March 3, 2009
On Tea Parties - Where's Your Sacred Honor?
... In which I infuriate my fellow travelers on the right.
The next big "tea party" is going to take place on April 15th.
Building upon the success of the February 27th "Chicago Tea Party" Rallies, many of the organizers are now working to develop an even larger day of protests set to happen on April 15th, 2009.These protests are known as the Tax Day Tea Party rallies.
It's really the perfect day.
Likely a beautiful spring Wednesday spent standing around with fellow conservatives and libertarians with signs and chants.
Completely not like the original Boston Tea Party.
In fact, looking at the Wikipedia article, these protests are exactly NOT like the Boston Tea Party.
There's no inspired action.
Samuel Adams said to the assembly "This meeting can do nothing more to save the country". As though on cue, the Sons of Liberty thinly disguised as either Mohawk or Narragansett Indians and armed with small hatchets and clubs, headed toward Griffin's Wharf (in Boston Harbor), where lay Dartmouth and the newly-arrived Beaver and Eleanor.
The Sons of Liberty was a revolutionary secret society... and they were likely Longshoreman on this night.
The casks were opened and the tea dumped overboard; the work, lasting well into the night, was quick, thorough, and efficient. By dawn, over 342 casks or 90,000 lbs (45 tons) of tea worth an estimated £10,000 or $1.87 million USD in 2007 currency) had been consigned to waters of Boston harbor. Nothing else had been damaged or stolen, except a single padlock accidentally broken and anonymously replaced not long thereafter.
I think it's a disservice to our earliest patriots to call a tax protest a Tea Party. Standing around like a bunch of dopey lib-tards swinging signs and chanting is no way to run a protest.
You say you want a revolution? Don't wear a seatbelt.
You say you want a revolution? Buy your cigarettes or prescription drugs duty-free or in Mexico.
You say you want a revolution? Idle your car in the driveway all day long, polluting the earth, making Gaia cry. I'd settle for burning leaves in a barrel.
You say you want a revolution? Dig around your drawers and find old stamps and mail envelopes around!
You say you want a revolution? If you're on a 1099 don't file quarterly estimated payments. W2ers are hosed. *
You say you want a revolution? Make a bon-fire / marshmallow roast with stacks of tax forms and tax guides. Invite your neighbors.
You say you want a revolution? On April 15th, don't file your 1040... or send it back empty.
That, my friends, would be a real tea party. How many tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of tax payers (out of the 150 million) would it take to put a wrench in the works? (I guess you would have to mail it back though)
It is tax fraud, however... and you're guilty until proven innocent in the IRS's eyes. That's where you need to focus, if you want a "tax" revolution.
Standing around with your friends and future friends? Really inspirational... for the history books.
* It's a sign of how f'd up our system is that your government forces you to pay your taxes! You can't withhold your withholding!
We're from the government, and here to help. Posted by AlexC at March 3, 2009 1:13 PM
Here, here! I have always thought these protests to be a bit silly- what are they actually accomplishing, other than a few hurt ears? Lets see some real action.
Posted by: T. Greer at March 3, 2009 1:46 PMYour words hit home, ac. I have asked the same question a thousand time of my niece who marched to stop the Iraq War. I have suggested as many times that her efforts were better spent supporting candidates; earning money for a candidate, PAC or 527; or even writing letters to the editor. I can't hold my rightist friends to a different standard, though they are finally answering P.J. O'Rourke's question of "why don't we all march when they raise capital gains rates?"
To directly address your points, I do not want a revolution. I want the losers who inhabit incumbencies in our present Constitutional system to see that there is a breaking point and that they have found it. It is a signal that their cushy seats are in danger if they continue to overtax the productive.
A big crowd on the evening news seems like a good way to send a message. Better than burning tax forms. As far as not filing and not paying -- I take your point that it is far braver than "marching" but how does that result in a less collectivist government? Even if it is wildly successful -- Congress says "okay, we'll ignore the results of the last elections and capitulate to the demands of the non-payers."
Is that the next tool for war opponents or gay marriage activists or those who oppose the infield fly rule? Elections matter and unless you want to move off the US Constitution, I don't think you really want a revolution.
