Sustained!: No Tea...But Plenty of Party

Thursday, April 16, 2009

No Tea...But Plenty of Party

Yesterday throughout several states people held "Tea Party Protests," allegedly inspired by the Boston Tea Party of 1773. I, for one, am usually always happy to see people opposing oppression in any form. But these were no Tea Parties.

These events differed greatly from the Boston Tea Party which eventually led to the American Revolution. The Boston Tea Party was a protest by colonists in Boston against the British government's passage of the Tea Act (an Act calling for taxation of tea, in part). On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor.

Colonists object

ed to the Tea Act for a variety of reasons, but in particular they believed that it violated their constitutional right to be taxed only by their own elected representatives. "No taxation without representation."

Unlike the Boston Tea Party, these "protests" were organized and funded by the Republican Party. The party that got our country in this mess in the first place. Furthermore, the "oppression" aspect of the protest was missing. The measures that were passed, were passed by elected officials. In fact, bailouts were started by the Republican controlled Congress and White House. So is it okay when on party does it, but not the other? Furthermore, the Bush bailouts were fashioned with no control and provided the opportunity for the rich to take advantage of government funds. Obama's bailouts are geared toward job creation and funnel money towards the people.

These "Tea Parties" were political, nothing more and nothing less. There was no action taken, no organization promised, no legal action promised, no nothing.... Moreover, Tax protesters usually take some form of action or engage in some form of civil disobedience. There was no planned legislation to ease tax burdens, no planned tax suit, no planned nothing.... These tea parties promise no legal action. I doubt they will be SUSTAINED! I am in favor of people voicing opposition to coercive government action, but don't play politics with our future.

3 comments:

AnonymousApr 16, 2009 08:31 PM
I will agree that politics got us into this mess. However what is not being said is the forced legislation by the democrats on the banking institutions. This legislation forced the banks to make subprime loans to individuals who had no means of repaying the loans. There were quotas placed on the banks to make these types of loans. I'm sure the banks and lots of politicians made money on these deals, but now we are all being asked to pay the price. You won't hear about this in the general media. You have to be keeping up with the financial news to be aware of the real story about what has caused this mess!
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AnonymousApr 18, 2009 10:54 AM
Anonymous 10:31,

You are confusing laws requiring banks to lend money to responsible, less privileged persons with liars loans, which were fraudulent loans pushed by banks to people they knew could not repay so they could turn around and sell the loan to a third party. The legislation to which you are referring had nothing to do with that.
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Elvis OswaldMay 1, 2009 06:23 PM
I would have loved to see the Tea Party Folks greeted by the police like the WTO protesters were in Miami. :)

But, to your point - you are correct that this is not even close to 1773. And you should have asked where these people were when George signed the USAPATRIOT Act.
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