Well, the Tea party movement is not even a year old, and already it is holding its first national convention. I was honored to be asked to speak at the West Los Angeles event on September 12th of last year, so unlike most of the talking heads you see opining on the Tea Party movement, at least I am one of the very few to have been to one personally.
Now the most remarkable thing about that remarkable experience is something that is very hard to put into words. It’s the quality that makes me reluctant to try and tell you what it is, because it clearly is so many different things to so many people. And that grass-roots, “never-done-this-before” sense of excitement and empowerment is the first thing that really hits you.
These are the most regular, decent people you’ll meet, and with very few exceptions not one of them has been involved in politics in any way. It’s just that — like so many of us — They’ve just had enough!
Of course, the media coverage has tried very hard to portray the normal, average, every-day Americans of the Tea party rallies as dangerous and angry racists and Wal-Mart knuckle-draggers, while identifying the mass-produced signs, the mass-produced T-shirts, the mass-produced members of bused-in wiccan nihilist anarcho-Maoist lesbian eco-weenie anti-war protestors as somehow the genuine voice of the American people.
So as a person who has been there, let me try and explain what I think this whole movement is about.
The people I have met at these events were generally the happy, decent, hard-working people that make up the vast middle of Silent America. They are not bitter, and they are not “consumed with rage.”
But they — I mean, we — are angry. We have a right to be angry. As a matter of fact, we not only have a right but in fact have an obligation to be angry. The spending orgy in Washington brought on by the Democratic control of both houses of Congress and the election of the most liberal member of the Senate to the office of the Presidency is taking the country off the edge of a cliff and everybody knows it.
This spending is so monumental, so out of control and so beyond the pale that huge numbers of what were honest, decent, hard-working and unassuming citizens no longer feel like taxpayers but rather like host organisms: we find ourselves staggering around in shock, like victims of a plane crash or some natural disaster, looking around at the destruction of the work ethic that gave five percent of the population an economy four times the size of its nearest competitor. We watch, horrified, at the government takeover not of businesses or industries but entire sectors of the free market. That’s why there’s a Tea Party.
You know what this reckless, Imperial orgy of spending feels like? It feels like coming out of the shower in the morning, dazed and exhausted after a good night’s sleep, and stepping in front of a mirror to find yourself covered in leeches that are sapping not just the blood it takes to make government function, but rather all of it — every last living drop of it — to fund entitlements and work projects and boondoggles of every description: congressional “climate change” junkets that include skiing and snorkeling days in New Zealand, and Bridges to Nowhere, and the use of Air Force jets as the personal chauffeurs not only of the Speaker of the House but for her families and business cronies, too. We see a President who talks about sharing hardship but who then decides to go out on date night and catch a show in New York City and ends up spending every single tax dollar you and your kids will make in your entire life: gone!
Gone! What did you get for it? Nothing. What service did it do the country? None! So why did they spend it? Because — listen now — they spent it because that’s not your money. That’s their money. Just because you got up in the morning, sat in traffic, and worked all day before sitting in traffic again to come home exhausted… that doesn’t mean it’s your money to these bloodsucking, leather-winged, Big Government entitlement-mongers. No, that’s their money to spend as they see fit — and not just all the money you send in taxes today, or next year, or the next ten years — they — Democrats and Republicans too — have spent all the money you will make in your lifetime, and then spent all of the money your kids will make, and the pool of work that your grandkids will do in 2060 or so — that’s mostly been spent too.
You want to know why we’re angry? What once was a social compact between the people and their representatives has rotted away into this: a people no longer paying a reasonable price for the limited number of things that only a government can provide, but rather victims of identity theft — people who open a monthly credit card statement only to discover fifty thousand dollars of vacations not taken, and jet skis and plasma TV’s paid for but never delivered. That’s why there’s a Tea Party.
Now some critics of the Tea Party movement say it is hypocritical to complain about Democrat spending without complaining about Republican spending as well. Well, there are two things to say about that: first, that is a profound insight from someone who has obviously never been to a Tea Party event, because if they had been there, they would know that the real thunderbolts thrown in response to this spending orgy is aimed not at the Democrats but rather the Republicans; the people who should know better, the people, in fact, that we thought would be standing guard over our hard-earned treasure, not shoveling it out the door by the fork-full.
Secondly, I’ll just let this graph do the talking.
