some of you are diverting from taxation to issues like illegal immigration, Obama’s citizenship, same-sex marriage, I have read from people who are going out because they are outraged about the teaching of evolution in public schools. I have heard vague and nasty remarks about how many NRA people are going to be coming armed (I really hope this isn’t true, but the people who said they’d be packing didn’t sound like they were making jokes). I’ve also read the entries on Stormfront where Nazis think this is prime Nazi recruitment turf. To those conservatives that aren’t nuts, I say have a great day. Enjoy being part of a crowd that agrees with you. Focus on the one issue rather than a mixed-bag of right-wing causes. Be nice and polite to those who don’t agree with you. FOR GOD’S SAKE NO VIOLENCE! This can be a fun day for conservatives, enjoy yourselves.
I have not been impressed with the turnout at Tea Party events up until now, but today is supposed to be a big day. If it all works out, have another one on July 4th so that people won’t have to try to get the day off work.
As to the anti-tea partiers (coffee drinkers perhaps?) let the right have their day in the sun. If they can come up with numbers in the tens or hundreds of thousands give them their due. Many leftists have marched in bigger protests than this and they wanted their First Amendment rights, let the right have their rights too. Besides, if you believe the right is inept, a gathering like this will allow the right to shoot themselves in the foot once again.
Where the hell were you teabaggers when our government was blowing TRILLIONS of dollars (sometimes millions by the pallet) on a fruitless war on foreign soil …
If we had lost the war, it would have been ‘fruitless’. Still, try to posture as a liberal ‘hero’ because you opposed the removal of a brutal dictator. You go right ahead and do that. Also, you believed that war was lost in 2006 when it wasn’t, meaning you obviously don’t have either the education or the acumen to comment on geopolitics or to understand the geopolitical implications of anything. What’s next, citing that ridiculous, debunked $10 trillion figure some university professors were trotting out a year or two ago ….
… letting our infrastructure crumble …
Oh, is that what all this spending is about? Infrastructure. Tell you what, genius, why don’t you post how much of the $780+ billion ‘stimulus’ passed, and how much of all future spending proposed, is actually for infrastructure?
… our schools fall behind the rest of civilized society …
You’re an idiot. The states are primarily responsible for schools, not the federal government (and the Tea Party protests are primarily about an out-of-control federal government). When the federal government did try to apply standards — the No Child Left Behind Act — liberals howled in protest. Additionally, studies have shown that there is NO correlation between money spent and student performance. In short, the problem ain’t too little money. You’d know that, except you’re a product of public schooling ….
… and wasting billions more on government expanding, privacy invading drug war?
The drug war? Of all the things to comment on, you’re worried about this. Oh I get it. You’re a pimply post-adolescent who thinks smoking ganga is big issue for real adults. Gotcha.
Where were you then?
Where were you? My opposition to the ‘principles’ of unlimited government have been consistent, through all of the Bush administration and into the Obama administration. Your ‘principles’, however, consist of nothing more than Republican vs. Democrat. In short, you’re not even intelligent enough to have principles. All you can do is watch TV and play the partisan gotcha game.
That you all choose to protest now instead of then belies your true intent, which is to stir shit and whine like a bunch of petulant children after your bitter defeat by the hands of the voting American Public.
er, I thought dissent was patriotic? Whatever happened to that?
Seriously, where were you teabaggers eight years ago? I’ll tell you where you were, you were suckling at the oxycontin laced milk flowing from republicans teats, too busy congratulating yourselves over voting in a guy you’d all like to have a beer with.
I think that’s supposed to be clever. Still, a teabagger is in the position of dominance and obviously it is the teabagger who actually has some balls. Does that make you the teabaggee? Of course, in your case Obama and the government is the teabagger and it is you who are on your back, ball-less and submissive.
Conservatives don’t want small government, they want their government, at any cost. The last 8 years are clear evidence of that. History will reveal you as the selfish and shortsighted fools you are.
Methinks you know nothing of history. Public schooling and all that. I doubt you even know the difference between conservative, Republican, people who disagree with you politially, and cartoonish caricatures, etc.
too little, too late, I fear. Where was the outrage the last 8 years as the borrow and spend party was working their magic? Oh yeah, it was ok cause taxes were low, we’ll just pass the bill to our children.
Yes, where was the outrage when the surplus left from Clinton could have applied to the national debt, or used to address other budget needs. Where was the outrage when spending for the budget wasn’t even included in budget numbers under Bush?
NOW you are outraged.
We know what the protests are about, alright.
Have fun teabagging.
Obama has already heard the tea party protesters and labeled them as potential threats to our nation’s security.
Hence, the MSM will search for, find and feature instances of radical right-wing extremist behavior at these events.
By the end of today police blotters across the nation will be dotted with arrests and unruly crowd reports for submission to the Department of Homeland Security to be used as part of more investigations and justifications for even stricter measures.
