So, yeah, this whole Tea Party Tax Day thing? It's freaking ridiculous. I think it's insane that after the last administration and all the protest-worthy things it engineered (i.e. an endless war on false pretenses, surveillance without warrants on American citizens {including our deployed military men and women in their private conversations with family back home}, the collapse of our economy, etc.), only now is it necessary and even encouraged to protest anything. I mean, during the Bush administration, if anyone dared to protest, they were unpatriotic and un-American and communists and hippies and so on and so forth. Nobody was supposed to question the President's decisions because, well...he was the President. And if you didn't like what the President was doing, you were supposed to at least respect the office of President.
So....when did the rules change? Coincidentally, they changed around or about January 20, 2009. Suddenly everything the President does is fodder for criticism, down to the smallest detail-like the gift he gave to the Prime Minister of the UK. Suddenly it's appropriate to accuse the President of communism, fascism, socialism, totalitarianism, and any other -isms one can think of. Just so we're clear, all those -isms aren't interchangeable, but you wouldn't guess that from the rhetoric being spouted all over the place. It's like this thing that Jon Stewart said the other day about a lot of the Fox News people going on about tyranny, "Yes, tyranny. AKA our democratically elected President. I think you might be confusing tyranny with losing. But see, when the guy that you disagree with gets elected, he's probably going to do things you disagree with. See now, you're in the minority. It's supposed to taste like a shit taco."
Anyhow, back to the Tea Party Tax Day business. You've got all these people screeching about the "big government" and "wasteful government spending" and the "massive budget deficit", chief among them the "journalists" at Fox News. The problem with that line of thinking is that it's a complete and total logical fallacy. Where were the protests about our "massive budget deficit" when our budget surplus was decimated by President George W Bush because of this pointless war? Where were the protests about "big government" when the previous administration initiated warrantless wiretapping on American citizens? Where were the protests about "big government" when the former President decided to stomp all over the Constitution by allowing torture and doing away with habeas corpus for detainees in Guantanamo Bay? Where were the protests about "wasteful government spending" when President Bush enacted his tax cuts for the wealthiest people in this country rather than the middle class and the poor?
Now President Obama is trying to clean up the mess left to him by initiating the stimulus and continuing the bailouts. Wait a minute, did I say continuing the bailouts? Oh, THAT'S RIGHT. President Bush initiated the bailouts, not President Obama. Another thing that's conveniently ignored is that these bailouts, while infuriating and frustrating, are necessary to prevent the complete implosion of our economy. It's not like President Obama is pocketing the money or something, for crying out loud. President Obama is also doing away with the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, which will set their taxes back to Clinton-era rates, a marginal rise of 3%-horrible and sad, I know. And here are these middle class and blue collar types getting all we're-mad-as-hell-and-we're-not-gonna-take-it-anymore about policies that actually benefit them. It's like a parallel universe or something. They're all "Boohooo, I hate paying less in taxes while the top 2% of earners pay a smidgen more. I hate having paved roads and bridge maintenance. I hate having a public education system. I hate having trash pickup and water treatment plants and sewage facilities. I hate having police and fire departments to keep me and my loved ones safe. I hate Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare. I hate having military forces and keeping them well-equipped so that they're not in harm's way without the proper gear. Waaahhhhh waaaaaahhhhhh. I hate all that stuff so much." Oh wait, you mean they're not saying that? Cause those are the things our taxes pay for. And the result of Obama's change in tax policy is that the rich pay more and the not rich pay less. Freaking deal with it. All that's happening is that the people screaming the loudest are starting to look more and more like straight up nutballs rather than members of one of our two major political parties. To bottom line it, this whole Tea Party Tax Day thing is stupid, contrived, and gimmicky.
P.S. The Jon Stewart quote I mentioned above, along with other hilarious and pithy observations on the recent lunacy, can be seen in the video below. I highly recommend it. There is some mild language, so this may not be safe for work, depending.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M - Th 11p / 10c | |||
| Baracknophobia - Obey | ||||
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3 comments:
Totally. Agree.
Oh so you had my head scarf! I was waiting for you to come out of your craft glue haze...Nuts isn't it?!
Very, very, very well said!
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