The grey bars are Bush’s Deficits. Notice that they were declining yearly in his second term, until TARP — which President Obama claimed as his own personal miracle — drove them up during his last year. Now look at the red bars: that’s Obama’s spending: four times Bush’s last year — the spike of TARP included — and not for an emergency fix of the banks, but rather to buy things like ATV trails on one hand and General Motors on the other, all in the name of “stimulus,” which, we were promised, would cap unemployment at 8% instead of the nine or 10% we would see without the line at the government cash trough. The official unemployment rate is now at least ten percent; some analysts say the true number may now be half again that, or even double.
Oh, and by the way, shocking and damning though this graph is, it’s a little long in the tooth. The fact is, this President and Congress have been waging a year-long war against business and the evil, evil wealthy, who, needless to say, have decided to keep their heads down, produce less, and pay less in taxes.
Here’s a graphic that better illustrates the real effect of the decreased revenues as a result of this war on the private sector:
That’s why there’s a tea Party.
So what’s ahead? Well, no one knows, least of all me. But I do have a very strong sense of what should be ahead.
Despite the authentic and wholly justified sense of betrayal that many conservatives feel at the hands of the GOP, I think that talks of a third party are suicide: not only permanent minority status, but also handing the store over to the people most intent on robbing it — forever.
The Tea Party Movement is really the conservative movement. It’s like a soul that has somehow been cut off from its physical body, and now both wander the landscape, trying to decide what to do. Because if the Tea Party movement is the grass-roots, common-man philosophical soul of small government and personal liberty and responsibility, then the Republican party is the skeletal structure — the bones and arteries and sinews needed to live in the real world.
The only road to success and recovery from this rocket-sled of ruin is to re-unite these two elements. We tried that, actually: Tea Party passion and internet fundraising, plus GOP ground operations, call centers, networks and so forth, and this was the result:
Pretty damn impressive!
Now, was Scott Brown the perfect conservative candidate? To many — even many who supported him — he was not. That’s not the question we should be asking. The question we should be asking — and did ask, it seems — is not whether Scott Brown is more conservative than Ronald Reagan. The question is whether or not Scott Brown is more conservative than Ted Kennedy or Martha Coakley.
He is, and by a very wide margin. That’s a win!
Victory is a ratchet. To retake this country we need every gain we can get — no matter how small — and to give up as little as possible. If Scott Brown — Republican senator from Massachusetts — turns out to be the most liberal man in the Senate then we’re living in paradise. That’s why there’s a Tea Party. And that’s why being a part of the Tea Party movement is, when it is all said and done, just plain fun.
And a final note: do you know who we owe the remarkable success of the Tea Party movement to? We owe it to Rachel Maddow, and Keith Olberman, and Chris Matthews. We owe it to Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid, and Barack Obama — not just for the political motivation, but because they decided to make it personal.
By calling us Tea Baggers, and racists, and Nazis, and rubes, and hicks… by pretending we’re just a fringe group of dangerous radicals, or saying — as the President did, twice, and apparently with a straight face — that he was unaware that tens or hundreds of thousands of hard-working American patriots were clogging the streets of the city he lives in — well all of these geniuses poured can after can of lighter fluid on to what might have been some old, wet charcoal — nearly impossible to light — and turned it into a wildfire that will likely remake the landscape of this country. That’s why there’s a Tea Party.
So thanks, you big-brain, sneering, socialist ninnies! We couldn’t have done it without you.
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Great essay.
And your right it really is the sneering elitism of the “smart set” that makes this personal.
Speaking of that, here’s an example right in your backyard:
http://pajamasmedia.com/ronrosenbaum/
I especially love how after deriding and mocking and yes Nazi-baiting the Tea Parties all year long, Ron suddenly shifts and accuses them of selfishly hating the poor for sabotaging healthcare.
You’ve heard of the “Book of Tea,” no?
Well this terrific article is hereby dubbed “The WHY of Tea.” The Great Wa, the Great Aum, the Great Wisdom of Tea.
Our politicians, leftist media and “intellects” would do well to meditate on it — daily.
I think that there’s something more critical here. It’s not just that the tea parties are the conservative movement; they are most emphatically the fiscally conservative and socially libertarian movement. I think that it’s that sense, that the Republicans have been selling us down the river on our fiscal future, while being just as intrusive in our personal lives as Democrats (only on different issues) that has us flaming mad. Which is why Scott Brown got so much support: it’s not just that he’s more conservative than Coakley, but that he’s fiscally conservative and socially not conservative, at least not in a policy sense.
P.S.
And let them not neglect — “The TAO of TEA,” “The WAY of TEA,” “The ALPHA and OMEGA of TEA!”