In short, there is no national level (GOP) leadership on the stage to effectively counter government policies. Clearly, local organizers – no matter who they are – have already demonstrated that they are no match for the Obama machine.
The original tea party was not only a great stand in America, but also proved something, that citizens who were tired of being walked over can stand up to someone to let the world know, in one voice, we are here, and we are not taking this anymore, however, there was a symbol that was there, throwing the tea overboard, what is the symbol of today’s tea party, most certainly a rally can be orchestrated, a date picked and a motion set in to place, but what will happen tomorrow, what will happen when you march to the door steps of power and then no one answers.
If there is no symbol of the power we, as American citizens hold, then there is no threat to things that we can accomplish, if you march to the door and no one answers, will you just walk away, or will you storm the castle and make the king hear your voice, your needs or your thoughts.
The only way, I feel, the Amercian rulers will listen is with force, I call them American rulers cause a government actually has the peoples best interest in mind, we do not have a president, we have a king, and that king is oppressing it’s subjects.
I agree this has been long overdue, but the results will be quite minimal if the action is to just walk over the grass of the kings lawn without actually talking to the king himself, and without talking to him, your voice will not be heard and things will remain business as usual, and you will go home.
Methinks Theo has not seen the charts on Barry’s proposed multi-year, multi-trillion dollar deficits.
Do you have diary writing priviliges at daily Kos Theo? Your stylish prose would fit right in.
Theo, you are poorly informed.
Hey Theo,
Dissent is patriotic! Remember? hehehehe
I’ll be there with bells on! I don’t care what Janet says!
theo = TROLL
you just have to love the insane reaction from the left regarding the Tea Parties. They’ve all diligently copied the Dem’s talking points.
with the Dem’s, its never about what is right, its always about my side versus your side. We’re the winners and you’re not.
just read the responses, they don’t talk about the issues being brought up, namely taxes and spending, they want to try to make it about something else like why now and not before?
I guess they’re not concerned at all with $2 trillion deficits and a congress that passes gigantic spending bills without even reading them.
they have to be stopped before they ruin us.
The Federal Government does not OWE a single dime to the Public School System. The education of our children is a matter for the individual States and the families that live there. In the same way, roads and drug policy should be solely matters for the residents of a State to decide at the BALLOT BOX not because some Judge issues an edict.
As for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we were damned if we did and damned if we didn’t. If you really believe that doing NOTHING would have resulted in a favorable end, then you’re wrong. The primary function of any Government is the defense of its people. If a President perceives a threat and does nothing is that not also a crime? He went to the UN, an he went to congress and Congress appropriated the money needed to accomplish the task and they had a lot more than only 3 Democrat Senators agree. In fact, it was more than HALF of ALL elected Democrats that agreed to pass the various funding bills and did so on numerous occasions.
We were wrong to allow Republicans to act like Democrats and because so many Republicans acted like Democrats they were rightfully rejected at the Ballot Box by both you and us. We would be equally wrong to allow Democrats to act like Democrats.
If the Republican Party will not become the Party of Limited Government then they will be rejected by both you and us, again.
We should be using the tea party movement as a way to build up support for amending our constitution. We need to put an end to ear marks and empower the president with a line item veto. When the confederacy was formed in 1861 they did get one thing right: They drafted a constitution that gave their president the authority to use a line-item veto, and required a 2/3 majority for spending bills not requested by the executive to get rid of pork barrel spending.
I saw a remarkable study of the tea party which should be brought to perspective. Excuse me for using round numbers: Dems were 40% in favor, Repubs were 60% in favor, and independents were 70% in favor. It seems that the tea parties are an independent voter phenomena. The central issue is big government and big taxes. The backside of the issues presented is entitlements.
Why do the trolls keep confusing Conservatives and Republicans? Conservatives have very little in common with Republicans and most are ashamed of the party in it’s current form.
The trolls keep making the specious arguments about the “last eight years” and the outrageous spending. If they’re really outraged by the spending of the last eight years, where is their outrage over the proposed spending of the next 4 years? Oh, I forgot, Democrat spending good, Republican spending bad…
These tea parties may or may not be the starting point of a bigger movement, but they transcend the current two parties in a way that, I think, scares the crap out of both parties. I’ve never been a big supporter of third parties, but the concept of a party centered entirely on fiscal conservatism with no stance at all on the social issues (that tend to divide us) could be a force to be reckoned with.
I do not understand the criticism of those opposed to the tea parties. How can anyone be opposed to free people, peacefully meeting, to protest the government in a respectful and thoughtful manner? Liberals are all happy with their protests, and yet a Conservative protest is the end of the universe. Hypocrisy at it’s finest.
More Republicans than democrats at the tea party? Yes, the statistics are clear. Many explanations are given.
