Tea Party vs. US Uncut: A San Francisco Tax Day Showdown
Compare and contrast. That’s how my seventh-grade English teacher introduced us to the concept of “the essay.” Write a “compare and contrast essay” about two different members of your family, she used to say.
I never had much use for the “compare and contrast” essay — until now. Because in San Francisco on April 15 I noticed that there were two different protests coming from opposite ends of the political spectrum happening at the same time just a few blocks away from each other — and neither seemed aware that there was a competing event nearby.
Aha! Time to resurrect my old seventh grade comparing-and-contrasting skills.
The first event was what you’d expect on Tax Day, April 15 — which has in the space of just three years become the traditional day on which Tea Party rallies are held all over the country. The San Francisco Tea Party’s themes were to be “Reduce spending and taxes; Reform public pensions; Revive the business climate.”
When the Tea Party first emerged, the pro-big-government left at first tried to ignore it.
When that didn’t work, they tried to discredit it.
When that didn’t work, they tried insults.
When that didn’t work, they tried mockery.
When that didn’t work, they tried to undermine it.
When that didn’t work, they tried to discredit it again.
But after the Tea Party swept the 2010 elections, the left realized that none of these strategies had any effect. So they adopted a new one:
The big-government advocates are now trying to co-opt the Tea Party. Which seems patently absurd. Yet the progressives are operating on the naive assumption that “populist anger” is itself a politically neutral energy, and that the Tea Party was just lucky to catch the wave and funnel that anger rightward. The big-government advocates now imagine they can seize the reins and funnel that exact same populist uprising toward the left side of the spectrum.
To that end, progressives recently launched US Uncut, an American version of the new British leftist movement which uses “street actions” to demand more funding for the Welfare State. This article in The Nation sums up how they seek to siphon off the Tea Party populist energy:
Imagine a parallel universe where the Great Crash of 2008 was followed by a Tea Party of a very different kind. Enraged citizens gather in every city, week after week—to demand the government finally regulate the behavior of corporations and the superrich, and force them to start paying taxes. The protesters shut down the shops and offices of the companies that have most aggressively ripped off the country. The swelling movement is made up of everyone from teenagers to pensioners. They surround branches of the banks that caused this crash and force them to close, with banners saying, You Caused This Crisis. Now YOU Pay.
As people see their fellow citizens acting in self-defense, these tax-the-rich protests spread to even the most conservative parts of the country. It becomes the most-discussed subject on Twitter. Even right-wing media outlets, sensing a startling effect on the public mood, begin to praise the uprising, and dig up damning facts on the tax dodgers.
Instead of the fake populism of the Tea Party, there is a movement based on real populism. It shows that there is an alternative to making the poor and the middle class pay for a crisis caused by the rich. It shifts the national conversation. Instead of letting the government cut our services and increase our taxes, the people demand that it cut the endless and lavish aid for the rich and make them pay the massive sums they dodge in taxes.
This may sound like a fantasy—but it has all happened. The name of this parallel universe is Britain. …
…
Can this model be transferred to the United States? Remember that a few months ago, Brits were as pessimistic about the possibility of a left-wing rival to the Tea Party as Americans are now. …
…
UK Uncut has just shown Americans how to express real hope—and build a left-wing Tea Party.
The mission statement of the S.F. Uncut protest was, “Let’s tell corporate tax dodgers (who avoid up to $100 Billion in taxes every year) that we’re not going to stand for these budget cuts. They caused this crisis, now THEY need to PAY UP.” Positioning themselves as populists, they continue, “Bring friends, neighbors, grandparents, teachers, union workers, students, and all others who want to demand a halt to these cuts in the name of a fair and just society.”
So we have the real Tea Party at the Embarcadero starting at 4pm, and the new anti-Tea Party, US Uncut, a few blocks away in the Financial District starting at 5pm.
Ready, class? Now compare and contrast.
The San Francisco April 15 Tea Party
I actually had low expectations for the 2011 Tax Day rally — the mid-term elections were over, and this is an off year, so there was really nothing specific to protest for or against, except just a general re-affirmation of Tea Party principles.
