Category: Politics & Government

I’ve been largely ignoring the Teabagging movement promoted by Fox News mostly because I’m still very much confused about it’s intended purpose. Do these people even know what they are really against? Do they have any focus as to what to protest, or is just fit against anything the current government represents? And do they really understand the actual history of the Boston Tea Parties and what they were about, of which they are trying to associate this movement with?

So… what was the Boston Tea Party about?

The Boston Tea Party was a direct action protest by colonists in Boston, a town in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the British government. On December 16, 1773, the Sons of Liberty protesters dressed up as Mohawk natives, forcibly boarded three East India Company ships and threw 342 crates of tea into the harbor water. This act, and the retaliatory measures taken by the British government afterwards, united the colonies in their frustrations against Britain, and was one of the many catalysts of the American Revolution.

The Boston Tea Party arose from two issues confronting the British Empire in 1773: the financial problems of the British East India Company which resulted in the Parliament passing the Tea Act, and an ongoing dispute about the extent of Parliament’s sovereignty over the British American colonies. Colonists objected to the Tea Act for a variety of reasons, especially because they believed that it violated their constitutional right to be taxed only by their own elected representatives: the now infamous idea of “no taxation without representation” was championed throughout the revolution.

The East India Trading Company was a favored monopoly with a lobby in Parliament and they sold their tea exclusively in London on which it was paying the British government 400,000 pounds per year duty to do so. The Tea Act was a favorable measure to the East India Trading company which could cut it’s tax costs on the tea in half because they now would now be allowed to export its tea directly to the colonies, bypassing London. The Colonies importing the tea directly would now be required to pay a duty on the tea directly, under the already imposed Townshend Act.

The purpose of the Townshend Acts passed beginning in 1767 by the Parliament of Great Britain, were to raise revenue in the colonies to pay for governors and judges who would be independent of colonial control, to create a more effective means of enforcing compliance with trade regulations, to punish the province of New York for failing to comply with the 1765 Quartering Act, and to establish the precedent that the British Parliament had the right to tax the colonies. The Townshend Acts culminated in the British occupation of Boston which eventually resulted in the Boston Massacre of 1770. The majority of the taxes were repealed except for the Tea tax.

Ironically Benjamin Franklin proposed to the British government the idea of eliminating the tax on tea as a way to help the East India Company. The economic results of the Tea Act would actually reduce the cost of tea to the Colonists and the British hoped it would buy consciouses support or a reduction in protest for the taxes already in force. The increased direct sale of tea, via British agents, would also have undercut the business of local merchants who were smuggling in inferior brands of tea, thus reducing the effect of the colonial boycott on British goods and commerce.

So, in reality the protest movement that culminated with the Boston Tea Party was not a dispute about high taxes. The protesters were inflamed that they were not being represented when taxes were levied on the Colonies and that the purpose of the tax program—to make leading officials independent of colonial influence— was seen as a dangerous infringement of colonial rights; the tax money was going back to British demanded services and not funneled back into services for the colonial regions.

So what is this right-winged, Fox News promoted Teabagging Movement about?

This is where the GOP and right wing continue to shine, or from their perspective, fail: Organization. There’s no real unification of message, protest or focus here and I still can’t figure out if there’s a singular point because everyone’s perspective is different. Today is Tax Day, the day of their protests which is a symbolic day for all Americans to make sure they’ve paid up with the man. Teabagging day, has been designated also for today, and given the history above should mean they are not protesting high taxes?

From what I can gather here are a few areas of outrage for the Tea Party protests:

1) Participants are protesting Obama’s tax rates. These rates have been broadcast even before the election, which result in LOWER taxes for people making $250,000 or less. Do the protesters realized that since this tax day is for paying your taxes for 2008, this protest is associated with protesting George W. Bush’s Tax rates?

2) Participants are protesting Obama’s tax increases. These rates are imposed on the rich who’s taxes will skyrocket to 10% LESS than the rich tax codes imposed by President Ronald Reagan. This tax platform was democratically approved by a majority of Americans advocated a return to the Clinton era tax programs which brought steady economic growth and prosperity. Haven’t these protesters heard that the proposed increase has been postponed? Is it this postponement the protest? The majority of these protesters are not even effected by this increase, which makes it increasingly ironic that the CEOs and executives that are effected, are looking down from their penthouses and glass corner offices at these Tea Parties and big smiles, thanking them for their voice, while they continue to sign pinkslips for these very same people!

3) Participants are protesting the TARP and bank bailout funds which were orchestrated by the Bush Administration and carried over by Obama. I’m sure these protesters know what would happen with out added government spending and bailouts right? Does this mean they’re advocating the failure of major US banking system? This is probably the only reason I can see for protest, as the lack of transparency by the Bush administration in forking over tax payer dollars to financial institutions that created the economies demise is also a concern for me and my future family.

