Here's a photo from Salon's Mike Madden, currently tweeting (hate...that...word) from D.C.'s Lafayette Park, where a bunch of idiots are pretending that returning the marginal tax rate on the very wealthiest Americans to 10% lower than it was during most of Ronald Reagan's presidency is some kind of unprecedented tyrannical socialist crime against America, worthy of not just protest but revolt.
The vast majority of the people at these protests actually had their taxes lowered by Obama. So maybe they're really protesting the higher rate they have to pay today. See? It's all just a big misunderstanding. Wait 'til next year.
The whole concept behind these "protests" is ludicrous, of course. And it's a pretend "grassroots" protest (aka Astroturf), which was actually orchestrated by Fox News and Dick Armey, who never met a rich person he wouldn't defend. I'm sick of it already and I don't feel like getting too far into it.
But I did want to comment on the particular stupidity of this sign. So there's this quote from the unassailable Abraham Lincoln juxtaposed with a non-quote from Barack "Don't Forget the Hussein" Obama, president of someplace called "Ameristan" (xenophobic much?). See, he wants all yer munny fer his stinky gov'nt.
But wait, what was Lincoln's full quote again? Oh, yeah. "[A] government of the people, by the people and for the people". Whoops. They skipped the government part there. That changes things a bit. Or it should, anyway. See, America is governed by its people. That's the whole freaking point of what Lincoln said. I know that in practice this isn't always true. And the right has done a great job of turning "gov'nt" into the hated other, rather than something we (should) own, even while running it themselves. (A neat trick, that.)
But really, people. We still have a representative government. And right now, it's doing what the people elected it to do, for the most part. The whole premise of this sign is either wholly ignorant or wholly dishonest. Either way, it's false.
Screaming your head off that this is some form of fascism because Glenn Beck told you to just makes you look really really stupid. Get over it, people.
6 comments:
I'm kind of loving a whole day of teabagging jokes and I'm a little disappointed that you won't be participating.
I just read that the protest was actually dispersed. They didn't have the necessary permits so all they have now are a couple of truck loads of tea and no parking space.
After a combined four hours of it from Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, and god knows two more hours tonight, I just don't have it in me. Teabag yourself.
Oh! Did I just do it?
You did. Kind of a slam dunk, if you will.
Okay, you two; break it up (nice one, Kizz...)
All of this just feels ridiculous to me, and I said so on my blog (though several of my more right-leaning friends mentioned that protest is at the heart of our rights. Funny; they didn't seem all that upset four years ago...).
The hypocrisy of it makes my eyeballs ache.
You know, protest if you want but figure out a. what you're protesting about and b. what you're saying (even accidentally) with your plan. Was there not one single solitary person in the entire movement that had watched Sex & the City, there's a whole tea bagging episode!
Yeah, not only were these people unconcerned about the same issue four years ago, but they didn't exactly look favorably on those of us protesting the war in Washington and New York a while back. And there were a hell of a lot more of us then.
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