A week ago I ventured to one of the various “Tea Parties” that sprung up across America on Tax Day.
A week ago, I ventured to one of the various “Tea Parties” that sprung up across America on Tax Day.
While I expected a great deal of justifiable anger and bashing of the new president, what I didn’t expect was such a dearth of knowledge about American history and politics. I applaud any Americans who want to peacefully but forcefully critique their government, but these Tea Parties aren’t about making change as much as they are about citizen anger being used to promote a corporate agenda.
The “Tea Party” concept had been ‘brewing’ in America for several weeks heading into the first tax day of the Obama administration, and literally boiled over across about 10 major cities across America from early morning till evening. Americans are justifiably and understandably angry. The nation is facing a long and potentially transformative economic crisis the likes of which few if any Americans have ever seen before.
The tea party I attended, on a rainy and blustery day in downtown Cleveland Ohio was reflective of a wide swath of America. So long as that wide swath was mostly over the age of 45 and Caucasian and didn’t vote for the sitting president.
For an event that was advertised as a ‘non-partisan’ appeal to change the nature of tax laws in America, there were surprisingly few Democrats, or Green Party activists, although there were a number of Libertarians. There was not one bill mentioned, there was no specific tax pinpointed. In fact, there was very little in the way of actual policy being discussed by speakers or protesters alike. All of this under the guise of the “Boston Tea Party,” which makes one question the degree to which anyone there actually knew the historical facts behind the name they were appropriating.
Most of us who can remember grade school history classes know the basics of the “Boston Tea Party” story. On a cold day in November, American citizens, dressed up like Indians to hide their identities, broke onto ships in the Boston Harbor and dumped thousands of pounds of tea into the water as a protest against the taxes levied upon them by the British Empire. This version of the story has a nice “Anti-Government Tax” spin to it, even though that is not the real motivation behind the Tea Party. The only eyewitness account of the event was by George Hewes, an unknown shoemaker from Boston, who’s story was discovered and recounted in several books in the two plus centuries since the event. To hear George tell it, this protest wasn’t so much about taxes on the people as it was about tax breaks for big corporations.
______
To read the rest of this article, subscribe to our digital or paper edition. For previous editions, contact us for details.
Copyright 2009 Chicago Defender. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
About Post Author