Even so, I was pleasantly surprised — the turnout was substantial, especially taking into account that this is the heartland of liberal America.
My favorite sign: “Serf’s up!”
Reminds me of the old joke:
“Your Majesty — the peasants are revolting!”
“I know — and they smell awful too.”
The Tea Party populist narrative is: We taxpayers have become like serfs, the workers who labor all day only to see the fruits of our labor confiscated to support the entitled and the idle.
The progressive big-government narrative is: The employed and the business owners have a moral responsibility to help the non-employed, with government taxation the mechanism through which your money is given to the needy.
This sign riffs effectively on the progressive narrative. “I am the parent.” Precisely. If the left is going to frame the employed and the well-off as the breadwinners for a dependent national family, then along with that support comes the privilege accorded every parent: We get to make the financial decisions for the household. Clear enough?
In fact, the “parent/child” theme is growing in popularity at Tea Party events, including this one, a development I encourage. Grow up, the taxpayers are saying to their dependents.
Bay Area Patriots ringmistress Sally Zelikovsky knows how to turn the tables on Tea Party detractors. Here, she kicks off the rally by unveiling some Astroturf on stage, skewering the absurd and self-evidently false accusation that the entire Tea Party movement is fake, and that all the activists and voters are somehow paid shills of evil corporations and billionaires. Sally instead announced it was an open mike, and invited any and all citizens to come stand on the Astroturf and speak from the heart on any topic of their choosing. Several took her up on the offer.
This guy got it exactly right. The amount of federal spending will always expand to match (or, these days, exceed) the amount collected in taxes. So you can’t solve the deficit problem by raising taxes; all that will do will give a green light to more spending. No, the only way to get us out of debt is to cut spending. So obvious, so simple. And I think the majority of the country now gets it.
This being the Bay Area, a few of the Tea Party signs had uniquely northern California sarcastic references. Cars around here, for example, often sport “Visualize World Peace” bumper stickers; this Tea Partier has her own recommendation.
Bay Areans of all orientations often rationalize their promiscuous escapades as an endless but invariably fruitless quest for “Mr. Right”; and suddenly, “Mr. Right Wing” appears as the ultimate forbidden fruit.
You can’t go two steps around here without seeing one of those ubiquitous recycling symbols; but this Tea Party version makes more economic sense!
Hey lady — stop making sense! Get back in the stereotype box the white liberals have built for you!
Oooooh, you called Obama a communist — you must be a racist!
Warren Harding and James Buchanan are breathing a sigh of relief.
Concision is the soul of wit.
One of the things I like best about the Tea Party is that people are finally unafraid to be blunt in their truth-telling.
But not all messages were so grumpy.
Think positive!
The Tea Party was just getting started (I presumed correctly that people would come down and join the action at the end of the work day around 5pm — the event was announced to run from 4pm to 7pm), but I needed to bail out at about 4:40pm and dash up to the US Uncut rally and see what they were up to.
Thanks.
Interesting timing. I was listening to New York’s NPR affiliate this morning, and a “US Uncut” person was being interviewed; apparently, they did a fake website/press release announcing that GE had decided to voluntarily pay the taxes it was recently exposed as having not had to pay. The interviewer, sometimes intelligent, did actually make mention of Obama’s past praise for GE and its CEO, but naturally did not push the point to where people would realize that there is a very close sweetheart relationship between GE and the Administration.
Ultimately, of course, if the Obama Administration were to propose some intelligent changes/simplifications in the tax code to close some corporate tax loopholes, it could possibly be a basis for some common-ground cooperation with the Republicans towards moving forward on the debt. But it is clear that the Administration would rather draw a divisive line so that it can run for re-election on the bogus claim that Republicans “want to give the corporations a free ride”—even as the Administration itself shakes down corporations for campaign contributions as the price of keeping tax breaks.
Oddly, when I saw the other rally was “US Uncut” in San Francisco, I was not expecting a rally about tax policy.