Here is one more: 66 millions of us voted for our president, 58 millions against him. What should an official do once in office? At the minimum he should show some consideration towards the opposition, on the civilized notion that electoral opponents and enemies are two different things.
Instead, he alienated opne-minded opponents by treating them like enemies, unnecessarily. So, yes, the attendance of the tea parties may turn out to be asymmetric, but let’s keep in mind that this is about citizen discontent, not party affiliation, unless it’s a gathering of “the party for responsibility”, the one that would make our founders proud.
Theo, the Tea Parties consist of Republicans, Democrats, & Independents; it transcends party lines. Also your term is all wrong. The participants are not “teabaggers” but Americans who love the United States of America.
Teabagging is a sexual act. But you knew that didn’t you? Watching too much MSNBC… Their reporting is the equivilant of a grade school child throwing a tantrum.
Theo is a Democrat/Progressive troll. Both parties are scared to death of a Federal Government that sticks to its enumerated powers. No more Tax money to throw to contributors. No more lobbying jobs on K Street. Massive reduction in the number of Federal Government employees.
Most of all, they are afraid of a free people. It’s hell wanting to be in charge, being ignored by everyone, because they know you’re just a worthless, power hungry person with little talent and no ethics. They will do anything to avoid that. They are parasites on the productive members of society.
Mike and Theo, I know you are clueless when it comes to macro economics, but I will try to explain it. There is an amount of total deficit that can be maintained without causing massive future problems. Most economists put this at around 20% of GDP. This is called leverage and it can actually be a good thing in that it expands the resources and economic activity with a minimal cost. But there is a point where the debt starts to cause inflation and other long term effects to our detriment that far outweigh the benefits and in the long term this creates less for everyone. The Bush administration pushed to the edge of this line throughout most of it’s 8 years and really only went to far in the bailouts in it’s final days – bailouts screamed for by Democrats.
What the tea party movement is about is the fact that the current Congress and Administration are creating deficits far in excess of what is responsible and sustainable and so much of that money is little more than a payoff for their special interests. That Democrats willful ignorance in their mindless power grab will hurt us all – especially working people who have been duped into supporting them.
I take issue with the whole idea of this being some sort of “grassroots” protest. When I hear about such people as Dick Armey, Steve Forbes, Newt Gingrich and others throwing their financial support behind these demostrations, I worry. Look closely at such entities as FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity and you see people who are not behind the average working class individual.
Seems to me like it’s the protesters who are getting “teabagged” by GOP Corporate interests.
For those going to a Tea Party, take courage that you are making a stand for what you believe is right. Hopefully this is just the start of a meaningful movement to put our country back on track. Will it be easy, no. Will it be quick, no. Will it accomplish everything that people want, no. But I’m still hopeful.
Now that I’ve had a moment of zen, I get so pissed when the lefties out there post crap about the republican ‘uncontrolled’ spending in the last 8 years. The majority of democrats and moderates out there have been pushing for spending so that’s what the middle of the road republicans did – they gave in to appease the masses. However, this cannot be compared to the one’s self-absorbed agenda to spend trillions on promoting a socialist movement in the United States of America.
O frabjous day! Here we are, Mr. Bones, present at the recreation!
To amuse themeselves, and to exalt the horn of the _haute bourgeousie_, the entire population of darkest Pajamastán will turn out as one wingnut and . . . .
. . . and . . .
….
Hmm.
Neocomrade Field Marshal J. Emmanuel does not exactly say what his shock trooperesses and troopers are goin’ta do once they are turned out. Perhaps we may take it as given that, on each separate tribal reservation, some high officer of their BigManagement Party or their AEIdeology will inspect the formation to make sure that nothin’ is amiss. Only a low mean cynic, or a dupe of the MacLuhan Cult, would suggest that this inspection is more or less the main event, that the whole shebang will succeed or fail accordin’ly as it is reported on Party-and-Ideology Television for the convenience of print-challenged nonparticipants. Far be it from me to say any such thing, Mr. Bones! Although you will remember that I have been wrong about such questions in the past.
In any case, if the good field marshal (scheduled to pontificate at the Chicago wigwam, it appears) and his subordinate officers, scattered at various outlets of economic reaction all across the Fruited Plain™ of Neocomrade Dr. R. Limbaugh, should omit to conduct such an inspection, they will be makin’ a mistake. For that matter, somebody is makin’ a different grave mistake if what I have called the good field marshal’s “subordinate officers” are not, in fact, subordinate: all chiefs and no enlisted savages might make for a nine days’ wonder, but come Day Ten, there won’t be any ‘there’ there. This mistake is less likely than not savin’ the TV appearances, I suppose, in light of the obvious connections between the good field marshal and his officers and his officerettes and his trooperesses and his troops on the one hand, and the Party of Big Management on the other. [1]
What’s that you say, Mr. Bones? “Am I deliberately trying to make the good field marshal’s Party-and-Ideology groupies sound like the Kook Klux Klan?” Not at all, sir, not at all! I am aiming rather at a sort of Enron Corporation or Madoff Fund model of these new sweet puppies of the Right. You are not to make fun of me, sir, merely because I point up that a great many holy Homelanders™, a few of them not wingnuts or wingnutettes even at all, have a distinct tendence to go overboard in the organization-chart direction.
