So we've got tea party protests going on all over the country today, the largest of which is being lead by none other than Sean Hannity live right now. Now I'm all for protesting for something you believe in, that's how change starts and can make the biggest impression. Though I must say that these protests confuse me for the following reasons:
1) The Republicans are running it. If citizens had issue with how the government spends money that's one thing, but when you've got Joe the Plumber (I guess he gets 15 +1 minute of fame) on Fox news and people waving signs saying things like "read my lipstick" it's kind of clear that this has little to do with government spending outrage and more to do with sour grape Republicans still upset over the November election.
2) Everyone is holding a sign with a different message. Some people are upset over how money is being spent, others are upset about the illusion that their taxes are going up, and still others are upset over bailouts. What is it? is it all those things? Then why wasn't there so much protest back months ago when the first bailout plan came out? If this is truly about how money is spent, then the past two presidents are responsible, not just Obama.
3) No one is protesting the financial institutions that got us to this place. Where are the signs chastising Wall Street for the carelessness that undoubtedly brought us to where we are today? Has it been so long that we've all forgotten about the auto execs flying in on private jets to Washington? Or all the losses hidden away in derivatives by investment bankers? Here we've got people who have lost health insurance and their retirement funds to the Madoffs of the world and they're out protesting a president that wants to improve access to affordable healthcare and improve benefits for the underserved.
4) Months later we still have no solution from the Republicans. Here they are promoting the hell out of these protests but they have yet to promote ANY alternative solution. Hell, even the Republican governors that refused to take bailout money did a 180.
5) The metaphor is terrible. The Boston tea party was all about taxation without representation. First off, 95% of those protesters are paying LESS in taxes than they have over the past 8 years. Second, these citizens ARE represented; just not by the people they want representing them. I'm hard pressed not to believe that if it was GW Bush lowering their taxes and passing another bailout that this situation would be completely reversed, with Fox hailing the President's financial prowess and the democrats taking to the streets.
Essentially this "protest" has nothing to do with money, it's all politics. The Republicans have been dying to do something, anything, to make the Democrats look bad since Obama's election. And the reason that these protests won't have any impact is because nobody buys the phony outrage. I mean, they don't want new taxes, they don't want the government to spend any more money, they don't want to give Wall Street any money, they don't want people to get bonuses, and they don't want America to pull out of Iraq. What exactly DO they want?