Me neither.
Ditto. I hesitated before clicking on it.
I was expecting Uncut Us to be something like: “We dont need bo stinking bris, teabaggers or zionists.” Anarchist-communist rally with stone throwing and molotov cocktails galore….
US Uncut sounds more like an anti-circumcision group. It should feel right at home in SF.
@#4 Zev – ROTFL – You Are FUNNY!! – Thanks I needed that!
That’s exactly what I thought it was too, until I read the article.
As they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Thanks for the coverage Zombie. Look forward to your posts, keep them coming.
Ok, first of all, the name – “S.F. Uncut” has punny problems, don’tcha know.
Do they refer to themselves as Assless Chaps”, one wonders…
If those chaps were assless, the folks in SF wouldn’t have much use for them, would they?
Awesome! Will get you linked up later ….
I wonder how much that hair cut costs the Assata Shakur supporter. I figure, at least a month’s wage in the workers’ paradise where AS is hiding.
Tax the rich, you can find them in the govt workers unions. If Obamaconomy stays its course, they and Obamacronies in Citibank, Bank of America, Google, GE, Diane Fienstein, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, George Soros and the academia, will be the only rich people to be taxed. Of course Diane Fienstein will get her taxes back in earmarks for her husband, Pelosi will get her earmarks, Soros would make another couple of billions in his Petrobra “investments” stimulated by Obama’s $20 billion Petrobra stimulus. Oh, John Kerry has done his part to teach those rich boat builder bastards a lesson by having his ginormous yacht built in New Zealand.
Hmmmm…that’s very interesting. There’s a group called UK Uncut over here (in the UK, duh) that’s been making a lot of noise and kicking up a lot of fuss. Same issue — taxing corporations more. I didn’t realize there was a US Uncut as well.
That’s no coincidence. Somebody with better investigative skills than me could probably mine a rich vein of something here — my guess is Socialist Workers or somebody behind it.
The whole point is that US Uncut is consciously copying UK Uncut — as I discuss in the essay. It’s not a coincidence.
Ahem. Sorry. I skim too much — I’m a looking-at-the-pitchers sort of gal.
bottom line is the lefties hate that they didnt “invent” the tea party for themselves
the fact that the tea party formed itself “spontaneously and organically” (to steal some of the libs’ favorite buzzwords) drives them bonkers
while the glory days of the 60′s (bunch of crazy nazi-feminists burning their brassiere’s being flanked by naked men thinking that being a hippie was the shortest distance to a girl’s crotch) are replaced by rent-a-union-slob-mob that cant even show up to an event on time or have a clue about the current “issue” of the day must give wasserman-schultz tighter curls at night
You forgot to show us “After” shots of the two locations after the rallys.
It’s always so interesting to see how much Garbage the Left leaves behind.
Mostly the Pre-Printed signs that no one in the crowd made themselves but were given to each of them by the organizers. Funny how the Hand Made signs seem to stay with the maker when they go home…
I didn’t care much for the hippy drippy anti war mob protesters back in the 60′s and care even less for what they evolved into today; the mob like union thugs and organizers who gather together and are bussed to their so called “spontaneous” demonstrations and mouth and chant prepared slogans that they themselves don’t understand and don’t live up to. They are deadly afraid of Tea Party members and Tea Party ideals because they are afraid of losing their entitlements and being forced to actually work and take care of themselves instead of having big brother government taking care of them. We simply must clear out the communist rabble that have taken control of our colleges and universities and bring us back to the fundamental and simple truths of our Founding Fathers. As that one sign stated: SOCIALISM SUCKS
@#13 Naddy Bumpko – You nailed it! But, as we saw in the Pics above – the first few… those folks were clever enough to give them a taste of their own medicine and give the message right back at em’! -(Grow up and take care of yourself)LOL – I love it!!.
One other thing. When the Tea Party has a rally in DC they are 110 times “Cleaner” and ‘neater’ than any Liberal, or Union Thug rally in Washington DC – these guys literally “do” ‘trash’ the place – litterally.