Posted by: jk at March 3, 2009 2:09 PMInteresting idea, AC. Imagine if every taxpayer filed two returns: one actual return (its compulsory) and one fake return (fake name, fake SSN, fake employer ID). Of course, you'd need a fake W2, but those forms are available on the web. You also would not want to file a form with a refund due, lest the IRS cut a check in good faith and it be deemed fraud. It would be better to have a balance due with no attached payment and let the IRS try to track it down. Now there's a civil disobedience protest.
Posted by: Boulder Refugee at March 3, 2009 2:30 PMjk: if you want to take up arms against Astroturf or the designated hitter (I've boycotted the entire American League), I'm with you, but the infield fly rule is sacred.
Okay, that was jollity and frivolity. More on a serious note, this post really cuts to the real issue. The Tea Party Protests - do they actually accomplish anything more than wearing whatever color ribbon we're supposed to be wearing this week? Do they "raise awareness?" Fine. Mission accomplished: awareness is raised. Do they "show solidarity?" Check. But I imagine our overlords in Washington glancing out from behind their venetian blinds saying "okay, they've got that out of their system. Back to destroying capitalism."
All the sign-waving, ribbon-wearing, or bumper-sticker-sporting in the world accomplishes nothing, other than perhaps persuading some of the people in the "Indifferent" or "Don't Know" columns to change their stances, and I don't think there are many people in that subset.
I too hope it doesn't come to violent revolution, but having watched the percentage of America voting over the years for the candidate of the left - Gore, Kerry, and now Obama - progressively increase, there's a part of me that wonders if the nation has gone irreversibly around the corner. Besides, with Obama's current strategy of making increasing numbers of people clients of the nannystate, and waging war on the investor class and the productive class in order to sap those resources, I wonder whether the voting public can be turned back.
Plus, with the Republican Party's identity crisis (read: Schwarzenegger, Snowe, Specter, etc.), electing Republicans doesn't necessarily equate to electing conservatives and constitutionalists.
For the record, I also am not in favor of a Constitutional Convention. Without a mechanism to limit it to specific issues, there is far too much opportunity for mischief.
WWJGD?
Besides, we all know that the FBI and the BATFE read these blogs, so our secret plans to overthrow the nation and rule for ourselves in the aftermath show NEVER be posted here.
Posted by: Keith at March 3, 2009 2:55 PMTo be clear, i'm not calling for revolution.
I'm saying "tangible" protests... calling these protests "tea parties" is besmirching the original tea party.
A response/disagreement on the 'cooler.... http://pawatercooler.com/?p=11502
Posted by: AlexC at March 3, 2009 2:56 PMHey brother, don't knock it [taxpayer "Tea Parties"] if you haven't tried it! ;) Here are a few observations:
1) Rome wasn't built in a day.
2) One hard-working, tax paying adult conservative "protester" equals at least 10 tatooed punk hippies on the impact scale. (Since everyone knows the latter do this kind of stuff as foreplay.)
3) Any opportunity to foster discussion of GOOD ideas is worthwhile. Everyone who hears is one more person than would have if it wasn't said.
4) "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." Edmund Burke - 1770
5) If we shun any effort that seems too trivial or uninspired or impotent, where do we find our courage to do something "consequential?"
I sense your frustration, and I feel it too. But I also feel the groundswell of what Keith calls "rugged individualism" which inspires me to the continued belief that most Americans have a breaking point when it comes to this collectivist bull-crap.
I think unbridled Democrat control of government may be the foul medicine our mixed economy needed to inspire popular support for evolutionary change - where our elected officials take their oath to uphold the Constitution SERIOUSLY. As Obama and the powerlusting Pelosi take us out of the warm pot and throw us into a hot one it only serves us better that the pot is as hot as they can make it.
Posted by: johngalt at March 3, 2009 4:20 PMjg: I dearly hope you're right about the breaking point. Four (or worse, eight) years of where this economy and the republic are headed presently represent an abyss into which I do not enjoy staring.
That being said, I have friends who didn't like McCain, and actually considered voting for Obama solely because they knew the damage caused would scare people into voting conservative in '12. I argued against burning the nation down to rebuild it, but your last paragraph does show the only silver lining I can see in this dark cloud.
Finally, the Refugee has already counseled me today about giving fair warning before the turn of a friendly snark. That thing about tattooed hippies and foreplay? Not only did I choke on my coffee, I'm now in need of brain bleach to get that image off my cerebral cortex.
Posted by: Keith at March 3, 2009 4:32 PM | What do you think? [7]