# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/41 "2009-04-15T14:22:58Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > 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)? The two most famous tax protests were Lady Godiva and the Boston Tea Party. Considering that the alternative would involve your sister running around naked, maybe you should be glad the right-wingers chose tea as their symbol to co-opt. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/42 "2009-04-15T14:29:14Z")
> [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](#): > > I think it is the way these protests are framed. Take this quote by organizer Glenn Reynolds: Glenn Reynolds has a blog and he passes on info that people send him. He has not taken on any active organizing role AFAIK (and I read his blog daily,so I’m pretty sure about that) > [@](#): > > _These_ protests are outwardly supported by a major news outlet (Fox News)[link](http://mediamatters.org/countyfair/200904060023) Media Matters? Why not just source DailyKos or Democratic Underground? Fox and the Republicans are jumping on a phenomenon that started two months ago. [Cite with copious linkage.](http://michellemalkin.com/2009/04/15/a-tax-day-tea-party-cheat-sheet-how-it-all-started/) Are they supporting it now? Yes, I suppose – but that’s very different froim saying it’s all astrturfed. A more accurate assessment would be that [“The movement is leaderless and only aligns indirectly with party politics. While many participants will be Republicans, the anti-spending message is more closely aligned with libertarian themes of small government, with many people angry at both Democrats and Republicans.”](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Story?id=7337117&page=2) Signs like [this](http://signs.cafepress.com/item/equally-tead-banner/373252691)are being carried. > [@](#): > > I guess when liberals protest it doesn’t count? The protests preceeding the invasion of Iraq were fucking huge, and just ignored. WTF? I remember day after day of news coverage of those protests. They were ultimately unsuccessful (and I imagine these one will be as well), but that’s not the same as being ignored. ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/43 "2009-04-15T14:31:15Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > I don’t think that the majority of people who are so fired up to attend even know what it is they’re actually protesting. I’ll say. The [Lake Charles Tea Party](http://www.lakecharlesteaparty.com/)\* describes itself as > [@](#): > > A group of conservative citizens from SW Louisiana committed to Resisting Anti-Christian Legislation Which, it seems to me, has zip to do with spending. One person who linked to the Lake Charles site says she’s protesting > [@](#): > > In an effort to break the chains the current administration is enslaving me, my children and my unborn grandchildren with… No further explanation of the “chains” of which she speaks. Perhaps it should be obvious, but it isn’t. \*I have nothing to do with this group or with Lake Charles, LA; I was directed to the web site by a crafter who is based there. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/44 "2009-04-15T14:36:23Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > 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. Truly it’s mindboggling why they would want to compare themselves to the most famous anti-tax rally in American history, one that every schoolchild knows about. :rolleyes: ---
**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, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/45 "2009-04-15T14:36:58Z")
> [@furt](#): > > Media Matters? Why not just source DailyKos or Democratic Underground? > > Fox and the Republicans are jumping on a phenomenon that started two months ago. [Cite with copious linkage.](http://michellemalkin.com/2009/04/15/a-tax-day-tea-party-cheat-sheet-how-it-all-started/) Are they supporting it now? Yes, I suppose – but that’s very different froim saying it’s all astrturfed. Oh, fucking come on! You complain about Media Matters, and then you cite _Michelle goddamn Malkin_?! For the record, Fox has been behind the entire damn thing from Rick Santelli’s pseudo-angry-populist rant. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/46 "2009-04-15T14:42:50Z")
Item No. 1 from this week’s [Top 10 Conservative Idiots:](http://journals.democraticunderground.com/top10/362) > [@](#): > > It’s a big week for America’s backwash - April 15 is Teabag Day, the right-wing’s grand anti-government ball-gargling experiment. But all is not well in the land of wingnuttery. According to Neil Cavuto, shenanigans are afoot. As the Huffington Post reported last week… > > > [@](#): > > > > “Only eight days before a nationwide tea party, some over-caffeinated crashers aiming to lay waste to it,” Cavuto said. “Reports of very well-organized infiltrators trying to mix in and rain on this parade. Talk about taxing.” > > > > Cavuto’s infiltrators are none other than 2008 electoral boogeyman ACORN and the Huffington Post, which has repeatedly asked readers to sign up as “citizen journalists” to help us cover the many-hundred tax day events. (Cavuto’s characterization is accurate to the extent “infiltrate” is a synonym for “attend”). > > Well this is convenient… Fox News has worked a bunch of wingnuts into a frenzy with fantasies of armed revolution against their liberal oppressors, and is sending them out into the streets to protest. What could possibly go wrong? But just in case things do get out of hand, they now have a scapegoat… ACORN and the Huffington Post! > > Meanwhile, NewsCorpse reports that Neil Cavuto isn’t the only Teabagger shaking in his boots at the thought of this shadowy liberal insurgency. Check out the always entertaining Michelle Malkin, who claims that “on the ground, the tax-subsidized and Soros-subsidized troops are going to try and wreak havoc every way they can. Many readers and fellow bloggers have seen signs that ACORN may send in ringers and saboteurs to usurp the anti-tax, anti-reckless spending, anti-bailout message.” > > Funny how we pantywaist liberal peaceniks have suddently morphed into insidious and violent havoc-wreakers, but there you go. From Newscorpse… > > > [@](#): > > > > I’m still having trouble grasping how the right can view liberals as weak, tottering, appeasers of Socialism, yet still fear their foreboding presence at a political rally. It parallels their thoroughly illogical perception of President Obama as lacking the courage or strength to be an effective leader, yet he is also a tyrannical despot plotting to enslave America and bend the world to his will. > > > > The truth about these astroturf-roots charades is that they are nothing more than promotions for Fox News. They are pitched on the air and on Fox Nation. At least four Fox “personalities” are hosting the events (Glenn Beck, Neil Cavuto, Sean Hannity, and Greta Van Susteran). Fox even describes them as “FNC TAX DAY TEA PARTIES.” > > Hmm, remember the days when people had to get grassroots protests together without the assistance of a major cable news network? Back then they would barely even mention a few hundred thousand people marching in New York or Washington - now they’re literally organizing the darn things! I guess change really has come to America. > > For what it’s worth, Cavuto defended Fox News’s blatant promotion of the teabagging events, claiming last week that, “We are are going to be in the middle of these protests because at Fox, we do not pick and choose these rallies and protests. We were there for the Million Man March, even though, as I pointed out, it turned out to be well shy of a million men.” > > Which is pretty impressive given that the Million Man March happened in 1995 and Fox News didn’t go on the air until 1996. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/47 "2009-04-15T14:43:58Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > 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 I’m not in disagreement with the first part of what you said. But is there really a need to inject the word “nigger” into any of this? What has that got to do with anything? I can’t see how bringing that up is beneficial to anyone. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/48 "2009-04-15T14:44:57Z")
> [@furt](#): > > Truly it’s mindboggling why they would want to compare themselves to the most famous anti-tax rally in American history, one that every schoolchild knows about. :rolleyes: [Mindboggling indeed,](http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2009/04/07/tomo/index.html) since the Boston Tea Party was a protest against taxation without representation. Which is the opposite of what the teabaggers are protesting. ---
**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, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/49 "2009-04-15T14:45:58Z")
> [@Linty\_Fresh](#): > > 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. I’m in the same boat, to a great extent–I’m not as all-fired conservative as some, but I try to vote fiscally conservative and socially liberal, because I think gays should be able to be married AND buy machine guns (along with the rest of us) =P. That said, yeah, the Republicans need to offer the old-school small-government conservatives a choice–lately, it’s been lip service and same old spending on even less useful things (regardless of what you think of welfare, it’s more useful in an ultimately utilitarian sense than going to war for basically no useful reason). The social “conservatism” (which I read as “prejudice”) is just hat on the ass, so to speak. ---
**Author:** ![Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7993a0/32.png) [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/50 "2009-04-15T14:48:22Z")
> [@furt](#): > > Media Matters? Why not just source DailyKos or Democratic Underground? Huh? I inked to a video of a Fox News segment. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/51 "2009-04-15T14:49:46Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > I’m not in disagreement with the first part of what you said. But is there really a need to inject the word “nigger” into any of this? What has that got to do with anything? I can’t see how bringing that up is beneficial to anyone. Perhaps not, but as an instance of putting words into the other side’s mouth/mind, it is more defensible than the RW referring to Obama as “the Messiah,” which happens with disturbing and embarrassing regularity. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/52 "2009-04-15T14:50:08Z")
