Daily Kos: State of the Nation
Teabagging and Free Riders
by Dana Houle
Thu Apr 16, 2009 at 01:20:03 PM PDT
I used to work in the Michigan legislature. Every year on April 15th there would be a big rally outside the state capitol of anti-tax protesters, fulminating about how taxes are theft. It wasn't usually as big a rally as the yearly protest against the Michigan law that requires all riders on motorcycles to wear helmets; that one was huge. But the tax day event was generally one of the bigger protests every year.
If you've been near a state capitol or a major IRS facility on tax day, you've probably seen the same thing. I thought about that this morning as I read the Abbreviated Pundit Round-Up, in particular the blatherings of Official Republican Strategy Genius Karl Rove.
According to Turd Blossom, "the tea-party movement is spontaneous, decentralized, frequently amateurish and sometimes shrill." He's right about shrill, and it appears that at the events not organized by the Ron Paul Shock Troops they were also amateurish. But they weren't "decentralized," as one could go to any number of websites and find out where a "tea party" was scheduled near you.
And they weren't spontaneous, because tax protests happen all over the country every year on April 15th. Fox and the teabaggers didn't come up with a new idea, or organize new events. They just mostly glommed on to events that would have happened anyway, with or without teabagging.
We see now that Fox has been touting the next round of Teabagging parties for July 4th. I can't wait for Karl Rove and Fox News to claim that all those people going to fireworks celebrations were a spontaneous eruption of populist anger against high taxes...and how it's good news for John McCain.
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