Isn’t it strange how those of us who work for a living and pay taxes are called “greedy” and “selfish” for wanting to keep more of what we earned but those who demand ever larger shares of our money (welfare and government employees alike) aren’t? They’re the truly greedy, selfish ones.
Here is a story about MoveOn.org protesting at Bank of America in Irvine, CA.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/-296948–.html
Organized? Ya think?
It is amazing how the left stays develops a consistent message from top to bottom. The congressmen Face the Nation all the way down to the art students in San Francisco all beat the “tax the corporations” drum.
Excellent work by Zombie as usual.
I drove by the BofA in Pensacola FL today on my way to the airport. 8 or 9 people protesting banks and corporations and accusing BofA of tax cheating. Wondered what that was about. Thanks for filling us in Zombie.
Thanks Much Zombie – Always enjoy your pics and captions! Please keep them coming!
Hey,
Thanks for this, next best thing to being there.
D.
WOW! So US Uncut isn’t some sort of pro-circumcision group then? Bet it would draw a bigger crowd….
Still, it’s off to a more robust start than the coffee party. Y’all remember that, right?
Zombie, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again -
you are a national treasure. Thank you for another informative essay.
Reminds me of when the Chinese and Tibetans were marching in two different protests in San Francisco prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics when that torch was running through town on two legs.
Did anyone see the 60 Minute’s segment recently about US corporations moving their HQ staffs by the thousands overseas to countries like Ireland and Switzerland to avoid paying taxes in the US since taxes on profits in the US are the highest in the world?
It isn’t that these corporations are not paying taxes, they are just paying taxes in another country. Instead of paying 35% in the US, they are paying less than half that in another country.
What we need is for these two groups (the Tea Party and Uncut) to get together and strike a compromise.
Lower the corporate tax rate so it is at least 1% lower than countries such as Ireland and Switzerland then we do not need to raise taxes on anyone else since American corporations would move home and pay taxes here instead of over there.
Then the two groups work together to see where to cut entitlement programs to both corporations and individuals that do not have jobs. If a corporation needs bail out money from the government to survive, let it fail and go out of business.
A good place to start would be to stop paying millionaire farmers subsidies to grow corn for biofuels or to not grow anything. How much does that cost the US annually?
The US could also save hundreds of billions by stopping Federal foreign aid to other countries—let private nonprofits help those that cannot help themselves outside the US such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Then cancel all food stamp programs to the underpaid and unemployed and if people can’t afford to buy food, give them a fifty pound bag of beans and rice each month and an empty cup with the word “WATER” printed on the side and maybe a jar of peanut butter along with a few loafs of the cheapest bread on the market. The peanut butter could have some vitamins in it. That’s it. No food stamps that allowed the unemployed to eat anything… If the unemployed or underemployed get tired of beans, rice, peanut butter and water, they can take back the eleven million jobs that go to undocumented illegal aliens from south of the US. That way, the unemployed will be working again instead of sitting around eating food stamp purchased food while watching TV and getting fatter.
For Medicare, if a person lives an unhealthy lifestyle that leads to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, or too much fat around the middle, cut them out of the program unless they change to a healthy lifestyle. I’ve read that at least 60% of Americans are overweight so that would lower the number of people on Medicare and other Federal and state funded health programs.
Those with unhealthy lifestyles that refuse to change would die off faster removing that burden from the taxpayers that have jobs.
As for the FAILING schools. That could be solved quickly too. When kids don’t do homework or read the assignments as many don’t and fall behind academically, the parents go to jail for on the days they aren’t working and the kids are sent to juvenile boot camps where they are drilled as if they are in the Marines and can only get out when they study and catch up academically.
I had a neighbor once that was the second in command of a juvenile facility such as this in Los Angeles country and the hard core dysfunctional kids sent to those camps learned really fast when the only way of that juvenile prison facility was to catch up.
In fact, after these kids got out by catching up, the only way to go back was if they misbehaved and didn’t keep a C average in the regular public school classrooms.