Happy days.
“Most economists put this at around 20% of GDP.” So, knowing nothing about economics as I do, when Reagen brought this up to around 60%, I am assuming these “tea bag” protests occured during that time in some form or another?
And I keep hearing that these protests have something to do with “taxes”, which makes no sense to me, since the vast majority of Americans either have the same taxe or lower taxes than under Bush.
The next TEA PARTY should be on July 4, but instead of holding it at the state capitols, it should be held in front of your representatives houses, just like ACORN did to pressure the bankers to give loans to people who cannot pay them now.
THEO FOREIGN: Nice try, but sophomoric comparisons don’t wash here.Go trll elsewhere,libtard!
#32 RV
That is a good point in question. The assumption is that there will be a massive tax increase, despite the promises. One easily assumes that borrowing money includes repayment with interest. Likewise, and on a larger scale, government borrowing for future programs becomes the responsibility of the tax payer, no matter his/her tax bracket. Carbon tax is a stealth tax on energy use. Universal health care is a stealth tax transfered from insurance premiums. Redistribution of the wealth is to be preformed by stealth taxes. The sin tax is stealth. Gasoline tax is a stealth tax. We all pay a load more in taxes than show up on our income tax forms with no chance of a tax return.
I wonder how many people realize that the Boston Tea party wasn’t the citizens getting fed up with the British, but a very smart political move by a small number of revolutionaries as an act to further the inevitable War?
32. RV:
“And I keep hearing that these protests have something to do with “taxes”, which makes no sense to me, since the vast majority of Americans either have the same taxe or lower taxes than under Bush.”
Really? Ask all the homeowners who are seeing their property taxes going up. Ask all the consumers who are seeing higher sales tax and new taxes and fees on all manner of goods and services.
Some on the fringe left can’t see past Obama. It’s all about Obama. You live and breathe Obama from morning to night and can’t imagine that anyone could have a different thought. So I’ll try to make this simple for those of you whose brains are clogged with Obama.
We are fed up with irresponsible government at EVERY level of government and by BOTH major political parties.
Every gain for governmental control is a lost for individual rights and freedom.
Every level of government is growing debt. It’s time to do what all responsible adults do in our own lives. It’s time for this nation to live within our means while not restraining innovation and productivity within the private sector.
Yes, this has been building and growing for a long time. The stimulus bill was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Although, straw isn’t the right image. This boondoggle is much heavier. It is a yoke that will weigh upon the necks of ALL our children and grandchildren.
18. JB: “theo = TROLL”
JB and others: they are out in force today and their mantra (handed to them by their ACORN masters) is “where were you guys when..”.
Well, it does NOT matter where we were then, it matters where we are NOW and right now I am on my way to a Tea Party..
..and you, Theo and the other a**-sucking Friends of Obama and runaway, unresponsive government can stuff your “tea-bagging” meme and smooch my big, conservative, mad-ass-hell butt.
April 19th, 1775, baby, April 19th, 1775!
I want an accounting of every cent of stimulus spending.
Every. Cent.
Obama said that there would be no waste. Either he is a fool or he believes we are fools.
38. Войска ПВО:
—————
You’re your own dick Army.
We should stand up against fiscal irresponsiblity but we are eight years too late. If we had done that years ago when bush was spending our tax money like water we might not have been in this mess today…..it makes no difference what party you belong to, spending money like bush did is just as bad as what you think is going on today..enough is enough with both parties.
41. Marge:
“We should stand up against fiscal irresponsiblity but we are eight years too late.”
I don’t know what you think started with Bush, but irresponsible spending started a long time before 2001.
Folks, if they ask you where you were then, tell them you are a patient person and it took awhile to reach the tipping point.
Tell them better late than never.
Tell them that watching wasteful spending by government is like watching an alcoholic. Sometimes things have to get bad enough before you realize that an intervention is required.
Tell them that today is the beginning of our intervention on a spending-addicted government.
theo foreign – Bush was the beginning of the problem, leaving us with a $400 billion plus debt but Obama will give us a debt of $1.75 trillion after only one year in office. Where is most of the money going? Banks. That should offend your liberal sensitivities. Obama has spent all this money and we are still in Iraq (for at least two more years, we now have more troops in Afghanistan (the Obama surge), bombing in Pakistan now, and the Patriot Act is still in force. Seems to me that not much has really “changed” for you except we have now have an unsustainable debt. You have been deceived and/or betrayed by your leader. As a liberal you should be more upset than us conservatives. There is still time to join the protest.
