Excerpt:The tea parties have generated a lot of attention on right wing blogs but have had problems capturing a wider national audience. One of the obstacles tea baggers have run into is that the original Boston tea party in 1773 that they are trying to emulate was a spontaneous event that occurred because of the tax that was attached to tea being delivered to Boston. The tax being levied on tea drinkers was money that was going to England, not Boston. Thus, the early Americans protested and the Boston Tea Party went into the history books as an iconic moment in U.S. history.
The tea party events of 2009, though ostensibly meant to protest taxation, has no tax hike to protest. The taxes that are in place at present are taxes that were put into place by the Bush administration. When President Obama's tax plan goes into effect, taxes will be lower than they are today for 95% of Americans. Only those who earn in the top 5% will see a tax hike of 3% in the near future.
Taxes are at their lowest in 16 years. Taxes were some 10% higher under President Reagan than they are now. The protestors who will attend tea parties on April 15th will be protesting something but it's not clear what. Previous events held this year indicate that people attending the rallies are angry about something, but what it is exactly, is not clear. Some earlier tea party goers held up signs professing their hatred of socialism. But do they really mean that they would like to do away with medicare? Social Security benefits? The United States is not a purely capitalistic economy. It is a blend of socialist programs and capitalist ideals. We pay taxes and our roads get paved. We pay taxes and our children can go to school free. We pay taxes and the police and fire departments respond when we call 911. Public schools, public roads and police and fire departments are all socialist programs.
Some are protesting the bailout of the auto companies and the banks. But the bailouts they are protesting are bailouts that occurred when President Bush was still in office.
It's very difficult to understand then, exactly what the 2009 tea parties are really about. It helps to understand that the tea party events of 2009 are not grass roots events. They are events that were dreamed up in the halls of Washington by Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey and other Republicans who are no longer in office.
Political analyst Lawrence O'Donnell posits that Gingrich, Armey and others created the modern tea party of 2009 to motivate the Republican base because they know that their party is in shambles.
Read the rest of the article and see the video of O'Donnell blasting the teabaggers here.
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