The recidivism rate was the lowest in the country.
The only way for the family to stay reunited, was for the kid to do the schoolwork and behave while in a regular public school classroom keeping that C average or better.
“For Medicare, if a person lives an unhealthy lifestyle that leads to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, or too much fat around the middle, cut them out of the program unless they change to a healthy lifestyle.”
And then, where does that stop? Everyone forced to get together in the morning to do exercises? Everyone forced to buy a stationary bike, and use it once a day for an hour? The health Nazis making routine rounds of homes and apartments to weigh, prod and measure? And then, no more soda and junk foods, only vegetables and fish. And then we can force everyone to save 10% of theirs income so the government has access to it, for the good of the nation. And on, and on. Be careful about how much liberty you give up to the government. They will always want to take more. Like taxes.
“What we need is for these two groups (the Tea Party and Uncut) to get together and strike a compromise”
No, Lloyd, what we need to do is get them together for a FIGHT TO THE DEATH.
There is no compromise with Lefties…they will never get off the gravy train, ever.
Teachers unions, Governmtment workers, punk slacker “students” in love with the smug coolness of being hipster left wing complainers…with the secret hope they will eventually BE on the inside just like Professors and Professional Agitators.
They’re not productive people….thet’re virtually unemployable outside of the Welfare System(s) of Tenure, Red Tape, and guaranteed student loans.
Their very existence depends on theivery, lies, and lies about the lies.
They need to be DEFEATED, not “compromised” with.
Hear, hear! I am sick unto death of hearing people tell the Republicans (the Right, the Tea Party, whoever) that *they* need to compromise with the Democrats. NO NO NO!!! This has been going on all my life–Democrats meet with Republicans and say, “sure, we’ll meet you halfway. We’ll cut spending.” Spending is NEVER cut and that is the root problem. Yes, there are problems with taxes being ridiculously complex, and problems with regulations on businesses that are mind-boggling, but the only way to solve the problem with the deficit is to CUT SPENDING.
Maybe the ‘pubs can steal a leaf from the democraps of 30 years ago, and promise to raise taxes in the future, but we need to shave just a teensy bit–ten percent?–off the budget right now.
More on the “Wanderer”: If you look at the video of all the line dancing in the B of A building, the video posted by U.S. Uncut itself, from 2:10 – 2:18, there he is, keeping time with the rest of them, as rehearsed, right in the middle.
The lameness of that flash mob proves once again that “message” art always sucks. I’d rather see the Hallelujah Chorus in the Canadian shopping mall or even people standing stock still in Grand Central any day. In fact, here’s an antidote to the anti-bank sentiment: a flash mob in Times Square put on by Wells Fargo: http://www.youtube.com/user/wellsfargo?v=xjG9ggZmttk&feature=pyv&ad=10615632692&kw=dance
I just did a pretty extensive search for evidence of the Albany, NY USuncut protest and here’s what I found:
Images – 0
Videos – 0
News stories – 1, NBC, referencing a protest 30 miles away – #’s ignored.
Facebook pages – 1, last updated 5 days before the protest.
By my unscientific estimates there are about 2000 people across the country who give a crap.
“Hey lady — stop making sense! Get back in the stereotype box the white liberals have built for you!”
Priceless.
Nice work as usual, Zombie.
I have tried to find some support for the claim that B of A pays no taxes, but couldn’t find any. It appears to be a false claim, or one that is strictly anecdotal. I found B of A’s last annual report on the web and they have been recording billions of dollars in tax expense since 2006, though I can’t tell if those taxes were all paid, or paid to the US or to other countries.
http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=67562604-8280-4d56-8af4-a27f59d70de5 HERE A LINK TO INFO
Stogie
I have tried to find some support for the claim that B of A pays no taxes, but couldn’t find any. It appears to be a false claim, or one that is strictly anecdotal. I found B of A’s last annual report on the web and they have been recording billions of dollars in tax expense since 2006, though I can’t tell if those taxes were all paid, or paid to the US or to other countries.
