Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Tea Parties are a Crock


What a crock of beans . . . .er . . . . tea bags. Where were these taxpayer activists a few years ago when President Bush gave away money to the wealthiest of Americans? How did we, the people, benefit from those enormous tax cuts? We didn't. We suffer from them today, and will continue to do so well into the future.

Why aren't we in the streets protesting the cost of healthcare? Why aren't we standing in front of insurance company offices that deny claims to the people who need care the most? Why aren't we in the streets calling for decent wages for the underemployed who make up our growing low-wage, Wal-Mart economy? Or calling for tuition-free higher education?

Don't get me wrong. I love a good protest. I love the theater of middle-aged guys wearing Colonial three-cornered hats and red tights and carrying flags with thirteen stars. I love to hear the voice of a free people let loose. But there's something missing at the moment: a higher calling, a sense of decency, a righteous cause, an ounce of respect for democracy itself.

I recently asked my students what democracy meant, and I heard many insightful definitions, but the one that stuck in my mind was when one student, an older gentleman, said, "It's when you treat people with equal dignity." And what did we witness at this great gathering of patriots? One man holding up a poster that depicts President Obama as Adolph Hitler, the murderer of millions, the sociopath of the 20th Century.

Taxes have nothing to do with this supposed burgeoning "revolution" (thanks FOX News for making the event much more than it was). What we are hearing are the angry voices of the recently dethroned, the suddenly marginalized, the pissy minority. They looked at the margin of victory on election night and suddenly found themselves in alien territory. A minority as President? And a Neoliberal at that? (Obama is not a socialist, by the way. He's far too centrist to be a good social democrat.) So they balk. They buy guns and ammo. They exaggerate the threat. In short, they wear their fear and anger on their sleeves and they come across as irrational and bestial and mean.

I paid my taxes on April 15th, thousands of dollars in fact, as I suppose did the vast majority of the tea-baggers. I paid them because I want new bridges, because I want high-speed rail service, because I want wind-energy programs, because I want every American to be able to see a physician, because I want every kid to go to a decent, clean school.