So the weather around here, as well as many parts of the country, is -- delightfully -- frigid, but apparently Hell is suffering the same Arctic air mass. That's right, according to the New York Times, Democrats and Republicans have finally come together to work on solving some of this nation's problems! Or have they?
More below
Oh wait, no, Republicans did not actually finally agree to work with the Democratic majority; they agreed to talk to them. Well I suppose that's a start.
My icy heart skipped a beat when I saw the headline that the Grand Olde Party had crossed party lines to pass a $15 Billion job creation bill, only to read that all they really happened was a "Cloture Motion [was] Agreed to" according to senate.gov.
Cloture basically means they agreed to vote on the bill. Awesome. We united to vote on whether or not we should vote on a bill, and we agreed...mostly(the noble civil servants from my great state voted Nay and Not Present, go get 'em boys!) The Senate is really moving at breakneck speed to get this slowly recovering economy back on track.
Enough of my cynicism, the bill is really pretty, well, cool. It basically says that any company that hires unemployed workers does not have to file payroll tax on those workers for the rest of the year. Really, I can't see much of an objection to that. I am a fan of taxes paying for useful things like the wonderful interstate highway system (which proudly employees me over the summer) and this great, practically free public college education I get. How is it that I am a fan of this big tax hole? Well the government is not collecting taxes from these workers as is, so it's not a net loss for the government, really its a break even that could jump start things back into motion and hopefully next year when the taxes would have to be collected on these workers the economy will be strong enough from the new employment to keep all these men and women employed. Here's hoping, both that the bill works and that maybe Republicans will finally work with the Democrats on a regular basis to get something done.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
The Tea Party Problem
We've all (unfortunately) been hearing about these guys for weeks...months even. They're an enigmatic group to be sure, and they have no real central leadership (unless you count Glenn Beck). But just what exactly are these guys up to? I've been trying to wrap my head around this for days now, simply because something has struck me recently that desperately needs to be answered...where is the progressive response to these loons?
Continued after the jump...
...
The first problem I have with this "grassroots" "movement" is that they are attempting to adhere themselves to the idea from the Revolutionary War of "taxation without representation" and everyone remembers Junior high history and the Boston Tea Party so I do not need to get into that. The thing is, in the colonial days, Americans really did not have any form of representation in Parliament, contrasted to today where quite a few Republicans represent the Tea Party members in the Senate and Congress and even in the Obama Administration.
So given that there is no logical connection to taxation without representation, they need to change their name. But that's the lest of my worries.
They are in love with the abolishment of "entitlement" programs like unemployment, social security, medicare, and medicaid, yet they oppose "Change"ing the nation as they expressed discomfort with Mr. Obama's campaign slogans. Well, most of the programs these people talk about have been in place since the depression, in fact, all of them have, and I'm fairly certain that Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and even ol' Bill O'Reilley were all born AFTER the Great Depression and have personally known someone who benefits from these programs. Like, for example, I don't know, maybe their parents... So they fear change, yet they want to change what helped this nation to survive its greatest financial crisis to date in the midst of yet another financial crisis; brilliant.
So far we can see that these guys are not all there. Unaware of their representation, confused as to the definition of change, but they're hell bent on fixing America's problems though! Right?
Wrong.
My favorite part about the Tea Party is that the do nothing but stand in the doorway to any kind of progress. I have admitted, and will repeatedly admit that I am a liberal, yet I favor the two (or more) party system as it allows us to keep things level. We get too far left and we have Stalin we get too far right and we have Hitler. Both are bad. So the benefit of having Republicans and Democrats, right and left, working to solve the same problems is that we can get all the best and level headed ideas of both groups in a perfect amalgamation that solves all the problems without stepping on anyone's toes. Unfortunately, that utopia requires that the two parties work together in what has often been called a compromise (see The Constitution for further examples of "compromise"). If there is one thing the Tea Party can't stand, it's compromise. The New York Times mentioned this in several articles this week, that many conservatives are facing primary challengers in the upcoming elections by ultra-conservatives for accidentally looking at a democrat without spitting in their direction (okay that's hyperbole, but seriously people are getting mad at their representatives for trying to work with other representatives)
Here you have the "taxation without representation" crew arguing that their representation is not allowed to work with other people's representation to come to some kind of fair agreement on taxation.