> [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > Oh, fucking come on! You complain about Media Matters, and then you cite _Michelle goddamn Malkin_?! For the record, Fox has been behind the entire damn thing from Rick Santelli’s pseudo-angry-populist rant. I don’t cite Michelle Malkin as an objective source – she obviously isn’t – I cited her because of the links and photos to events starting back in mid-February, before any Fox news coverage came along, and before Rick Santelli (who is not on Fox) said anything. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/53 "2009-04-15T14:55:53Z")
> [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](#): > > Huh? I inked to a video of a Fox News segment. Media Matters is hosting that video to to make the claim that the coverage precedes the protests; this is untrue. The fact that Fox is glomming onto the protests NOW has no bearing on how/where/why the protests originated. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/54 "2009-04-15T14:58:33Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Perhaps not, but as an instance of putting words into the other side’s mouth/mind, it is more defensible than the RW referring to Obama as “the Messiah,” which happens with disturbing and embarrassing regularity. As a rhetorical tactic, though, what’s more underhanded: accusing the other side of “worshipping” someone who doesn’t deserve to be worshipped, or accusing the other side of being racist and using the word “nigger”? I think the latter is more of a cheap tactic. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/55 "2009-04-15T15:00:05Z")
I suppose that depends on whether the “other side” is Lonesome Polecat, in particular. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/56 "2009-04-15T15:04:11Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > …Maybe they should have called it a Kaffee Klatsch. Putz _putsch_ ---
**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, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/57 "2009-04-15T15:06:08Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > I suppose that depends on whether the “other side” is Lonesome Polecat, in particular. Exactly. Much as I think of the likes of **Sam Stone** or lil’ **Bricker** as total shitbags, I wouldn’t have said it in reference to them. They’ve never shown the inclination. LPC? Maybe at some point he’ll actually just show some honesty instead of hiding behind his usual shit. Or maybe he can show us how he supported protests against runaway gummint spending any other time in the last 20 or so years. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/58 "2009-04-15T15:06:56Z")
I don’t really have a position on the topic of this thread; I don’t really know or care very much about this tax protest. But I think it’s kind of a stupid argument to just say “you’re racist,” which is essentially what bringing up that word is going. It’s possible to disagree with someone who is black, and not be racist. Polecat listed a bunch of examples of the government “running amok” - if you disagree with these, the solution is to argue against them, point by point - not just say “you’re racist.” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/59 "2009-04-15T15:07:19Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > Classifying the American Legion as a hate group is the government running amok. No, it is silliness. Assuming it has actually happened at an official level. Which is hard to imagine. [The Southern Poverty Law Center did debunk some of the American Legion’s lies about immigration in its Fall 2008 _Intelligence Report_](http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=965) (more on that [here)](http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2008/10/31/american-legion-attacks-report-and-splc-responds/), but did not call AL a “hate group,” and, in any case, the SPLC is **not** a government agency. You do understand that, don’t you, **Lonesome?** ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-why-but-the-tea-party-tax-protests-really-rub-me-the-wrong-way/493149/60 "2009-04-15T15:08:30Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > As a rhetorical tactic, though, what’s more underhanded: accusing the other side of “worshipping” someone who doesn’t deserve to be worshipped, or accusing the other side of being racist and using the word “nigger”? I think the latter is more of a cheap tactic. It is; but also, as I said, in this instance more defensible. Certainly not all of Obama’s critics are racists; OTOH, we’re definitely not into strawman territory here, if you take my meaning. [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=2) [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=4)