Tea Party for Kooks, Demogogues, and Right Wingers

I’m almost relieved to learn the Tax Day Tea Parties were organized by Fox News. Watching reports, listening to people’s complaints, checking out the anti- government spending signs, I'd hate to think this was a honest-to-goodness grassroots movement. But if the O Team’s bank plan doesn’t work this Astroturf happening might still grow organically into something more. (Even if it makes even less sense than O’s bank plan!) Obama is already lowering taxes for 95% of Americans, or so he’s said so upteen times, so the anti-tax angle makes no sense. And government spending and deficits, right now anyway, are NOT our problem. Sure, what the government is spending money on— bank bailouts instead of more stimulus (that creates jobs, redirects the economy to green manufacturing, cuts corporate profits out of health care costs, etc)— that would be worth raising a ruckus about but I didn’t see a sign or here a peep ab that. There is a crackpot conservatism afoot that behaves like the housewife continuing to make the bed and dust the day after Armageddon. Karl Rove, in the Wall Street Journal, suggested the other day that Teabaggers go back to Reagan basics, getting the word out about the value of tax cuts and lowering government spending to stimulate the economy. Uh, the jig is up on the supply side cant, guys. First, right, this isn’t the time to be raising taxes, but lowering government spending when consumers and businesses aren’t spending is just plain stupid. And, in general, smaller government, or stripping the government of its ability to officiate what bankers do with other people’s money, more specifically— the Reagan Revolution— is a big part of what brought about the current catastrophe. If, like me, you find your blood boils at the idiocy of this stuff, check the Robert Reich link below for the cool reasoning you need for family and that guy at the coffee shop (or the cute chick who takes pride in reading cue cards).

A Short Citizens Guide to Kooks, Demagogues, and Right-Wingers On Tax Day