Don't worry, my head hurts too.
The real problem with this is not that they're completely ignorant of logic, reason, and high on sensation and delusion so much as that NO ONE IS TRYING TO STOP THEM. What happened to the army of donations and volunteers that poured in to turn Senator Obama into President Obama? Why are we just letting these guys spout this nonsense and not rallying back? We out number them! More people want healthcare, more Democrats exist in congress, and even beyond the left more people want a compromise to solve the nation's problems. So why are these guys the only ones we hear from? If you didn't know any better you would think these folks are the MAJORITY. Well they're not. Let's remind them, our leaders, and ourselves of that. These nuts are a minority and what they stand for is in complete opposition of the betterment of this country. Why is it that you have to disagree with the President to stage rallies? We need to start rallying IN FAVOR of the President, if for nothing else, to be sure that the Tea Party does not go unanswered.
I fully admit that I have not done the best I could to fight back against the illogic of the Tea Party, but you know what, you have to start somewhere and I'm starting here.
Continued after the jump...
...
The first problem I have with this "grassroots" "movement" is that they are attempting to adhere themselves to the idea from the Revolutionary War of "taxation without representation" and everyone remembers Junior high history and the Boston Tea Party so I do not need to get into that. The thing is, in the colonial days, Americans really did not have any form of representation in Parliament, contrasted to today where quite a few Republicans represent the Tea Party members in the Senate and Congress and even in the Obama Administration.
So given that there is no logical connection to taxation without representation, they need to change their name. But that's the lest of my worries.
They are in love with the abolishment of "entitlement" programs like unemployment, social security, medicare, and medicaid, yet they oppose "Change"ing the nation as they expressed discomfort with Mr. Obama's campaign slogans. Well, most of the programs these people talk about have been in place since the depression, in fact, all of them have, and I'm fairly certain that Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and even ol' Bill O'Reilley were all born AFTER the Great Depression and have personally known someone who benefits from these programs. Like, for example, I don't know, maybe their parents... So they fear change, yet they want to change what helped this nation to survive its greatest financial crisis to date in the midst of yet another financial crisis; brilliant.
So far we can see that these guys are not all there. Unaware of their representation, confused as to the definition of change, but they're hell bent on fixing America's problems though! Right?
Wrong.
My favorite part about the Tea Party is that the do nothing but stand in the doorway to any kind of progress. I have admitted, and will repeatedly admit that I am a liberal, yet I favor the two (or more) party system as it allows us to keep things level. We get too far left and we have Stalin we get too far right and we have Hitler. Both are bad. So the benefit of having Republicans and Democrats, right and left, working to solve the same problems is that we can get all the best and level headed ideas of both groups in a perfect amalgamation that solves all the problems without stepping on anyone's toes. Unfortunately, that utopia requires that the two parties work together in what has often been called a compromise (see The Constitution for further examples of "compromise"). If there is one thing the Tea Party can't stand, it's compromise. The New York Times mentioned this in several articles this week, that many conservatives are facing primary challengers in the upcoming elections by ultra-conservatives for accidentally looking at a democrat without spitting in their direction (okay that's hyperbole, but seriously people are getting mad at their representatives for trying to work with other representatives)
Here you have the "taxation without representation" crew arguing that their representation is not allowed to work with other people's representation to come to some kind of fair agreement on taxation.
Don't worry, my head hurts too.
The real problem with this is not that they're completely ignorant of logic, reason, and high on sensation and delusion so much as that NO ONE IS TRYING TO STOP THEM. What happened to the army of donations and volunteers that poured in to turn Senator Obama into President Obama? Why are we just letting these guys spout this nonsense and not rallying back? We out number them! More people want healthcare, more Democrats exist in congress, and even beyond the left more people want a compromise to solve the nation's problems. So why are these guys the only ones we hear from? If you didn't know any better you would think these folks are the MAJORITY. Well they're not. Let's remind them, our leaders, and ourselves of that. These nuts are a minority and what they stand for is in complete opposition of the betterment of this country. Why is it that you have to disagree with the President to stage rallies? We need to start rallying IN FAVOR of the President, if for nothing else, to be sure that the Tea Party does not go unanswered.
I fully admit that I have not done the best I could to fight back against the illogic of the Tea Party, but you know what, you have to start somewhere and I'm starting here.
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