Hey! Hey! Don’t lump all Wiccans in with the left-wing rent-a-mob crowd. It’s true some of our louder people, especially on the Dianic wing of the movement, fit that stereotype all too well. On the other hand, there are plenty of quieter Wiccans like me, gun-toting libertarians for whom the rejection of monotheism and “faith” is continuous with the rejection of One-True-Wayism in all its forms. Thomas Jefferson might say we have sworn upon the altars of our gods eternal hostility against every from of tyranny over the mind of man.
Wiccans are potential allies for the Tea Party movement, as long as it remembers that America was founded on religious dissent and doesn’t fall into an unholy alliance with bigoted religious conservatives the way the GOP has. That didn’t end well for them with the general population of moderates and independents, either; heed the lesson.
To retake this country we need every gain we can get…
To paraphrase Don Rumsfeld, “You take your country back with the politicians you have, not with the politicians you wish you had.”
Bill: EXCELLENT, as we’ve come to expect, but EDIT IT. Some glaring errors in there that throw off the reader.
Bill, you said you are going to post transcripts of your video presentations. Thank you!
Now a favor to ask: please include a link to the video at the beginning of an essay, or tell us if it’s a stand alone essay.
I love sharing your stuff with friends and would like to include video links when appropriate – you are one of those rare people who is even better in video than on paper.
And please allow me an opportunity to thank you for your excellent and passionate citizen-journalism. Just don’t think too much about yourself – you are still one of us! LOL
Could you go through and edit a few of the typos? I want to forward the article to my lib friends, but they are sticklers for typos.
Ex:
It feels like coming out of the showing in the morning… shower??
What once was a social compact between the people… contract??
There are a few more in there.
When examined objectively, the hypocrisy displayed by both left and right is breath-taking. We complain about the government’s debt, but woe to those who say anything about cutting the government entitlement programs we like or benefit from.
We scream bloody murder about government spending and debt, but we live a credit driven, consumer lifestyle. Most of us own virtually nothing at all. Everything from our education to our homes to the toys in our driveways and backyards, even clothes in our closets and the furniture in our homes, has not be paid for. While the government took someone else’s money (ours) and spent it like drunken sailors, we’ve personally done the same.
It’s perfectly ok when we do it, but when the government we elected does the same thing, it’s evil? Is it not evil when we spend money we don’t have – mostly on things we don’t need and can’t afford?
We want what we want, when we want it, just they way that we want it, and for nearly a hundred years we kept electing politicians to make sure we got exactly what we wanted…and deserved.
Now that we’ve gotten what we wanted and deserved, we don’t like it at all.
…and we don’t want to implement the cost-cutting measures, nationally or personally living within our means, that would set us free.
We’re screaming and crying bloody murder about the injustice of it all, but still we want someone else to pay the price for our own greed, hubris, arrogance and pride.
Shame you had to throw in so many unfortunate stereotypes into your characterization of the lefty rent-a-mob crowd – I’m sure there are plenty of individualistic, minimal-government Wiccans and lesbians out there
That’s the hazard with trying to satirize your ‘opposition’ – you’re always going to step on a few toes.
Your broader point is well made, however
Bill: A great piece, very enjoyable with a concise point by point listing of grievances.
However, there are more people with prior political experience than you seem aware of. Off the top of my head I know four Tea Partiers who came out of the anti-war days. Over the years views have changed and they’re back out on the streets again.
A relevant comment on this post seems to have disappeared. You can find it discussed at http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=1676
Preach it, Bill! Can I hear an AMEN!
Seriously, you said it better than I have ever seen. Spot on about our disgust with the Republican elites who aided and abetted when they had the majority.
Just a heads-up – you’re getting a bit of flak for using the term “wiccan” in your laundry list from good libertarian Eric S. Raymond over on his blog(http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=1676). He thinks you might be deleting his posts. I can’t imagine you are, given some of the debaters much less worthwhile than ESR I’ve seen around these parts over the years, so if you’ve got anything stuck in your moderation queue you might want to clear it.
Democratic “governance” has all the classic symptoms of the classic “bust-out” scam, where a legitimate business with years of history leading to a good reputation is taken over by a criminal enterprise.
The good credit that the business has amassed is rapidly spent on excess and frivolities, slipped to cronies and fences out the side door as rapidly as they can be received. A bar that regularly ordered $2000 of liquor per month from three different distributors would order $10000 from each one, saying that they had a big party coming up. Replacement furnishings, office supplies, consumables — everything that might be ordered by the business in the regular course of operations is ordered in just barely believable quantities…..and handed off to confederates when delivered.
After 30 days, the bills start coming due, but are pushed off and deferred. After 90 days, the business is routinely getting cut off by suppliers.
