Republicans Rewrite Tea Party History

Originally written
April 20th 2009

On April 15th thousands, maybe tens of thousands of protesters participated in a national Tea Party protest to rebel against bailouts, high taxes and government spending. Armed with hand-written signs and cliché slogans republicans, conservatives, libertarians and the Apostles of Paul, united in a rare show of political accord with one heart and mind. For the first time since the start of this administration differences were put aside and the battle for leadership on the political right subsided to coalesce under a fallacious theme which was the pure hatred of President Obama and his policies.

Notwithstanding the apparent misalignment with history, republicans all across the country insist they are living-up to the expectations of the political pioneers of this great country. Added to this ignorance is the historic symbolism used to justify the protest. Republicans maintain that their actions were no different than that of the colonist who protested taxes by staging what is now known as the Boston Tea Party. Not to mention, republicans vehemently point out that had the colonist been alive today they would have joined with them arm-in-arm in this protest.

The demagogues on the political right have preached of the coming doom-and-gloom that would arrive upon the onset of the Obama Administration long and hard. They have successfully brainwashed a vital part of the political right’s grassroots and proactive members, energized radical racist and hoodwinked them all into believing that the steps the administration took to the address the economic crisis was the catalyst that would begin the total destruction of the economy and this nation’s democracy. Essentially channeling the right’s frustrations toward an administration that has not even aged 100 days in office. Once again, the republican masses have managed to show themselves as politically manipulable and primed for exploitation by political opportunists.

The national Tea Party did nothing but create the opportunity for the demagogues to speak of revolution, taking the country back and the need to return to the roots of the nation’s democracy. The questions that follow the notion that the nation needs to return to its roots are: what are the roots of this democracy, which democracy are these demagogues referring, and is this democracy the democracy prior or post Lincoln? These are concerns because America has moved forward since its conception, which leads to another concern; does this so-called return to the roots of this nation include the institution of slavery as part of the economic system – a class of people working perpetually toward a future not of their own, forever trapped in servitude to a higher class? Does it include women not having the right to vote?

Must republicans revisit their own history, both nationally and as a party? How can one stage a revolution simply because of a grave disagreement with a government’s action and justify the revolution on the basis that the Founding Fathers utilized revolution to rebel against the King of England? There is a significant difference and in fact these two events bear no similarity save the name. If that were the case, in the early stages of our country’s beginning, with all the turmoil that existed, there would have been numerous revolutions. America’s history would be closer to that of the France – a collection of bloody destructions and rebuilding of a republic.

The most revealing aspect of this protest is the gullibility of the political right, namely the republican masses. They participated in a protest under the facade of a Tea Party, in which there was no similarity in principle. The Boston Tea Party was a protest of taxes that were levied by an essentially foreign government without due representation and to make it worse the revenue generated from the unrepresented tax was not righteously applied toward the benefit of the colonies. Since the passage of the stimulus package 90 percent of Americans are paying less taxes, with the richest 10 percent paying a slight increase. Thus a majority of the protesters, if not all, are misguided and misinformed about their directly-elected officials passing a significant tax reduction, not a foreign body that uses the taxes for their sole benefit. The only people with a legitimate argument are the demagogues and radio talking heads themselves who were present at these protests that are making more than 5 times the average protester.

The victim of this movement is the middle-class and the perpetrator of this crime is unrestrained greed and corrupt politicians, however, those points are not important to these demagogues on the larger scheme of things. Their concerted refusal to explain the plight of the middle-class, along with their refusal to acknowledge the importance of taxes and certain social programs, and the need for regulation are the signature characteristics of these demagogues. The tea party was an experiment that allowed these political pimps to get a visual of their sphere of influence, test the strength of their market and manipulate the people into being their lackey advocates.

The sad part of this story is that for years the government spent recklessly and unnecessarily, expanded rapidly and formulated tax policies that disproportionately favored the rich and not one of these protestors in the modern-day “Tea Party” stood up to say anything about it, save the Apostles of Paul. It is a fact that a republican controlled law-making body devised policies that bankrupted the country, granted spending and facilitated the loss of industry to overseas markets.

Where were the protestors when vital parts of this society were being neglected due to reckless tax reductions and spending? State governments carelessly cut taxes, redirected federal funds from public service and government-funded programs and as a result of this “theft,” it created seriously inefficient and underfunded federal programs and public systems. Thus, the federal dollars were supposed to offset the cost of the maintenance of roads and bridges, infrastructure, education, health care and environmental preservation and protection programs were not fully supplied. And with state government further losing tax revenues, due to tax cuts, these programs were significantly less, resulting in deterioration – that was the case in Louisiana.

Republicans sought for symbolism and chose to protest a situation that does not exist. The only symbolism that republicans managed to ominously conjure is the death of the Father of the Republican Party marked by April 15th 1865. Ironically April 15th 2009, will be marked as the day the Republican Party, Lincoln envisioned, drew its last breath.