# I'm not sure why, but the "Tea Party" Tax Protests really rub me the wrong way. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 15, 2009, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149 "2009-04-15T05:01:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/21 "2009-04-15T12:50:47Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > They’re getting a lot of “lighter side of” coverage by commentators like Maddow and Olberman, who the protestors as a group don’t watch, which is exactly the same thing that happened to the war protests. I just saw them on CNN’s morning show. And CNN did a piece on the protests yesterday too. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/22 "2009-04-15T12:52:44Z")
For the record, Stewart’s quote about the shit taco was stupid, disappointing, and too open to misinterpretation. He was trying to say that just because you’re in the minority does not mean the government is going fascist, but as **Captain Carrot** showed, it came off as crowing. Nobody needs more crowing. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/23 "2009-04-15T13:14:21Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > Running up debts in the trillions is the government running amok. Refusing to control immigration to provide votes for the Democrats and cheap labor for the Republicans is the government running amok. Classifying the American Legion as a hate group is the government running amok. There are all sorts of examples of the government running amok (though, to be fair, neither of the major parties holds the moral high ground on that one). Does this mean you guys are going to stop blithering about the tyranny of the majority now? You would know. You’ve eaten enough of them, and will again. Wow, I guess I missed all the protests on 4/15/08. And the year before. And the year before. Just admit that it’s the nigger Democrat that’s pissing (the collective) you off and get on with your day, already. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/24 "2009-04-15T13:21:05Z")
> [@Merijerk](#): > > Just admit that it’s the nigger Democrat that’s pissing (the collective) you off and get on with your day, already. > > -Joe Just admit you’re projecting your own real thoughts and feelings about race on to us, much like a repressed homosexual who constantly accuses others of being gay. Then go stuff a cactus up your ass. ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/25 "2009-04-15T13:21:09Z")
The protests rub me the wrong way too, and I’m a conservative who has yet to see anything out of this administration that makes me regret my vote for McCain. They get on my nerves for a couple of reasons. First of all, these guys should have anticipated the teabagging jokes. It was stupid not to, and judging from the protestor interviews, I don’t think this stupidity was a fluke. Then again, you get a lot of this stupidity in protests on both sides, and maybe I shouldn’t judge them that harshly, although I’m starting to laugh at the teabagging jokes, too. No, what gets me about these protestors is how fucking _whiney_ they are. “Wahhhhhhh, the commie-lib MSM is ignoring us!!” And they do say “commie-lib.” I mean, Jesus, who \*talks \*like this anymore? “Wahhhhhh, the American sheeple voted for a muslim who’s gonna destroy the country. America died on November 4th.” Did Free Republic marry the Democratic Underground and forget to put out a bridal registery, because I remember hearing this shit in '04 too with different names and adjectives. Same goddamn words and everything. This has zip to do with the real Boston Tea Party, and for that we should be grateful. The whighty-righties come out, wave their little signs, scream their little protests, and then go home and shut up. No one gets killed or put to death by lethal injection by going too far . . . yet. Which brings me to another reason I don’t like these things. I’m hearing a lot of rhetoric about armed uprising and revolution by armed idiots on Free Republic and Yuku (FTR, I’m against gun control.). _These_ guys don’t scare me. They couldn’t run a garden hose, much less an army. What scares me are their smarter, more evil counterparts, who are canny enough to shut up and influence these guys into doing something stupid. Nothing resembling an actual revolution, mind you, but something resulting in dead cops and children. Something that’s going to wind up with them wearing a jumpsuit and strapped into a prison gurney, as crying parents and relatives wait for the IV to be hooked up. I don’t equate the tea parties totally with the Tim McVeighs of the world, but I _do_ see the overlap. If these protestors would just shut the fuck up about how ignored and marginalized they are and learn to express their opinions calmly and professionally, I would feel a lot better, and I actually would probably support them more. I don’t like the stimulus package either, and while I’m not stupid or selfish enough to hope it fails, I don’t think it’s going to do much good. It might very well make things worse. As it is, however, the protestors have much more to do with Bobby Basement-Dweller or Carol the Campus Communist than they do with any conservatives _I’ve_ ever hung out with. ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/26 "2009-04-15T13:21:14Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > There are all sorts of examples of the government running amok (though, to be fair, neither of the major parties holds the moral high ground on that one). The last bit is what gets to me–where were the protests about the government running amok when we were spending unbudgeted billions on the pointlessness in Iraq? Or lowering taxes while irresponsibly not lowering spending? I’m sympathetic with the idea of protesting government run amok, but these particular protests and the way they’re being organized (I speak mostly for the local ones to me as I’ve seen the most advertising for them) are nothing more than the same old partisan crap. If you really were that upset about fiscal irresponsibility and government run amok, you’d’ve been protesting for seven solid years now at a bare minimum. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/27 "2009-04-15T13:23:22Z")