Do not worry Moon Beam will light your way, he has obama juice!
I would be overjoyed if Obama would make like a good leftie and start a jihad to claw back a trillion dollars from Wall Street, but he can’t even get that right.
I don’t think they know what a flashmob is.
“The Infiltrator” seems to be a nice (looking) lady who only recently has become active. Some other young lady was labeled an infiltrator because of this video http://youtu.be/chwjQGNJ1sY. This attitude reminds me of my incessant “rally” hopping lefty friends who thought of these events as substitutes for actually organizing. It will have to become known amongst ourselves that rallies are not popularity contests but fun ways to network, much as I did in Sacramento. http://www.youtube.com/user/NeoLiberalPoverty Is the “Infiltrators” website, judge for yourself. Let me know when we start an apology thread for this “Just and Holy” lady.
Here’s her other video, showing her posing with her ta-tas hanging out in front of a crucifix on an American flag:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaKAW6McnLc
Who would do that in all seriousness? My “charlatan-meter” is registering. Also, the way she holds up the Glenn Beck book at the end — stagey.
Either something’s fishy, or they’re so kooky that they’re not worth deciphering.
I did judge for myself, and I agree with the girl who IDed her as an infiltrator of some kind.
What the hell is wrong with you? She’s an amateur with a camera; much like the rest of America who isn’t an employee of the lamestream media. Maybe if people didn’t make fun of her hoop skirts she would be inclined to forgo her skimpy tee. Of course its “stagey” she’s trying to pace her presentation without having to just hold up her book and looking too awkward. Here is my list for things that must be setting you off.
1. She’s very hot.
2. She uses the word Neoliberal, which you don’t know and or want to look up.
3. She isn’t interested in making “ironic” signs.
I suppose you might object to quoting Jeff Davis paraphrasing Romans; but I didn’t know that phrase was his until I was 35. If your serious about having a problem with it you should have explained it in your “article” but you didn’t. I consider her sign an ERROR, only for a moment; because our cause IS “just and holy” and now it will associated with us and not that other long forgotten fool. As it is the lamestream only has to overhear one reference to socialism and Obama to freak the F out, too which we respond “if the shoe fits”. I consider your charlatan meter underwhelming.
See this morning’s S.F. Chronicle.
To most politicians, “cut spending” means they spend more, but less than planned.
This year’s budget for program X: 4 billion
Original plan for next year: 9 billion
Revised plan: 6 billion
To the media: “As a champion of fiscal responsibility, I have cut spending on program X by 3 billion dollars!”
No one ever points out that spending INCREASED. A cut in pol-speak is more, but less more than originally planned.
What’s really needed are actual cuts. This year, program X: 4 billion. Next year: 3 billion. THAT’S a cut. Don’t hold you breath waiting for any politician to work like that though.
Well I guess us Tea Party Patriots might as well give up and go back home. How could we ever hope to compete with a huge turnout of 20 people in Chicago, LOL.
In my state, the entire Legislature is up for election this fall, so will will not be staging any rallies until the fall, and they will be local. We may be less noticeable in public, but we have become very active in local and state politics. So much for the premise that all we do is complain about things.
Favorite slogan remains “You tax us : We kill you”
Tea Party / NRA
Hey Jeffcoat! Nice to see you.
“When kids don’t do homework or read the assignments as many don’t and fall behind academically, the parents go to jail for on the days they aren’t working and the kids are sent to juvenile boot camps where they are drilled as if they are in the Marines and can only get out when they study and catch up academically.”
I love the idea of juvenile boot camps because it help instill good study and attendance habits in juveniles who are failing in school and could not keep up with school work..
Most juvenile boot camps are designed for mostly teenage boys, with very few targeting females. There are short term and there are long term boot camps for teens with more serious and in depth problems.
Here is an article which discusses the purpose of juvenile boot camps: http://www.teenbootcamps.org/boot-camps/what-is-the-purpose-of-juvenile-boot-camps.html