And 120 days later, the criminals walk away.
I second the motion to proofread.
You might want to change “wiccans” to “faux-wiccans” to emphasize what posers the rent-a-mobs are, unless you can think of something even better.
Bill, great piece and on the money! Just have to echo the request for closer editing.
I disagree with one of your core points. The Tea Party movement is not a conservative movement, because “conservative” is not the same as “fiscally conservative”. The latter is the only point on which every Tea Party supporter seems to agree. A great many of them are not conservative on any issues beyond that; most probably share the conservative view of the Second Amendment, but I wouldn’t count on them for religious or social conservatism in general. They can get that in spades from the conventional Republican party.
The Tea Party will succeed to the extent it can focus on fiscal conservatism, and back candidates from BOTH parties who are an improvement on the status quo. If it is absorbed by generic conservatism, it will be a rump wing of the Republican Party, and universally ignored.
I was going to mention ESR’s comment, but I see that Alsadius has beaten me to the punch.
And BTW, when someone says “What about Bush’s spending?”, I mention that I complained long and loudly about Bush the younger’s profligate ways. They tend to change the subject at that point.
Alsadius/physics geek…
Maybe this will be a signal to PJM tech folks to PLEASE FIX THE COMMENT FEATURE HERE. Comments on column entries (like Bill’s, Roger’s, etc.) are often rejected for reasons I have yet to understand. I’ve emailed asking about this numerous times and gotten no response.
You should drop the ‘Wiccan’ and lesbian from your post Bill. It’s foolish to alienate these people. Some of them will agree with your post and the Tea Party movement.
Would you feel comfortable having ‘Jewish’ in there too? Some might think that fits well since so many Jews are liberals. But assuming Jews are so monolithic would have rubbed me as a Jew the wrong way. Why do that to people that are Wiccans or who are gay?
I also am awaiting either posting of Eric Raymond’s comment or else explanation of why it would not be posted.
In my experience, there’s usually somebody assigned to clear comments at PJM and that’s not often the author.
I join with the above in seeking to have the Raymond comment cleared. His reconstruction of it reads:
====
Hey! Hey! Don’t lump all Wiccans in with the left-wing rent-a-mob crowd. It’s true that some our more vocal people fit the stereotype, especially in the Dianic wing of the movement. But there are lots of quieter Wiccans who are gun-toting libertarians like me; for us, the rejection of monotheism and “faith” is continuous with the rejection of One-True-Wayism in all its forms. Thomas Jefferson might say of us that we have sworn on the altars of our gods eternal hostility towards every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
Wiccans are potential allies for the Tea Party movement, as long as it remembers that America was founded on religious dissent and doesn’t fall into an unholy alliance with bigoted religious conservatives as the GOP did. That choice didn’t play well with the general population of independents and moderates, either; heed the lesson.
====
Don’t see anything there that calls for moderating it out. Maybe it’s just a glitch.
Another good column, right to the point, with plenty of facts and illustrations (and disturbing images – covered in leeches coming out of the shower). The only problem I had was I had to read the part about Brown being the most liberal Senator a couple of times to understand it in my mind.
Nothing wrong with ESR’s comment that should keep it from being posted, and I say that as one of those ‘bigoted religious conservatives’. I will say that ESR ought to be ashamed of himself for this straw man, but that’s another topic. And let us consider his lack of logic, is libertarian guntoting the correct viewpoint, or is it merely one of many correct paths including Statist Communism?
Logic, its not just for loggers.
Count me as another gun toting Texas Navy veteran pagan (not /quite/ wiccan but close) libertarian and big fan of Mr. Whittle’s. I’m not very into the whole victim culture that seems to have permeated our culture, so I don’t have the vapours because of his addition of Wiccan to the list. I didn’t take it as a personal insult or necessarily a smear at all Wiccans. It was describing a type, much like when the great Maha Rushie rails against dope smoking maggot infested FM types.
Still I think its way past time some of us spine-having country loving patriotic wiccans, pagans, druids, etc etc start speaking up more so people know we’re here.
Yeah, but don’t let that enthusiasm go to your head.
Obamamaniacs had the same feelings of “For once I’m a PART of something!” elation and look how that turned out.
Thanks, Bill. For anyone who wants to argue Bush vs. Obama, the last figure in the second graph says it all.
With respect to Republicans in Washington, they are getting the message the Tea Partiers are sending, and so are even the deaf and dumb Democrats.
Yes a BIG thank you to Rachel Maddow, and Keith Olberman, and Chris Matthews, and my personal Liberal friends for their sneering, better than thou attitudes!! You made us, so now deal with it!!!!