4) Participants are protesting a porous boarder and illegal immigration. He’s been office barely 3 months so I can understand that there’s a lack of work being done after the destruction of this policy by the Bush administration, however, Obama has already tightened up the restrictions on visas and work permits, and built policy into bailout funds to encourage American employee growth, thus limit immigration. This is to ensure American companies higher more Americans, however, I’m not 100% approved of this policy myself, however, it’s a step in the right direction to improve local workforce education.

5) It’s a protest against Government Debt. Let’s eliminate for argument’s sake the complete ignorance by Fox News and the Right of the previous administration;s ability to obliterate a government budget surplus, designed to pay down the debt, and reverse policy to dramatically increase government spending which resulted in the doubling of the National debt by 5 Trillion US Dollars. The concern about debt would require a drastic reversal of spending, and including huge budget cuts to jobs and services such as Education (already schools moving to 4 day weeks because they can’t afford to stay open), road and transportation services (we don’t need a high speed rail, when we can buy quality foreign cars and kill more domestic auto worker jobs!), and who needs Medicare, Medicaid, and social security – these protesters are still working and aren’t even close to retirement or need for these services – their parents maybe so are they protesting removal of services for their parents? These socialist programs are supported by every member of the congress, Dems and Republicans and not ONE member of the Republican leadership that has spouted to repeal of Medicare or Medicaid programs.

6) Or maybe here’s another idea from the fringe: a video of one of Project 912 Glenn Beck’s Tea Party meetings which the participants spout “Socialism”, “Media Blackouts”, “Obama is George Soros’s puppet”, “Brainwash devices”, “Don’t pay any taxes”, “Get kids out of college, they’re brainwashed” and the following excerpt:

Woman: [Shouts] “Burn the books!” [applause]

Man: “I don’t think you were serious about that, were you?”

Woman: “I am too.”

Man: “Burn all the books?!”

Woman: “The ones in college, those, those brainwashing books.”

Man: “[laughs] Brainwashing books?”

Woman: “Yes.”

Man: “Which ones are those?”

Woman: “Like, the evolution crap, and, yeah…”

These idea of these Tea Party protests were initially started by GOP’s former house majority leader Dick Army, former house speaker Newt Gingrich (whom originally promoted the bailouts with the Bush Administration), Washington prostitute patron Senator David Vitter (R), and Fox New’s Glenn Beck, Shawn Hannity and executive Neal Cavuto. “Fair and balanced” Fox claims that no one else is reporting on these “events”, and that their coverage is merely informative for the public. However, Fox’s program speaks for itself as they have frequently aired segments encouraging viewers to get involved with “tea party” protests across the country including providing attendance and organizing information for future protests, such as protest dates, locations and website URLs. MediaMatters has an extensive breakdown of all the promotions of these type of events:

If I dive into conspiracy theories, like in reason 6 with the marketing guy in the Tea Party video above suggests, we can try to make some associations: The East India Trading Company represents today’s Financial Institutions, the Federal Reserve and a shadowy, elitist international cabal known as the Bilderberg Group which have a clear favorable monopoly over power with the US Government and our financial system. The tea could represent the TARP funds and include the continued manipulation of interest rates and our economy by these financial kingpins. The British Parliament pushing action like the Tea Act could represent the real power brokers (most of which whom met recently at a G20 summit) whom wish to implement policy to create a new World Bank (Townshend Acts) which will be used to dominate every nation on Earth through carbon taxes and military force. This will in turn bring about bankruptcy and Global Government domination!!!

The scenario is one familiar to those who have studied the communist empires of Mao and Stalin, with Obama as the spokesman appointed to achieve the task of looting the middle class, destroying pensions and federalizing the states of America so that the population is completely dependent on central government. Unfortunately, these are not the theories and ideas tied into the Fox New’s and GOP promoted Tea Parties. Those promoting this theory are, however, looking at these Tea Parties as a reason to joint the protest against the government and are probably hijacking whatever the real reasons these people are organizing. (Watch the Obama Deception for expansion on this theory).

As a fiscally conservative person, I am all for the reduction and elimination of any taxes, so I probably should be out at the latest Teabagging party here in NYC like the rest of these kooks regardless. However, what this all looks to me is just frustration and rage amongst a party of people who used to be part of the majority, running the country, and are now fractured, weak, cornered and scared their ridiculously out dated, self sufficient and power base supporting ideals are being washed away without their consent.

This is a desperation attempt to protest not one actual program that Obama has done in his time in office. There is not a single tax payer that is paying taxes today based on an Obama tax program… yet the Fox promoted Tea Parties have a nice ring to them to protest the loss of an election and in no other words vocalize their conniption. The Tea Parties are a function of a movement’s intellectual collapse and a party’s fast-accelerating nervous breakdown and apparently their best response at this point is to gather a Dick Army.