Cafe de Mello

Far from a simple protest of "Taxation with representation" (which is doubtless what most of us remember), the Boston Tea party had very complex roots and was partly supported by tea smugglers who found the price for their tea undercut by legal English Tea upon which the taxes had been reduced. Still it stands as an icon moment in American history.

In contrast the tea parties of 2009 stand as an idiotic moment in American history. The Boston tea party was a genuine grass roots movement that led between 30 and 130 men to board three British vessels and dump 342 chests of tea overboard. In the 2009 tea parties is a publicity stunt orchestrated by national political interests (and Fox News) leading thousands of citizens are wasting their own tea by dropping it into a number of different bodies of water.

To some extent, the Boston Tea Party was a protest over taxes raised by without colonial participation. The 2009 tea parties are a protest against the possibility that taxes will someday be raised by elected representatives, who are currently cutting the taxes for virtually all of the protestors.

The other major focus (in addition to a mindless rage against President Obama), is stimulus spending and Obama's budget which currently raises the national debt. Never mind that the mean-spirited Republican alternative to Obama's budget gives the average citizen and their children far less while accumulating nearly the same national debt. These protestors stand squarely against increased taxes for the richest Americans (who will watch the protests on their home entertainment centers, while sipping champagne and eating the brains of poor babies) and supposed tax increases that no one has proposed.

These protesters might as well be chanting, "Soup lines yes, job no!' And carrying signs that say "I ♥ the great depression." These anti-bailout protestors like the idea of standing in breadlines and living in shacks. TARP and the bailout were designed to head off another great depression. If congress and Obama hadn't acted, these Astroturf protestors would have had some real problems to bitch about—not problems they imagine might be coming.

According to the most recent Gallup poll 71% of US citizens had a "great deal" to a "Fair Amount" of confidence in Obama on the economy. That leaves, at most, 29% to be attending these tea parties. When I consider that 21% of Americans think the earth revolves around the sun, I have to conclude that it is probable that the stupidest people in this country are attending these parties. Hooray! Tin foil hats for everyone!