We tea baggers and knuckle draggers are motivated, have money and way smarter than you took us for!!
About damn time people woke up!
Regarding THE GREAT COMMENT CONTROVERSY:
I haver said on these pages — repeatedly — that WordPress holds certain commments for moderation and clears others. I do not know what the basis for these filtering standards are, nor can I change them.
I know this comes as a shock to many people who have blogs (and I was this way myself in the beginning), but the fact is, I do not have ANYTHING LIKE the time to repeatedly visit the the control panel page and approve comments. I simply do not have enough hours in the day to do the things I need to do, which is why so many writers do not have open comment sections.
Eric Raymond’s commment was one of 26 that I just now went in to moderate, and writing this explanation, and the response to him saying I deleted his comment, is just another 40 minutes of my day gone.
There is not a likely fix for this. I would have put it in the “before you comment” box, but I do not control that either.
Bill, I occasionally run into the same problem with my comment filters, which is why I suspended judgment about your actual attitude. You’ll note that I posted an apology on my blog for entertaining dark suspicions.
To avoid a next time, you might want to think a bit more carefully about the kinds of people you automatically consign to the lefty loony bin, even when you think you’re just being funny. You might be throwing away allies.
And, lest it get lost in the furor, I’ll point out that I was reading your blog. Because I often like what you write. So try not to think of this as hostile criticism: it’s intended more like a nudge from a part of the cultural universe you probably don’t have a lot of regular contact with.
I’m curious; would it be fair to say that most of the tea partiers are NOT among the 10% of the population who are unemployed? It sounds as if the issue is, I have a job and the guvment is (or will be) screwing me on taxes.
Whereas, the unemployed are thinking what? Stop the stimulus and cut taxes and then I will get a job, or keep stimulating and maybe I will get a job?
PJM management is just not getting it.
This is a great example of why this neanderthal comment system needs to be fixed. I know it’s a lot more fun to work on PJTV’s sexy video shizzle, but the fact is that the conversation is happening here, not there.
Now we have a case were an avoidable technical issue has resulted in an avoidable row. Why? Because the rest of the blog world has facilities for sane, orderly management of comment threads. People expect that here, in vain. This is the ONLY system I’ve seen that publishes comments out of order (and subsequently renumbers previously approved comments, to boot!), holds some comments and passes through others, or simply deletes them, so far as I can tell, before the mods ever even get a chance to evaluate them.
Get it sorted.
I realize that I must add, in PJM’s defense, that comment moderation is up to me and not them. They are in no way to blame for any lateness for comment posting. That fault is entirely mine. for the reasons given above.
Bill: I love the graphs, but, you should (or the original author should have) note that the FY-08 is the first budgetary year of the Pelosi-Reid Congress elected in 2006, and as such was a precursor to that which followed (isn’t it also interesting that the Great Recession is marked to have begun in the 4th-Quarter of 2007 after seeing the legislation coming out of this new Congress?).
Also, if you review the figures from the Treasury on National Debt, you will note that, unlike the graphs, there weren’t any surpluses, that the Debt increased each and every year of the Clinton Administration, though it was a very small increase on the order of $20-30B IIRC in FY-00 or FY-01, but nevertheless, an increase (meaning a deficit when you factor in the funds stolen/borrowed from Social Security).
And, you are right, we are not only angry – We’re Pissed!
34 Drew:
And they put poor old Bernie Madolff into jail for stealing millions of dollars from thousands of people,
and we honor, praise, and vote for those that have stolen thousands of dollars from millions of people,
Social Security.
Go figure!
Wouldn’t it be nice if the Republicans pulled out their copy of the Constitution and asked the President to show them where the Constitution shows that government run health care is in it.
And then did this on every future bills …
Great article! I’ve been to every tea party rally in the DSM area and I love them! Yes we are under attack, because they are scared to death of the Tea party movement!!!
TEA Party “only” fiscally conservative
As it should be; It is trying to craft an
American Exception to the rule that all
democracies commit suicide by spending
themselves bankrupt.
It is worth reminding everyone that in 2001 (sometime in September, I recall) we had an unexpected event that disrupted our economy substantially. The next few years saw substantial decreases in growth, and thus tax revenue, in addition to the massive spending that Bush II did nothing to reign in. But then, those deficits started to get progressively smaller from 2004 to 2007, when Pelosi and Reid took over Congress.
So, yes, Bush II was a bad fiscal conservative. But he wasn’t as bad as those deficit figures show. Which makes the contrast with Obama all the more striking.