It IS funny to read the posts of the trolls, they sound absolutely childish. “…Bush did this, Bush did that…”:
WAKE UP , this is the president YOU have elected, OWN HIM ! own his budget that will cause the fall of the dollar, own the crazy tax increases, own the whole commie maneuvering against freedom of speech (yesterday’s DHS paper was interesting, isn’t it ?), own the friendship with Castro and Iran.
This is the president that you have elected, don’t spend the next four years crying “bush had done, Bush has said”. Take your responsibilities, carry them on your shoulders for once !
We told you NOT to elect a commie radical.
Now enjoy it.
And just hope that we will NOT have to fight to defend YOUR FREEDOM too.
40: Well, judy, I haven’t heard such a snappy reply since the third grade. Is someone supposed to be impressed?
“It’s not out-of-the-question that the 2009 Tea Party participants could someday be regarded by history as patriots who made a difference- same as 1773.” They should include the above quoate under the definition of hyperbole or maybe hysteria. Obama must be quaking not with fear but with laughter at all this hysteria. It surely makes my day
so let me get this straight, these things are OK with you self proclaimed conservatives:
Billions (trillions soon) of dollars spent on wars against countries that didn’t attack us (kept off the books with accounting trickery mind you)
Massive expansion of government powers invading American’s Privacy
but these things are not:
Spending within the US during the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes
Taxes returning to their Reagan-Era levels
huh.
Oh and before you get all of your knickers in a twist, I’m a gun loving, small government supporting independant.
But even I can see that we’ve been taking it in the teabag for so long that it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
Anyway, the point is that the organizers, supporters and media promoters behind the teabag protests remained largely silent while government was expanded, money wasted and privacy constricted for years and years, but now that the new guy is trying to set things straight, you’re mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore. Cognitive dissonance.
Theo, just stop where you are. You still don’t get it. This is started by the people for the people; it has nothing to with politicians, although many are attempting to exploit it for their own reasons. Most politicians have been shunned as speakers. They are welcome as guests. But not as participants.
To: JED
Thanks for reminding me about the sin taxes, had forgotten about those. Even though I find smoking dangerous, I do beleive that the new tax on it goes against the promises that Obama made.
To: FLMom
I was addressing mainly income taxes, but I can understand where you are coming from. And not that you care, but I did not vote for Obama, I voted for Barr, not so much as for his policies, but more for the sake that we really, really, need a third party to rival the big two.
“I want an accounting of every cent of stimulus spending.
Every. Cent.”
There will be none. This isn’t a Dem/Rep issue, it is a general politician issue. Bush lost billions upon billions in Iraq, with no idea where the money went. I was too young to follow Clinton, but I am sure that some of his programs had money just go bye-bye into never-never land without anyone knowing about it. Politicians get their money, ensure that their people are happy, and then somehow decide not to keep track of it. Being an NCO in the Army, if I had equipment and money I am responsible for just go bye-bye, my life would be pretty hurtin’.
Attention Conservatives who are serious about reducing spending
Let’s cut the bloated military budget.
This year’s Pentagon budget runs about 500 billion dollars…that’s 20 times more than the entire military budget of China…a growing rival power with 3 times the population of the US.
Just the Pentagon’s cost overruns and waste would be enough to finance China’s entire military budget.
Theo is one of the 33% of twentysomethings who believe socialism is a better system than the free market. And he’s angry that we are not on his side. There are hundreds of thousands of youths like him who did not have the courage to go over to Iraq to be human shields for those blessed Baathists. Bah. These cowards never put skin in the game for anything except their next bag of ganja, their next “hook up,” and where the next party is.
Our best young people out of high school and college went into the military.
The Nashville Tea Party was nothing short of stupendous. Lots of pics and coverage. This movement isn’t going away. And this is only the beginning.
Sorry, Norris. But if we cut the military budget on the scale you would like Moscow, Beijing, Caracas, and Tehran would see that we bent over, grabbed our ankles, and spread our cheeks. They would never supply the vaseline.
But, as it is, with the ballistic missile defense program on the chopping block and with us moving ahead with unilateral arms’ reductions, let’s see how that’s going to play out on the world’s stage in the next few years.
Check back with us then and let us know what you think about how it’s worked out.
Ignore the leftie trolls – they are a mindless herd searching for a furer – and zerO fills the bill. Their imaginary teleprompters give them nothing but garbage slogans and stereotypes to repeat.
You tea partiers are Great Americans and true Americans. I’m glad to have you as our Canadian neighbors. There are many millions of us who are with you in spirit and share your ideals. I want a free, strong America on the border. You are an inspiration to us in our long road out of socialism. Party on!!
I see that the nutroots have been set in motion by ACORN today.
I vote that tax day and election day be held on the same date!
