Why I Lost My Protesting Virginity
I was one of the radical, right-wing extremists who attended the Tea Parties on Wednesday, April 15. While left-wing politicians (Nancy Pelosi, the Obama administration, etc.) and media elites (Anderson Cooper, Keith Olbermann, etc.) have attempted to characterize these rallies as something coordinated by Fox News or talk radio or wealthy Republican donors or corporate front groups, I can say from first-hand experience that none of this is true. Further, the lies that have come from these whacko-Liberal politicians and "journalists" only illustrate what it is that the Tea Party attendees are protesting.
Organized protesting is not something that I've ever been a part of. I've never even been to a political rally. Between work and my family, I don't have a lot of free time to show up with a bunch of politically charged people and get excited about a cause that will be short-lived. That's how I've felt about political rallies, such as when McCain and Obama were in and out of Ohio in 2008.
I can say with confidence that the vast majority of the folks that I stood with were something like me. Not professional protestors, but everyday Americans who participate in their government on Election Day and on April 15. And it is this idea that, once explored, will give insight into why these protesting novices were standing outside in groups large and small holding signs with slogans like, "GIVE ME LIBERTY, OR GIVE ME A BIG SCREEN TV" and "DISTRIBUTE MY WORK ETHIC, NOT MY $$$" and "I WILL NOT GRAB MY ANKLES." The most predominant flag held by the angry rookies at the Cleveland Tea Party was the Gadsden Flag: "DON'T TREAD ON ME." For too long American politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, have taken for granted that their constituents will show up on Election Day. Further, these same politicians have abused their role in legislating everything having to do with April 15, thus treading all over the rights and liberty of the producers of America.
If you have not yet played the video included above, please do so now.
Susan Roesgen is the perfect example of the modern "American" who has no idea what makes America great. She, and the legions that she represents, believes that government makes our nation great, and the only reason we haven't been perfected as a society is because government has not been permitted to have enough control... er... provide enough good to its citizens. She, the Left, and the ingnorant in between couldn't be more wrong.
 April 15, 2009 |
Taxation is a limit on liberty. The U.S. Constitution does not grant ultimate liberty because it allows for taxation to support specific things: "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States." (Article 1, Section 8) The Constitution does not specify how those taxes should be levied, and for insight into how our founders thought they should be collected, we can turn to The Federalist Papers:
"It is evident from the state of the country, from the habits of the people, from the experience we have had on the point itself, that it is impracticable to raise any very considerable sums by direct taxation.Alexander Hamilton knew that the taxing of citizens' wealth (income) could only go so far. First, a worker will eventually be de-motivated to produce when enough of the fruits of his labor are taken from him. Secondly, taking from the citizens' production limits the economy's capacity to grow, thereby placing a cap on the potential amount to be taxed. Way back in 1787, Hamilton was arguing for... wait for it... the Fair Tax!!! Some have said a Flat Tax would be preferable to the Fair Tax. I'll take either one in place of the bloated, ineffecient, immoral system that we currently have going, but Hamilton was not subtle in his writings. He clearly advocated funding that nation's responsibilities (protecting its citizens, its commerce and its borders... not much else) via a consumption tax.
"Personal estate (as has been before remarked), from the difficulty in tracing it, cannot be subjected to large contributions, by any other means than by taxes on consumption."
(Federalist No. 12, Tuesday, November 27, 1787)
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I use the term "immoral" very deliberately to describe our tax code. There is a term for the act of requiring one man to work against his will for the benefit of another man. We fought a war to end this practice. It is not an exaggeration to call our level of taxation a form of slavery. They hit us up on our income, but we don't notice this much due to the withholding in our paycheck. They hit us up on our cell phone bill, on our water bill, on our gas bill, at the pump, when we buy goods, when we purchase services, when we decide to put up a fence on our property, when fire a bad employee, when we purchase equipment for our businesses, and on and on and on. It doesn't end, and because it's so incremental, we barely notice. If every American had to write a check every time a tax was to be collected, the Boston Tea Party would look like a knitting bee. But instead, we've got a tax code that takes our money before we even see it, and to top it off, doesn't even collect 1% from the bottom 60% of earners! (A voting majority of non-tax-payers has been locked into place for these taxing slaveholders. Does this spell the beginning of the end?)
It is not as if our tax model is supporting noble, worthy causes. In addition to the crazy things like funding fish farms and researching bovine flatulence, we're also funding abortions, communists (ACORN), and the very news media that is spreading disinformation and ignorance. These "projects" are nothing short of un-Constitional and the Founding Fathers would have revolted from them as they did against King George. (And King George was to the Right of just about everyone on the American Left today!) Republicans are on the hook, too. They held a majority in congress from 1994-2006, and they had the opportunity to push real, long-lasting tax reform and fiscal responsibility through from 2001-2006. But the majority of them got drunk with their own power and failed to make these changes happen. If it weren't a majority of Republicans, we wouldn't be in this mess today! So it is the American politician that is at fault.
What Nancy Pelosi, Susan Roesgen, MSNBC, The New York Times, many of my Obama-voting friends and their mob does not understand is that millions of American citizens, both Republicans and Democrats, are fed up with having their personal income (liberty) taken away from them and given to people and programs that no one in their right mind would contribute to on their own. It started with Medicare Part D, and it's continued through Obama's Stimulus Plan to the latest Omnibus Bill. Our politicians are out of control, and they see nothing wrong with piling debt upon debt for my son's generation to deal with. The mockery that we, the people, observe from Peolosi, White House Press Secrety Robert Gibbs, Anderson Cooper, etc., only deepens our anger and incites our passion.
This isn't the time for outrageous predictions or ultimatums, so I won't make them. But in conclusion, it is important to consider that with every passing day that Joe American feels as though his government is out of touch, and with every passing ridiculous headline and snarky comment from what passes for media today, members of this Tea Party movement will only become more convinced that they are justified in thier actions.
rg
4/17/2009
