The Tea Partiers are at it again, because today is "tax day" (I'm not sure when that became an official holiday such that these people had the day off from work).
According to some of their placquards, they want there to be no taxes. Maybe they don't want the government to provide police services and fire protection; to build and maintain roads; to put up traffic lights (no, certainly traffic lights abridge their freedom!); to help keep our food, air, and water safe from pollution and contamination; and to fight epidemic disease (public health has been one of the major successes of government).
If you ask these people, I'm pretty sure they'd admit that they want the government to continue to provide these services. Only, somehow, let the government do all this without having tax revenue coming in.
Also, they are claiming that the government is taking away their freedoms. Where were their voices of protest during the George W. Bush years, when the PATRIOT act was passed that lets the government spy on U.S. citizens' phone calls and email messages, and even see what books they elect to read by subpoenaing their library records. I guess they don't care much about their privacy, just let them have their guns.
I'd really like to ask them how they want government services to be paid for. And what freedoms they think are being taken away by the present administration. And, for those who cry "socialism," what their definition of socialism is. (If there's any "socialism" in this country, it's the programs we've had since FDR's New Deal.) I'm pretty sure that if you could interrogate these people about their positions, it would turn out that they are not well thought out, and they're full of logical inconsistencies.
Copyright (c) 2010 by Richard Stein
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Some people may not recall but FDR has long been regarded by retarded as socialist. I would hope it had been made apparent by now how much rw obstructionists fuss whenever it comes to regulation of rw misguided abuses. I'm so glad trigger-happy public spectacles as W, Cheney, McCain, and Palin weren't given the keys to the White House in 2008. Where the Oval Office is concerned rw leaders are rightfully aside their obstructionist lunatic fringe and on the outside looking in.
ReplyDelete