One of Obama’s inherited problems is that there have been scoundrals in government since before the American Revolution.
I just returned from my Local Tea Party and it was a great success!!!!!!! I live in a small bedroom community of a big city. Large crowd! Great Signs!( that reflect an awareness of our current situation) Good speakers! Patriotic songs! Grassroots assignments on where to go from here and what’s next. This isn’t about bad Democrats, Better Republicans this is about the need for TOTAL reform. This is about cleaning house and bringing back public servants not Queen Pelosi types. This isn’t about negelecting our school, roads or other important needs. This is about returning common sense to government. This is about returning leaders with integrity (no tax cheats), living with in our means, not selling our country to China little by little, this about changing the way they do business in Washington. This is about turning off the TV, setting aside the golf clubs and preserving the freedoms we have before they are gone. The silent majority are awakening!
This is about the voter that didn’t want McCain or Obama. This is about the need for Americans to stand up and say “Stop the Insanity”.
Why do I keep reading, “Where were you 8 years ago?” at various sites? Maybe some of us were to young to even vote 8 years ago and maybe some of us did NOT vote for Bush, ever.
Just now that we are old enough and working hard, the younger, working generation has a hell of a lot of tax to pay and the gov. just keeps getting bigger. There are licences and regulations on everything. I have 10 mandatory insurance policies, but I am just 1 person.
I’ll risk a little danger here and there just to have more peace thank you.
My brief report on the event in Napa, California (which was great fun!) was posted by Glenn Reynolds today.
Anyway, the comments coming from the left, both from the trolls on sites like this, and from the more responsible mainstream media commentators, entirely miss the real point, which was clear to me even in the small event in Napa:
This is not about Democrats and Republicans. It’s not really even about “conservative” and “liberal” (to the extent that those terms still have any remaining meaning, have any real content that hasn’t been sucked out of them by partisans on both sides).
The movement is about ordinary people realizing that they are losing control, completely losing control, of this beautiful enterprise called the United States of America. Realizing that a “political class” has grown up almost insensibly over the past few decades, and it threatens to devour everything with its insatiable appetite for the money of citizens. And not just money. If it were only money I suppose we could live with it. This entity, this “government,” wants control.
***
By the way, I am very encouraged by the appearance of the trolls today, by the sheer numbers, and the energy, and the luminous reasoning power… the awe-inspiring persuasiveness…
They seem frightened.
That’s good.
Jamie Irons
bdog…
[Yes, where was the outrage when the surplus left from Clinton could have applied to the national debt, or used to address other budget needs.]
Did you forget 9/11? That’s where the surplus went, and them some.
Looks like Loserpalooza ’09 attracted the full spectrum of knuckle-draggers. A cornucopia of diversity, if you will. White, middle-aged men from all walks of life, including Redneck, Hillbilly and Country Bumpkin. All ethnicities too, including English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, British, Scots-Irish and Northern Irish. These losers share nothing in common with the true patriots of the original tea party. What they do represent, however, are the death rattles of a dying movement. They thrash around make strange noises but eventually go out with a weak last gasp and a whimper.
“At the very least, after today, those in our state capitols and in Washington will no longer be able to claim they haven’t heard the will of America’s majority, which is to rein in runaway spending, lower excessively confiscatory taxes, and reduce government penalization of the individual success that made this country possible.”
But Jen, this is what Obama now defines us as radicalized right wing hate mongers!
Praetorian,
Did you ever watch the movie, “Gladiator,” with Russell Crowe? Early in the movie there is a scene where Legate Maximus is led out into the German forest where the Praetorian Guard are to execute him. Well, he got the jump on them and killed them all. The last praetorian he got was riding in to see what all the ruckus was about. Maximus calls out to him, “Praetorian!” The eager imperial guard rides harder towards him and meets his end.
That’s what we will do to you Marxists. We’ll gut you and have your for breakfast. And it will be Hades for you, not Elysium!
Politicians SUCK. They all suck. But they suck because of the media.
The media needs a real horse whipping…..first. They are a pathetic casncer.
As far as tolls go… none of your protests have ever had this spontaneous energy or geographical breadth.
You suck like the politicians. You have over reached and invaded our lives.
We are done with your nonsense! What is great about us freedom loving people that hate text book tyranny,is that we have a spine. You want to mess with me or us ??? KEEP IT UP!
Praetorian, like Pat J. cuts and pastes the same comment all over PJM, like a rat dropping turds. Praetorian is a good nic for him – he serves his All Mighty Emperor and is livid that others refuse to bow down and worship The One. “Be a good bootlicking, buttkissing slave like me!”
Actually, Praetorian isn’t a good nic. Praetorian guards had a set. “Court eunuch” would be better.
“Oh and before you get all of your knickers in a twist, I’m a gun loving, small government supporting independant.”