I agree with other posters who emphasise that the tea party is not really a conservative movement, it is a fiscal conservative movement.
That is the very reason why they are so mad about republicans. They kept crowing about how “conservative” they were on issues like abortion and gay marriage, which I dont give a hoot about, while selling us down the river fiscally.
The very reason why the tea party appeals more to independents than to Republicans, is because it is fiscally conservative, but not socially conservative. If they lose that, and become just another rump of the Republican party, the Tea party will be lost.
A followup. I do not intend to say that the tea party should not welcome social conservatives, as long as they are also solid fiscal conservatives. But they should not welcome JUST social conservatives.
The key is the Tea Party should absolutely require solid fiscal conservatism, from any member they welcome, and any candidate they endorse, but on social issues they should be neutral, and welcome both social conservatives and social libertarians.
The only social conservative issue where tea partiers should also be straight conservatives is on protecting gun rights, where both conservatives and libertarians agree.
Scott Brown embraced this. He was conservative on fiscal and military issues, but moderate on abortion.
A fun thing we’ve observed in our local Tea Parties is that just the simple fact of a bunch of pleasant, enthusiastic people showing up to express themselves (most for the first time in their lives) absolutely makes heads explode! And that’s always fun, because we all know who the exploding heads are. (And they were never smiling before they exploded–it’s my observation that libs/statists must be among the unhappiest people on the face of the earth. Man, they never look like they are just having fun.)
I dispute the claim that abortion is not a fiscal issue. The abortion problem has done more damage to our economy than our spending habits have, and indeed, they are both symptomatic of a culture that says, “It’s all about me, and to Hell with responsibility.”
the mass-produced members of bused-in wiccan nihilist
Hold on a second there, pardner. Quite a few Wiccans (I’ve been married to one for nearly fifteen years) are social and fiscal conservatives, carry firearms, and generally look like Republicans.
My take on why people are so angry: they got snookered. Obama pulled a bait ‘n switch. Next time, everyone, do your homework. Don’t depend on the so-called MSM. They don’t print the news fit to print, they print the news that they see as fit to print.
47. Brian Dunbar:
What does a Republican look like?
This is what I put in earlier … it never made it in either. Maybe it still won’t:
—————–
As a card-carrying Republican who is also a gun owner and supporter of both our military and the two most recent wars AND a Wiccan for at least the last 20 years (not to mention a shop steward for my union – sorry, I’ll stop the Gemini thang right there) AND AND AND a long-time fan and admirer of Mr. Whittle (I was plodding through Ejectia before anyone at PJM put on their first pair of fuzzy slippers), I am crushed. And a little prone to run-on sentences when I get aggitated. I’ll look into this more. I’d hate to have to stop being a fan of Mr. Whittle, but if he’s going to be ignorantly against people based on their religions, his icon has been lobbed into the empty field next door. For shame, Bill. And you call yourself an American …
—————–
When I said I used to hang around Bill’s site before, I meant before he got involved in PJM. Back when, sometimes, he would disappear for months, in between what I thought were brilliant essays. You didn’t know what was going on, you had the feeling that Bill was having problems of some sort, but you waited. Sometimes I would send emails in hope that he would answer so I could tell him that he could come back, that everyone was waiting for him.
Now to be the product of unthinking bigotry like this. By someone who I respected the thoughts of. Good journies, Bill. I’m outta here, and out of PJM for good.
Hey Bill, I have a new chant or slogan for us in the TP to use. “CAN YOU HEAR US NOW”?
Nice essay, Bill.
I’m 77, a retired Navy/airline pilot. Never was political although I’ve always voted.
I went Tea Party because of the Porkulus Bill. The secrecy, the haste, the eventual truth that it was nothing but payoffs to special interest groups and dems was a clincher for me. How dare they?
Nothing that has happened since – the omnibus spending bill (2800 earmarks?), the Waxman-Markey Bill in the House, the House Healthcare Reform Bill, the Senate Healthcare Reform Bill – has deviated from that pattern of secrecy, haste, ill conceived spending, and more taxes.
My wife and I have been to many Tea Party demonstrations, proudly carrying our home made signs and enjoying the company of many concerned citizens of all ages and backgrounds. It’s a great feeling to wave and smile at those passing by and hear them honk their horns in support. Of course some give us the middle finger salute, but we smile and wave at them too. Bless their mixed up liberal hearts.
The plans are afoot for more parties this April and beyond. Lord willing my wife and I will be there smiling and waving. And we’ll continue until our representatives begin representing us once again.
@42. Ben Pugh: – …those deficits started to get progressively smaller from 2004 to 2007, …
Yes, this is a critical point that is pretty much ignored by everyone.
