Thursday, April 16, 2009

The Illogic Of The Tea Parties

From David Horsey of SeattlePI:

However, I can't subscribe to the logic of the protesters because it is... well, illogical. They are looking for simple answers and somebody to blame. Hannity and his crowd have supplied the answer -- cut taxes -- and the blame target -- Barack Obama. But, unless you live in a world of right-wing paranoia, neither explanation makes much sense.

Who would benefit most from a tax cut? Not the tea party protesters. They may be struggling to pay taxes right now, but that is likely because they are struggling to pay for everything, thanks to an economic system that, over the last couple of decades, has been skewed in favor of the wealthy. While middle class earnings have stagnated or fallen, a few people have enjoyed enormous gains -- people like the pirates on Wall Street, along with celebrity commentators like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. They would be the real beneficiaries of any major decrease in taxation.

4 comments:

  1. The first time I read this, I thought the guy was an idiot. but he does make a valid point, though. The people publizing the event to have a self interest stake in the tax cuts, there is no doubt about that, and that is where he is correct. Where is wrong is that the vast majority of those at the protests were not demanding tax cuts, from what I heard and seen, but were more upset with the spending that was going on.
    This is where the Left is missing the point. This was a grass roots effort, even with the help of the GOP and other groups. Some groups paid money to help the events out. But they did not pay people to go there.
    The tea parties had little planning time and it brought out a lot of people on short notice. And that is what is scaring the Left.

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  2. Dan's right--it's the spending.

    Simple-minded morons like Hannity (and a number of (R) twits) talk about taxes.

    People with understanding talk about spending--which was (by the way) the burden of the 17-y-o girl's REALLY good speech at the TEA Party/Madistan.

    Keep your eye on the realities, not the press reports.

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  3. The rhetoric about decreased spending is not translating into action. Our elected representatives are rewarded for bringing home the bacon. If we keep doing what we've been doing, we'll keep gettin what we've been gettin.

    Any incumbent that brings home the bacon and has a war chest is rarely ever defeated. Soemthing has to change.

    Let's expose the spending. Let's name names.

    Incessant partisan boo hoo-ing that Pres Obama is a socialist will change very little.

    But I could be wrong. I often am.

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