No Theo, you just lie to yourself, or else soon you will be very sorry you wasted your votes.
65. elvis: . . . “You want to mess with me or us ??? KEEP IT UP!”
We ARE messing with you . . . and them. Constantly. And effectively. And with great insight and humor and clarity. Your anger is all the proof we need.
Tell you what, go back out to the barn, sit down and have a heart to heart with Bessie. She’s always good for a hug. She’ll set you straight.
Meanwhile, I got a truckload of tea bags left over from the DC rally. Any idea where I can dump these?
You tools – How can some daft reptile post with the title “Reaganite Republican Resistance”! What the hell does that mean? He is returning our tax levels to that of Reagan! You fools are steeped in psychosis. You are anti-american and anti-democracy. Reagan increased the deficit and taxes. Conservative administrations always increase the deficit! They waste money and cut revenues – look at any graph showing spending to GDP. News alert! America is a mixed economy that includes socialist institutions: clean water, military, police, fire departments, roads, public libraries full of books for all political affiliations, safe food, emergency response. What the hell are you advocating for? The conservative utopia is a myth. Who is your conservative messiah? Where have free market principles worked? There has been more wealth, individual rights, property, freedom, etc generated under mixed economies, which sorry to say includes socialism. Go back to your caves!
62. Praetorian: . . .Very nice. Well turned and played. You’ll have fun here.
62. Praetorian posted pretty much the same thing in another thread. How original, and productive to the current discussion. /sarc
60. Jamie Irons says it best: “The movement is about ordinary people realizing that they are losing control, completely losing control, of this beautiful enterprise called the United States of America.”
I’m willing not to call dissenting posters here “trolls,” as I still want to believe they’re still Americans. But I’d like these ~Americans~ to know they’re skating on very thin ice by dismissing any of us for wishing to preserve American ideals. I think many of them have lost sight of what they are.
A reminder from Thomas Jefferson (remember him, snarkers?): “Any government big enough to give everyone what they want is powerful enough to take everything they have.”
48. Sebastian Shaw: . . . “Most politicians have been shunned as speakers. They are welcome as guests. But not as participants.”
You weren’t watching the same tea parties I was watching. In fact I could have sworn I heard Rick Perry (promise?) to secede. And wasn’t that Newt campaigning up there with Hannity? Honestly SS, you must grow weary from this constant shifting of truths. i don’t know how the Right does it. How do you keep track of all the misdirection and contradictions in your lives? I would find that exhausting. Thankfully, I am forthright and consistent. You might want to try that instead.
#66, Donna V,
“Court eunuch would be better” LMAO!
I did not see any ACORN people at the Tea Party I went to today in Dover, NH. I guess we’re not significant, but that’s o.k. If they had shown up we would have had the local gendarmes, who are very sympathetic to our side, escort them away.
The real trolls are all the freaks who voted Republican in the past and joined the quasi-libertarian protests of today. True Libertarians were co-opted. I watched Tom McClintock in Sacramento hitch his Republican wagon onto Libertarian movement today. His speech espoused Ronald Reagan – one of the biggest deficit spenders ever. This is a joke. There was not a consistent message other than “no”. Maybe Obama could give you turds some advise about crafting a message that is clear. I feel bad for the true Libertarians who actually have a consistent philosophy. How are the libertarians going to resolve torture, the military industrial complex, anti-gay, racist, and deficit dependency with their values? Do Libertarians want to hang out with the religious right who would love to snatch civil liberties away from others in a heart beat? Well it looks as though the parasites have found a new host.
I say deregulate all business, let them grow to any size and operate unimpeded. Corporations have always acted in the best interest of society and the individual and government just gets in the way. Returning taxes to reagan era levels on people who make over 250,000 dollars a year is a horrible insult to that already downtrodden segment of society.
When the government was spending billions on nation building through war, operating prisons on foreign soil in legal limbo, spying on it’s own citizens, depriving citizens of legal representation, awarding massive no bid contracts to friends of the administration, and turning a large surplus into a massive deficit, I had absolutely no problem paying my taxes and supporting my president. Anyone who questioned Bush was rightly called unamerican and patriotism was the sole domain of republicans. But spending money IN the country, helping people hurt by a nationwide economic downturn? Odious and insulting. Prolonging unemployment benefits during a contraction of the job market? Disgusting. It is clearly only now patriotic to dissent and question the actions of the government. Everthing was going swimmingly in the US until Obama took office, only AFTER he got elected did things get so protestable.
I feel it is the height of patriotism to call the current administration socialist and fascist and downright communist. Anyone who supports the current president is also obviously a socialist fascist communist.
one of my own really flatters itself by believing itself “effective.” LMAO! Nah, I can see why such an incompetent needs government programs.
