Tea Bagging

As soon as I started to feel that Americans were smarter than I was giving them credit for they go and do something to prove they are actually dumber. At the very least these mostly white, mostly lower middle class, mostly blue collar, mostly NASCAR loving god fearing salt of the earth working folks should at least watch the John Adams mini-series or even Mel Gibson's, The Patriot to learn a little American history. There are plenty of reasons to be upset over the current state of economic affairs and that anger can easily be directed at either party, but to complain about "taxation without representation" is just silly. Our forefathers were taxed for everything (including tea) without any say in the government that ruled them. They did not elect their governor. He was appointed by the King. There was no Congress, and there was no means to monitor or hold in check those that did make these decisions. Laws were obeyed and taxes were paid at the point of a bayonet. Now because manipulative pundits like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Newt Gingrich say something is so, all the folks who are the victims of the powerful stand at attention and obey. Ironically most of the forefathers today’s protesters hold in such high regard were America’s first liberal elite. They were men of high education and influence who spent time thinking about and discussing issues. They were lawyers, philosophers, writers, and inventors. I am pretty sure that these men in their modern incarnations are not revered by the tea bagging zombies from this past week. I saw plenty of man on the street interviews conducted by all the major news outlets (including Fox News), and I did not hear one person quote Paul Krugman, George Will, or even Ronald Reagan. I did hear a lot of uninformed rhetoric about socialism and communism as well as talking points memorized like baseball statistics. In short, protest is GOOD, dissent is GOOD, questioning authority is REALLY GOOD, but ignorance and selective illiteracy is BAD.