Two things that rub me the wrong way. 1 - Hypocrisy: “We’re protesting the run away spending.” Which, of course, explains the popularity of Tea Parties for the last 8 years while Bush pissed away billions of dollars in Iraq. 2 - Ignorance: I was listening to a late night right wing talk radio show last night (I didn’t get the guy’s name, but he was a total whack-a-loon … high pitched voice, sounded like a bad comedian doing a worse Chicago accent, calls himself “The Great One” or something … I digress). One of his listeners called in to say that he was hosting a Tea Party to protest “taxation without representation.” While I commend this listener for knowing the term (as it related to the Revolutionary War) it has dick to do with anything now. Of course, Whack-a-Loon agreed with him. ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/28 "2009-04-15T13:27:01Z")
> [@Linty\_Fresh](#): > > “Wahhhhhh, the American sheeple voted for a muslim who’s gonna destroy the country. America died on November 4th.” Did Free Republic marry the Democratic Underground and forget to put out a bridal registery, because I remember hearing this shit in '04 too with different names and adjectives. Same goddamn words and everything. I was thinking pretty nearly the same thing. > [@](#): > > Which brings me to another reason I don’t like these things. I’m hearing a lot of rhetoric about armed uprising and revolution by armed idiots on Free Republic and Yuku (FTR, I’m against gun control.). _These_ guys don’t scare me. They couldn’t run a garden hose, much less an army. What scares me are their smarter, more evil counterparts, who are canny enough to shut up and influence these guys into doing something stupid. Nothing resembling an actual revolution, mind you, but something with a lot of dead cops and children. I was thinking pretty nearly the same thing, again. > [@](#): > > As it is, however, the protestors have much more to do with Bobby Basement-Dweller or Carol the Campus Communist than they do with any conservatives _I’ve_ ever hung out with. I wish I could agree with this too, but the way this thing is being handled is drawing out a lot of otherwise mainstream conservatives–and it’s mostly the blue-collar folks who work for a living and worry about their taxes (to no particularly good reason). My otherwise intelligent father fed me a load of Glen Beck talking points over Easter and to be honest I was surprised he was buying the horseshit. Fortunately for my sanity, he’s the kind of guy who actually cares about getting shit right so we spent a few hours looking at published bills and commentary on the Internet, but what about the uncritical thinkers who are exposed to this who AREN’T bothering to look it up and see? ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/29 "2009-04-15T13:29:19Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > Just admit you’re projecting your own real thoughts and feelings about race on to us, much like a repressed homosexual who constantly accuses others of being gay. Then go stuff a cactus up your ass. Awww…did I hurt your widdle feelings? How much ammo have you stocked up on since November? They’re gonna make it illegal, you know. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/30 "2009-04-15T13:30:37Z")
> [@](#): > > I’m just trying to figure out what the fuck tea has to do with anything. The comparisons between today and the tea monopoly in 1773 are just… non-existent. Is it because of the East India Company bailout or… what exactly? For that matter how many people participating in this (including my sister- even in your forties your big sister the Pentecostal telling you she’s going teabagging will throw you for a loop) even know what the hell the Tea Act or the East India Company were about (except that Clinton was responsible)? True. I was talking with some co-workers yesterday and it became clear that none of them recognized that tea party in this context is a reference to the Boston Tea Party of 1773. All they agreed on is that things are bad. Real bad. And we should be doing stuff about taxes and bail-outs and bankruptcies and terrorists and pirates and illegal aliens and Iraq and affirmative action and lay-offs and our boss and stuff. The caliber of the logic in use could be gauged by the fact that this was a group of state employees who were simultaneously complaining that the government was spending too much money and they didn’t get a big raise this year. And the consensus was that Bo is a dumb name for a dog. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/31 "2009-04-15T13:34:00Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > It’s protesting government running amok. Where were they during the Bush administration? ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/32 "2009-04-15T13:35:47Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > Running up debts in the trillions is the government running amok. So, Ronald Reagan and George W Bush were, by your definition, Government run amok? > [@](#): > > Refusing to control immigration to provide votes for the Democrats and cheap labor for the Republicans is the government running amok. Why didn’t these folks protest the Republicans over the last 16 years? > [@](#): > > Classifying the American Legion as a hate group is the government running amok. Cite for this - not that I don’t believe you, just hadn’t heard anything about it. > [@](#): > > There are all sorts of examples of the government running amok (though, to be fair, neither of the major parties holds the moral high ground on that one). Does this mean you guys are going to stop blithering about the tyranny of the majority now? You would know. You’ve eaten enough of them, and will again. Again, if these same folks had been protesting since the days of RR, I could see your point. It sounds like they’ve just been whipped into a frenzy by Hannity, O’Reilly, Beck or whomever, and now that their party is not in power, they want to stir the pot. In a way, I’m happy to see them do something. But I’d bet that most wouldn’t protest if it weren’t a Democrat in the White House. And I doubt that many, if any, of the “grassroots” protesters has actually seen a tax increase. ETA: who drinks tea these days anyway? Maybe they should have called it a Kaffee Klatsch. ---
