Jonah Answers the Anti-Tea Party Hysteria
Writing at the Corner with NR’s biggest bloggers, Jonah responds to the five most frequent complaints from liberals about the tea parties (via Glenn).
Among my favorites are these two.
These protests are unpatriotic astroturfing by plutocrats:
So much for “dissent is the highest form of patriotism”!
I find it sort of amazing that when groups like ANSWER, a Mos Eisley cantina of America-hating nut cases, take to the streets it’s a full-flowering of democracy in action. When ACORN pays their ragamuffins to protest, or when Rainbow/PUSH shakes down businesses through racial extortion, it’s the sort of direct democratic action Thomas Paine dreamed of. And when labor unions pay people to protest, it’s populist. But when a bunch of independent Americans, talk-show hosts, and email campaigners organize hundreds of protests around the country, it’s astroturfing.
Republicans are hypocrites for suddenly caring about deficits.
Well, maybe. But then so are liberals for suddenly not caring about deficits. (That part always gets left out.)
Moreover, I don’t get it. Republicans didn’t care enough about the deficit when it went up a “little” under Bush (to pay for a war), therefore they can’t complain when Obama sends it through the stratosphere (to pay for socialized medicine)?
Read the whole thing!
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Every time I hear a liberal say Bush did it, too, I think of what my mother used to tell me. “I suppose if Mary jumped off a cliff, you’d jump off too.” I don’t understand why, by Bush increasing the deficit gives Obama permission to double/triple it. If it was wrong for Bush, it’s even more wrong for Obama because he saw what happened to the deficit under Bush.
Comment by windybon — April 17, 2009 @ 4:54 pm - April 17, 2009
From Jonah’s article, another leftie myth about the Tea Parties:
Jonah’s response is off. He misses the following truth: Obama campaigned on a net cut in spending. The people voted, or thought they were voting, for spending cuts. So no, Obama’s spending isn’t taxation “with representation”.
Jonah does make the following good point about it:
I consider it a reinforcing point.
I like Jonah’s closing. In answer to the absurd charge that the Tea Party movement is somehow fascist, he writes:
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — April 17, 2009 @ 6:06 pm - April 17, 2009
It’s also the fact, ILC, that people may all vote at the same rate – one per person — but are taxed at different rates.
One wonders what this company would be like if the requirement was that you had to pay taxes in order to vote. The Obama Party would be a historical footnote.
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — April 17, 2009 @ 6:17 pm - April 17, 2009
Bush added 8 trillion to the deficit. That’s hardly a little bit and not all of it was spent in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I am for balancing the budget. I always have been. But I remember all too well the Republicans going on TV and telling us that deficits don’t matter. I’m sure there was some criticism somewhere from the right of Bush’s deficits but it wasn’t very loud and it certainly wasn’t from the Republican leadership.
Comment by Houndentenor — April 18, 2009 @ 10:54 am - April 18, 2009
Houdentenor can you give a breakdown for the figure? You see the graph that I have seen that shows the deficit under Bush does not support your statement.
Comment by Aussie — April 19, 2009 @ 6:29 pm - April 19, 2009
[...] however, would rather smear this movement than understand our concerns. I’ve blogged on this before, and more than once. The latest to do so is Bill Maher who took to the Los Angeles Times [...]
Pingback by GayPatriot » Bill Maher & the Use of the “Tea Bag” Smear — May 7, 2009 @ 3:18 am - May 7, 2009