The deficits for the last four years attributable to Republican fiscal policy – 2004-2007 – were $413B, $318B, $248B and $160B, respectively. Remember that last number and note that this was a clear trend.
While GWB and the Republican majority during that time certainly don’t get any credit for reducing government size or spending, the fiscal policies in effect from 2001 through 2006 had the government on track for a balanced budget by late 2008. That trend was sustainable because we had economic growth, low unemployment and record federal tax revenues, and it held until as late as January of 2007, but then…
… Pelosi and Reid took over Congress.
The rest, of course, is recent history. But it’s a history ignored by The Left Wing Media and, naturally, the Democrats and the left in general – as though that never happened, or as though Congress isn’t responsible for government spending.
Now, regarding that last deficit number – the last one anyone can reasonably pin on Bush and the Republican majority: $160B. BHO’s current budget will yield a deficit of $1.6T. People keep pointing to the fact that BHO has increased the deficit by a factor of four, but the real story is that the Congressional Democrats have managed to increase the deficit by an order of magnitude in only three years!
To dwight (currently comment #24, Feb 9, 2010 – 3:00 pm)
As an unemployed tea partier, my vote is to cut taxes, stop stimulus, and maybe I will get a job.
But the problem is more pernicious: plenty of small businesses (like my spouse’s) have been gutted by this administration’s sowing of uncertainty – and these business owners don’t show up in the unemployment figures, nor do the business failures show up in a way that makes the data collection simple.
An increase in the Public sector jobs/benefits/pensions/ does not help small businesses or a national recovery. It produces little or nothing. And these public sector jobs must be continually be funded by tax dollars or deficit spending. Oh, and that stimulus help, like unemployment compensation extensions, does nothing for a small business proprietor. Stimulus is an epic fail.
Meanwhile we are eating our seed corn, our distress invisible in the economic data, til we lose our house, or declare bankruptcy.
And THAT is yet another reason there is a Tea Party going on!
Dear Bill,
I know you don’t mean it that way, but your comment regarding stuff getting posted came off as rather grouchy and defensive (how valuable your time is and how you have no control, versus understanding and responding to people’s concerns). You also did not take a moment to respond to the several comments on your exclusion of wiccans and lesbians from the tea-party conversation. This is coming from people (inlcuding myself) who like what you have to say the vast majority of the time.
I’m about as socially conservative as they come, and I’ve noticed something. Social liberals have pretty well always been welcome in the Republican party and have even been appointed to high offices (Condi Rice). Social conservatives are anethema in the Democratic party. So who’s more inclusive?
Go Tea Partiers – Rand Paul for Senator!
FGS Tea-partiers, fight for FISCAL conservatism and drop the SOCIAL conservatism restrictions…which are extremely inflammatory, even among STRONG conservatives!!!!!
If you must, go ahead and control those social issues in YOUR family. But keep those socisl issues out of the tea-party movement…or we’re gonna put the free-spending tax-hikers right back into leadership positions!
FISCAL conservatism…we can WIN with THOSE…and ONLY those… issues!!!!
When looking at “Bush” deficit in 2008 you must keep firrmly in mind that is not the President who votes budgets, it is Congress and it was in Democrat hands. 2007, voted by the 2006, ie Republican, Congress is the last budgets who can be attributed to Bush?.
For Tea Party bumperstickers:
I Am Spartacus!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOCsNrzlV2k
Well said, Bill. Tea Party on, boys and girls!
On the video – great work hoss, and appreciate the video in blog/essay/PJM article form! You do realize you are writing alongside the likes of Victor Davis Hanson now?
And, just voted for Bill Whittle to be included among the writers for Imprimis.
And Tea Party – way to be a phenom! You’re truly Revolutionary and Exceptional. Keep it up, stay clean, and watch out for the pimps out there.
well said, Bill. and especially now that we know the Progressive agenda is driving the agenda we hate…it highlites even more the need to defend and return to the US Constitution. It is really that simple.
Regarding those who are upset over Bill singling out “wiccans”, “lesbians”, “nihilists”, “anarcho-Maoists”, eco-weenies”, or even “anti-war protestors”, please think back to your English language construction. If there are no punctuation marks in there, then each subsequent descriptive word indicates a subset of the previous grouping.
Thus, he only mentioned anti-war protestors who are a subset of the group of eco-weenies who are a subset of the group of the group of lesbians who are a subset of the group of anarcho-Maoists who are a subset of the group of nihilists who are a subset of wiccans who are bused in to a protest. This is clearly sarcasm, by the way, since the subset thus identified would be too small to make a decent gathering… oh, wait. They don’t make enough to get together a decent gathering, do they?