**Author:** ![Ocean\_Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8797f3/32.png) [@Ocean\_Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ocean_Annie)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/33 "2009-04-15T13:37:51Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > It’s not just a tax protest. It’s protesting government running amok. The fact that it’s on April 15 was just a bonus. Do you believe a planned tax protest with the catchy slogan, Boston Tea Party, coincidentally or arbitrarily chose April 15 to demonstrate? The protest is advertised like an entertainment event showing people dressed in colonial garb tossing tea. It feels gimmicky to me. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/34 "2009-04-15T13:44:19Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I just saw them on CNN’s morning show. And CNN did a piece on the protests yesterday too. Right, but CNN isn’t mocking the protests, is it? I mean, CNN did pieces on the war protests as well. I’m just not seeing the difference here. ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/35 "2009-04-15T13:45:39Z")
> [@Zeriel](#): > > I wish I could agree with this too, but the way this thing is being handled is drawing out a lot of otherwise mainstream conservatives–and it’s mostly the blue-collar folks who work for a living and worry about their taxes (to no particularly good reason). My otherwise intelligent father fed me a load of Glen Beck talking points over Easter and to be honest I was surprised he was buying the horseshit. Fortunately for my sanity, he’s the kind of guy who actually cares about getting shit right so we spent a few hours looking at published bills and commentary on the Internet, but what about the uncritical thinkers who are exposed to this who AREN’T bothering to look it up and see? Well, let me clarify a couple of things. First off, I don’t think the tea parties themselves are extremist. I think they’re counterproductive and annoying and that some of these guys could be tipped into extremist land, but I’m not actually _scared_ of the tea parties themselves. Secondly, there are quite a few conservatives out there like your dad, and we _do_ care about getting things right, and we _don’t_ like either Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter. We’re just not in control right now. Unfortunately, it’s the Freepers and the Ditto-heads who are running the show, and they might well be in the majority among conservatives. I have no hard feelings against Obama personally. I think he’s a good man who ran a good campaign. As clean a campaign as I’ve ever seen, and I don’t mind admitting that the best candidate won here. I also think that the country which Reagan presided over has changed dramatically right along with the rest of the world. The democrats figured that out, and the republicans didn’t, and we paid for it with our self-respect and the election. That doesn’t make me a democrat, and it sure as hell doesn’t make me a liberal. It makes me a conservative who has seen his own party hijacked and betrayed by the very elements we should have separated ourselves from decades ago. Maybe this is the _real_ reason tea parties piss me off. Not because of the protests themselves, but because every time I see the teabaggers on TV, it brings me face to face with what I’ve posted above. I could go on and on about what we could do or should do, but the simple fact is that I don’t know. And \*that \*pisses me off more than everything else combined. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/36 "2009-04-15T13:50:40Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > Cite for this - not that I don’t believe you, just hadn’t heard anything about it. Don’t hold your breath, because it never happened. [DHS cited "returning veterans"](http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/14/dhs-report-right-wing/)as potential recruits targeted by right-wing extremist groups, which \*\*LonesomePolecat \*\*has exaggerated into “Classifying the American Legion as a hate group” ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/37 "2009-04-15T13:53:16Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Right, but CNN isn’t mocking the protests, is it? I mean, CNN did pieces on the war protests as well. When I said “lighter side” I didn’t mean there was any open mockery. I mean I don’t think they’re regarded as a serious story. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/38 "2009-04-15T13:56:21Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > Cite for this - not that I don’t believe you, just hadn’t heard anything about it. The SPLC recently categorized the American Legion as a hate group because they spread scurrilous lies about [immigrants](http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=965). The DHS appears to agree, and I can’t say I blame them. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/39 "2009-04-15T14:00:19Z")
> [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > The SPLC recently categorized the American Legion as a hate group because they spread scurrilous lies about [immigrants](http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=965). The DHS appears to agree, and I can’t say I blame them. Good grief, I hadn’t seen that. The American Legion is a bunch of racist troglodytes. Good on DHS for pointing it out. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/40 "2009-04-15T14:16:04Z")
I agree with the OP. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want organized groups of teabaggers rubbing me the wrong way, either. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149.md?page=3)