by Mike Shanahan
Much has been said about the Tea Party movement over the last year. Â Fox News seems to devote about an hour’s worth of broadcast time a day. Â Even the Targum seems to have an column or Letter-to-the-Editor in reference to it almost every day of the week. Â Most of the debate has revolved around higher taxes. Â Tea Partiers say they are “Taxed Enough Already.” Â There has been relatively little discussion as to the merits of not only their claims but the very existence of the “movement.”
You see, taxes have gone up…for the super rich.  The tax cuts of the early Bush years were so dramatically regressive that the richest 400 Americans paid an effective tax rate of just 16.6 percent.  This is half of what it was in the 1990s (you remember the ’90s; what an awful economy that was).  Since 1992 the bottom 90% of Americans have seen their income increase by 13%.  THIRTEEN PERCENT in 18 years.  Meanwhile the richest 400 Americans saw their incomes increase by a nauseating 399%. The Bush Tax Cuts of 2001 and 2003 were targeted mostly at the rich.  Millionaires saw their after-tax incomes rise by 7.6% while the middle 20% of Americans saw it rise by 2.3% and the bottom 20% rose by a meager 0.4%.
Obama’s tax plan sought to correct this injustice.  By cutting the taxes of the bottom 95% of Americans, Obama granted the largest tax cut (in terms of number of people affected) in history.  Yet, if you asked a Tea Partier they may still call him a socialist.  Obama is a socialist for raising the tax burden of the rich back to where it was in the 1980s.  You know, when we had that Socialist, Hollywood Elitist president Ronald Reagan.  Part of the problem seems to be that the Tea Partiers simply don’t know the facts about Obama’s tax plan.  A recent CBS News/New York Times poll revealed that, “Of people who support the grassroots, “Tea Party” movement, only 2 percent think taxes have been decreased, 46 percent say taxes are the same, and a whopping 44 percent say they believe taxes have gone up.”  Bill Maher, host of Real Time on HBO, responded to these statistics by saying, “Think about that, only 2% of people in a movement about taxes, named after a tax revolt, have the slightest idea whats going on with taxes.â€
What seems to have happened is that the super rich and the corporations have coopted that real anger of the tea-party and redirected it at Obama. Â Follow the money; look at the websites that organize the Tea Party rallies. Â Look at who owns and operates them. Â Its large corporations and the think tanks they’ve established. Â Why don’t you ever see the Tea Bagger’s protesting say Goldman Sachs or the New York Fed. Â The people truly responsible for our economic meltdown.
I’m not saying their anger isn’t real. Â The American people have every right to be angry at how they’ve been treated. Â In fact, just the other day, Speaker of the House, DemocratÂ
Nancy Pelosi, reached out to populists within the tea party groups to say that Democrats “share some of the views of the Tea Partiers in terms of the role of the special interests in Washington.”
They must recognize that those responsible for their current condition – the banks, the health insurance companies, big pharmacuticals – have pulled some political jiu-jitsu. Â But what concerns me most is how this anger has been channeled from angry protest to threats of violence. Â Those who have claimed to speak for the Tea Party movement have created a monster. Â ByÂ
inciting fear and violence on a leaderless organization the mouthpieces are creating a dangerous situation. Obama is not a socialist, he’s not a foreigner, he hasn’t raised your taxes, he’s not coming for your guns, and he has no intention of killing your grandmother. That talk must end NOW!
Everyone has the right to free speech. Â But at some point it crosses over to advocating violence. Â John Stuart Mill, one of the greatest advocates for free speech in the 19th Century said inÂ
On Liberty that “the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” Â In other words, speech should only be limited if it will curb the rights of others, in this case the right to life.
Lets keep it real for a minute here people.  Since Obama’s election what many people (from all ends of the political spectrum) have feared is an assassination attempt.  At the time, many of us were afraid it would come from some white supremacist or something of that nature.  Now it appears more likely to come from a radicalized tea bagger type who is afraid “the government is going to kill them.”  Talk of death panels and euthanasia from the right coupled with Americans natural fear of the unknown (i.e. a black president named Barack) is the root cause of this fear.
Recently it seems that the bottom of Tea Party has taken on a life of its own. Â
Challenges to Republican incumbents have appeared across the country, included on the list are some big names like SenatorÂ
John McCain of Arizona and Senate Minority LeaderÂ
Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Â It will be interesting to see how these primary races play out and what the backlash will be.
In the end however, what will matter is whether the people who form the base of the Tea Party movement can remove the wool that has been pulled over their eyes. Â If they can, we could see for some very interesting politics in the upcoming primaries and some real democratic changes to how government works. Â If not, we are in for more of the same misdirected anger.
Facts, facts, facts…….and most people don’t care. It’s the continual screaming of misdirected facts, continual focusing on the negative, screaming talk radio and TV news markets. Same shit we heard for the last 8 years (make that 16 years). Blame, bame, blame!
And there are always those who listen to this negative chat! They eat it up like crack cocaine. They feed on it, link it to thier “beliefs”. What they belief there country should be.
Hammered day in and day out with crap. Missinformation, altered data.
“I’m not going to take it any more”……..becomes thier cry.
But “HOPE” still lives. Look at all the resignations and those deciding not to seek re-election. Is the heat to strong? is this the “Change” in effect?
I’ll sip my ‘tea’ (coffee) and wait and see. I support the man and the country that elected him.
When Lincoln was assassinated, he had only a 40% aproval ratings. You don’t have to be popular to effect change. You just have to believe what you are doing is right.