Little one, I laugh at you and your obvious lack of a life. But even if you really make some people angry, why exactly would anyone believe angering their political opponents is an effective political strategy? Oh, yeah, tick us off, that’ll make us stay home and shut up! Oh, yeah, that’s the way to go!
The truth is you resort to mockery because your public school teachers never taught you how to argue effectively. And you spend a lot of time trolling PMJ because – well, because you’re pitiful.
“NO” is a message… Just not one some people want to hear
The Left is scared sh*tless. Just look at them posting insults all the while in complete denial of what just happened. Keep telling yourselves the the sky is green & the grass is blue.
I haven’t read through all the comments, so please forgive me if I’m repeating others’ thoughts, but…
The “where was the outrage then?” canard is irrelevant. Even if we grant for the sake of discussion that the same folks who showed up at the Tea Parties weren’t outraged over the last 8 years (a ridiculous notion), the response is still, “So therefore what?”. We’ve surrendered our right to be outraged now? And if we’re trading hypocritical barbs, if you were outraged by runaway spending over the last 8 years, why aren’t you outraged now, when runaway spending is accelerating at a breakneck pace?
I was at the Tea Party in Albany, NY. Although taxes were a HUGE part of the resentment, the root of the anger is gov’t's creeping, maddening intrusion into our daily lives. While high taxes has everyone outraged–and rightfully so–they’re a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself. The fundamental issue runs much more deeply.
Remember that conservative satire movie from last year? Oh, what was it . . . directed by some Hollywood conservative . . . Bill O’Reilly was in it . . . kind of a send-up of Michael Moore . . . what was the name of that thing again? . . . Anyway, it was widely promoted by Fox as “the coming blockbuster! . . . The movie that will change Hollywood . . . Ushers in a new voice for conservative America!”
Just like the Tea Parties . . . what WAS the name of that movie? That besides the point. The left scared? Not even close, but I understand your need to say that . . . to whistle past the graveyard of irrelevance that is the fate of modern protests. You don’t want to feel (or admit) that you’re wasting your time. That’s fine. You’ve proven to everyone that self-delusion is a part of your core – sneaky leftists will infiltrate our tea parties . . . Obama will fail to act on the pirates . . . the government is on its way to my house to take away my gub. The list of ginned up BS is as long as Hannity’s nose, which grows longer everyday.
So, I leave you with the question all protesters must face when the day after proves to be the same as the day before . . . Now what?
Now the numbers of towns and cities that protests, and the numbers attending, and the polls that indicate that four in five people support them are going to have impact.
Congress should be very nervous today. Visible evidence was everywhere in their hometowns yesterday that Americans have had enough. Will it affect their votes – either that or it will end their careers.
80. one of my own: said
‘Blah, blah,….blah”
For someone so absolutely sure of the irrelevance of the Tea Parties, you spend a great deal of time here whining about it.
I think you’re scared. You’re one of the blinkered fools who thinks this is only and all about Obama (and the democrats) because you think the world turned on November 6th. It didn’t. It continued on the same course that the Tea Parties are against. Accelerated certainly, but the same course. Obama is just more of the same old politician for sale and if you knew squat about the Tea Parties you’d know that is what they are really about. Obama has proven he has much less substance than the usual suspects, so he compensates by buying off his support sooner and for more money. But the idea is unchanged no matter what flavor of politician buys into it. Conversely, that lack of substance does make Obama a cheaper investment for those support groups – more bag for the buck so to speak – as they know he’ll never stand up to them. But he isn’t unique, he’s politics as usual. Just even cheaper and less principled than the norm.
74. ted k.:
Don’t worry about all the Americans who want to insure freedom for themselves and their children. Just get back to your ACORN job or what ever you do and work hard and pay your taxes because I want all the free stuff Obama promised me. Besides he said he was going to heal the earth and he can’t do that with out your money and labor. Get in their and do your patriotic duty. I need some of your taxes to live off of.
———————————–
Who is John Galt?
On Of My Own (#80), you are comparing a movie promotion to the Tea Parties? Has anyone in school taught you about parallels? From your “comparison,” I would either say no or you weren’t paying attention in English class. You’re comparing a shark to a peach tree in this case.
The closest parallel & contrast in the same vein would be the current Tea Party protests & the Iraq War anti-war protests. The contrast comes in that the Tea Parties are a true grassroots movement; whereas, the anti-war anti-Iraq protests come from the Communist ANSWER & other organizations.
Go back & read your English 101 book. You’re a mess.
#80 Sebastian:OOMO displays blustering wishful thinking,as he attempts to demoralize conservative resistance.Make no mistake:libtards fear Tea Parties the way dung beetles fear DDT and modern sanitation;its the beginning of the end for them. For 30 years the American people have endured this marxoid scum,but the rise of the blogosphere,and talk radio has empowered an incipient conservatie opposition of which tea parties are just the start.Let the dung beetles dream on:they are about to be sprayed with DDT!