Tea Parties

So it’s Tax Day, once again, the annual deadline for Americans to pay Uncle Sam his Protection Money to keep him from sending his goons to break our kneecaps or reposess our homes.  This year I’m glad to report that my official legal income was small enough that I had no tax liability, one of the few advantages of being a starving artist I suppose.

What makes this particular tax day interesting is that, thanks at least in part to the urging of Fox News and corporate-sponsored Astroturf (fake grassroots) organizing, there are “tea parties” happening in hundreds of cities all over America to protest Obama’s bailout and the absurd amounts of debt that the Dems are adding onto the already absurd deficits left by Bush.   Apparently it wasn’t enough for the ruling class to run up trillions of dollars in deficit spending to pay for 2 wars over the last 8 years, now that they’ve got a brand new puppet in place our corporate overlords have decided to keep right on spending our money to enrich themselves!  I’d like to say I’m surprised, but I’d be lying.

And, when people get outraged – as they should – the corporations set up a fake movement.  Unlike in France and the UK where working class rage at being robbed by the government to finance corporate bailouts has erupted into serious militant and autonomous protests, all America can manage is a made-for-tv series of staged event sponsored by the same corporate elites that got us into this mess.  Just another in an endless string of puppet shows, to let everyone who’s pissed at how we’ve been robbed rant and rave as much as they like without actually changing or challenging anything.  And then, through the magic of Spin, the corporate media will portray that outrage as a Conservative backlash.  Ha!  As though conservatives were the only ones objecting.  Just about every genuine leftist I know (and no, democrats aren’t leftists) is pissed at the bailout.  Ya’ll may remember that I even wrote and recorded a song about it a few months back.  And I’m hardly the only one who’s been speaking out on this issue.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about getting out in the streets and raising hell and I hope that doing so will be an empowering experience for everyone who participates in today’s protests.  After thinking it over though, I just couldn’t participate because as much as I hate the Democratic Party I hate the republicans just as much and I’m not willing to lend my time to what is essentially a giant corporate sponsored effort to rally their base.

So, for everyone out there who may be involved in the Tea Party “movement” here’s my basic list of things I’d like to see.  Not that ya’ll have any obligation to do what I want, but just to throw it out there since I’ve been involved in my share of demonstrations over the years and I like to think I know a thing or two about what makes a protest movement effective.

1 – drop all the stupid anti-leftist rhetoric.  Anarchists, libertarian socialists, and other anti-authoritarian lefties are actually on your side on this issue.  We hate taxes and big government (well, all government actually…) more then you do.  But we’re not going to join a movement that calls us nasty names.

2 – Get rid of the republican party shills.  They’re undermining your credibility in a massive way.  The Republicans have been all in favor of massive deficit spending for the better part of a decade.  Do you seriously believe that they’ve had a sudden change of heart?  They haven’t.  They’re using you.  And they’ll keep using you until you wise up.

3 – Stop letting Fox and other Corporate News stations shape your agenda.  Sean Hannity doesn’t give a shit about you or america or any of the issues you care about.  He’s a paid sycophant whose job is to promote whatever agenda comes down the pipe from his superiors.  And that “Thomas Paine” video from Fox News that’s circulating on YouTube?  Get it straight people – Paine frequently railed against the power of the monied elite, despised Christianity, and would have been disgusted with the people using his name to build up a corporate-backed two-party system designed to keep us all enslaved.  The people who run the corporate news networks are the same sort of people that Paine and his cohorts organized a revolution against.  They are not your friends.

In other words, act like a real independent movement.  Set your own goals.  Make your decisions yourselves democratically instead of taking marching orders from the Television.  Look for allies and build alliances with people and movements who may disagree with you on many things but agree with you on your core issues (whatever you decide those are).  In other words, start acting like the Revolutionaries you claim to want to emulate.

If you can do that then you’ll find me and a lot more folks like me out in the streets with you.  And maybe We the People really will have a chance of turning this thing around.

Posted: April 15th, 2009 under culture war.
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