However, do you see how clumsy it is to write it that way? Reading it the way it was written, and recognizing the constructs there, it only takes about 1/4th the words, and is easier to read, as well.
myth buster: You baldly assert that abortion is a fiscal issue without supplying a shred of evidence to back that up. It cannot be a direct fiscal drain, since federal money cannot go towards paying for abortions. This places you in the same category as Obama’s assertion that health care reform is needed to save the budget.
Care to supply some justification, or are you just going to keep trying to hijack the tea party movement into something it is not – and indeed is at least a semi-conscious revolt against?
Warren Bonesteel, you are destined to be the number one guy in my revolution.
Say, didn’t the keynote speaker write notes on the palm of her hand? Just like me in the 7th grade.
That’s lowering the bar just a bit too much….isn’t it?
A fine report of the real truth regarding the “movement”. As one who went to DC, and will return, I can only echo the words Bill writes. Did anyone notice the “USA” “USA” chants in the background of Brown’s victory speech….sounded like DC to me during the party.
WONDERFUL Article…thank you so much for putting the record straight! We are angry! Each of us for different specific reasons but all for the attempt of our government to take away all that makes OUR Country great!
53. goy:
those deficits started to get progressively smaller from 2004 to 2007, …Yes, this is a critical point that is pretty much ignored by everyone.
supplementals . . . a critical point that is pretty much ignored by everyone . . . here
A few years ago Bill Whittle wrote an essay on how to train people to behave toward you the way you want them to. It was brilliant (like everything else I’ve read by him). I’ve searched but can’t find the essay. Can you point me in the right direction?
I second BobW’s “You might want to change “wiccans” to “faux-wiccans” to emphasize what posers the rent-a-mobs are, unless you can think of something even better.”, AND WayneB’s “However, do you see how clumsy it is to write it that way? Reading it the way it was written, and recognizing the constructs there, it only takes about 1/4th the words, and is easier to read, as well.”
Unfortunately there are all too many people who read anything on-line and take it as gospel. All too many of them do not have the education to deconstruct your grammar the way WayneB did. For these reasons, your sarcasm may well hurt more than it helps.
Bill Whittle, please hold yourself to a higher standard in your writing. Please understand that in English, simpler is better. Count the words in your sentences. When they exceed an average of 10 words per sentence, please edit and revise BEFORE publishing.
To be fair, I AM annoyed at the inclusion of “wiccan” in that manner. I wish you had teamed it with something like “-wannabe” or “fluff-bunny”. So, please take my comments with a large grain of salt.
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I see Bill deleted my comment asking if he ever wrote anything or said anything about his “formally”? good fried Charles Johnson. Guess that was a sore spot Bill?
Never mind. I see that this is not Bill’s doing. Forget I mentioned it.
REPUBLICAN RYAN BRUMBERG ANNOUNCES BID FOR CONGRESS IN NEW YORK’S 14TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT—CHALLENGES DEMOCRATIC INCUMBENT
New York, NY–-Ryan Brumberg has resigned his position as a Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company to challenge incumbent Rep. Carolyn Maloney for New York’s 14th Congressional District. Socially liberal and fiscally conservative, Mr. Brumberg is the new breed of the Republican Party.
Mr. Brumberg outlined his philosophy: “History has repeatedly shown that despite good intentions; corporate bailouts, massive stimulus spending, and heavy corporate regulation will weaken the economic recovery, increase deficits, and drive the country towards bankruptcy. Innovation and private industry, not government and bureaucracy, create sustainable jobs.”
In challenging Democratic Representative Maloney, candidate Brumberg has pledged to bring a fact-based approach to the nation’s most pressing problems.
Brumberg elaborated: “The problems facing our economy and finances are too severe to allow ideology—Democratic or Republican—to guide our national decisions. Government needs to be smarter. America should continue to be the envy of the world, and New York the envy of America.”
Mr. Brumberg’s campaign officially kicked off Thursday night, April 29th, at a fundraising celebration hosted by supporters of Brumberg for Congress. Brumberg has already raised approximately 50% per cent as much campaign funds in the past three weeks, as the prior three Republican candidates raised in the past three elections combined.
A lifelong New Yorker, Ryan Brumberg grew up just outside of the city. He has deep roots in Manhattan’s East Side, where his family has lived for more than 60 years. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University, with top honors from Stanford Law School, and then returned home to New York City to join McKinsey & Company.
Visit http://www.brumberg2010.com for more information.