The Democrat Party was not the party of slavery, but they were the party who made most of the Jim Crow laws.

You are as old as I am thin.

There were no party distinctions in the south when it came to racism and when the Democrat began to liberalize on race, Strom Thurmond took his so-called conservatives to the Republicans. We all knew they were segregationist wearing states rights (second Pix) masks. If Goldwater hadn’t taken on that mantle with regard to segregation, the Republicans might have many more blacks in their party. Even after the radicals had been usurped, blacks stayed with the party out of loyalty. They were betrayed by their party. Tell me why Edward Brooke is not treated like an elder statesman.

I know you want to blame the Democrats, but if you did have the right to vote, which many black folk didn’t, they voted their other interest. There were millions of black people who had no party because they could not vote. What in the hell did you think when I referenced Bloody Sunday?

There is a constant grinding down of spirit and many black people succumbed. Even when one is successful, there is always a memory and legacy of slavery and Jim Crow in the subconscious.

Brad, do you really think it is going to take a full decade or longer, for this to reach a boiling point?

Yes, and it may also never happen.

Right now, we’re at a point where we are starting to see a turn in the level to which people trust their government. The last 8 years had the left mistrusting government completely, while the right kind of “went along”. Now, the change in control of Washington is causing the right to completely mistrust the government (not just spending, look at the reaction to the DHS “rightwing extremism” report), and the left is searching to figure out whether Obama is the messiah they expect him to be (hint, they’ll realize he’s not).

This is intensified by two things:

1) The generational change as the baby boomers phase out and are replaced by folks of Gen X and my generation.
2) The transformative aspect of the internet as a communications medium, allowing people like those of us here at TLP to actually find other like-minded folks and advocate for change, instead of wallowing alone wondering if any other libertarians exist.

But this is a slow process. I deliberately brought up the stamp act and the revolution because we’re at an analogous place to 1765, not 1776. Many had placed their hopes in government on getting GWB out of office and getting Hope & Change, and they’re starting to find out that Hope & Change were bullshit. But they still think protests will work.

It is when they realize that the system is broken completely, the government acts for its own interests at the expense of its citizens, and that simple protests and going to the ballot box won’t change a damn thing that we’ll hit the boiling point. And that’s a ways away — but I’m working on it :-)

Brad, do you really think it is going to take a full decade or longer, for this to reach a boiling point?

An aspect of this over-spending culture which has become transformed into a hyper-spending one, which bothers me and has even served as a ‘motivator’ of sorts in my becoming energized –is the apparent total lack of CONCERN over the projected massive (WAY bigger than Bush’s) size of the deficit coming our way.

Why isn’t anybody in the new administration even addressing this as an issue? If they have been, perhaps I’ve just been missing it, and I would appreciate any links for news articles as to how the administration views its OWN C.B.O. projection chart.

I’m with james on at least one point here — if the founding fathers saw what has become of the American government, they’d be calling for heads to roll. Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry were upset as soon as they saw the dreadful power grab that Hamilton and Madison were making with the Constitution, and Madison quickly turned on Hamilton once he saw how Hamilton intended to use the power of the central government as Washington’s Secretary of the Treasury.

Were they oppressed by the British? Yes, in some ways. In other ways, they were largely left alone. They enjoyed more freedoms from British rule than we do from Washington’s rule by far. They didn’t have an income tax at all. In fact, one of the early fights between the colonists and the British was based on a simple $0.03 tax on paper goods (The Stamp Act). The Tea Party was a response to a tax on tea that hadn’t previously existed. They were incensed that the Crown would dare tax them on such a crucial part of their customs — makes you wonder what they’d think about taxing income, eh?

I will grant VRB one point… The Tea Party protesters would have been hanged if they were caught. It was, at its heart, a treasonous and revolutionary act. Nothing that the modern day protesters have done has reached that level…

But we’re not there yet. The modern day Tea Party protesters are about as ready for action as the Americans were in 1765 when the Stamp Act went into power.

So you want to see the parallel? After the Stamp Act, rather than see the pulse of his subjects, King George went ahead trying to exert his agenda and influence on the colonies. Each new act slowly got more and more colonists ready for revolution. What’s happened here? Bush gave us the Patriot Act, and a few of us realized what was going on. Bush gave us detention centers, extraordinary rendition, and torture, and more of us realized what was going on. When the economy began to implode, Bush and Paulson put the American people on the hook for a $700B TARP proposal, and more of us realized what was going on. Now we have Obama, who is pressing forward at a faster rate than even Bush dared. More and more people are waking up and saying “NO, this is NOT the direction we want to go.” Obama (and Geithner & Summers & Bernanke) seem intent on pushing bailout after bailout, stimulus after stimulus, and government program after government program. The American economy was creaking under the weight of our government under Bush, and Obama is piling on the weight. It cannot continue indefinitely. We’re on the road to fiscal and societal disaster, and the endgame won’t be pretty. The Tea Party protesters aren’t yet seeing that far ahead, but another decade, maybe two, and the results of this ridiculous unsustainable government growth will reach a boiling point.

And I didn’t even pick the “Tea Party” name, so “I’ll be grateful for you not blaming me for things that happened when I was 3 months old.” :) I love that quote. So I wanted to squeeze that in here, even if not applicable.

Come on, nobody in the Tea Party movement is LITERALLY comparing themselves and their conditions to what the Sons of Liberty faced when they threw tea into Boston Harbour. Truly. VRB, we just LOOK stupider to you than we actually are. That vacant hillbilly stare and the toothpick hanging out of my mouth can be deceiving, I do realize.

“Sometimes it offends me, that many of you that have had freedom all of your lives, assume you know what it is to live oppressed.”

Some of us who have had freedom all our lives do have the insight and depth to not take it for granted – because there have always been and will always be those who will wish to reduce it, restrict it, or control it. Some of us HAVE traveled extensively to other countries and have SEEN how citizens who do NOT have our freedoms are forced to live. Must I become an actual Cuban or Chinese CITIZEN to understand and “know what it is like” to live under oppression?

Do I think I am being “oppressed” right NOW? No, of course not. It’s called being proactive, and at least trying to be vigilant. Because…

The largest spending bill in the history of the world was signed in Obama’s first 100 days in office. The democrats now in power passed the largest budget in history without a single GOP vote – this budget more than doubles the national debt in one fell swoop; and I have read that it supposedly adds more to the debt than all previous adminstrations — from George Washington to George W. Bush — combined.

I’m sorry, but that concerns me. And I would like the brakes to be applied. Because I fear that this path we are on will be disastrous for my children and their future.

Yeah, I understand the libertarian argument that because I didn’t (publicly, with a sign) bitch about a 300-400 billion dollar deficit, I must be an astroturfing republican leech, for having the gall to bitch about it now….even though it is now a projected two TRILLION dollar deficit.

And the leftist, MSM (but I repeat myself) narrative is that because I didn’t (openly, with a sign) bitch about a 300-400 billion dollar deficit, I must be a Racist for speaking up now. Or at the very least, some selfish a-hole who wants Granny’s medicare cut off, and wants poor kids to starve.

Maybe I’m all of the above. Or maybe I’m none of the above. Ah, the beauty of the internet.

What level of oppression is acceptable? How badly must the government break its constitutional contract with citizens before it’s unacceptable?

Is there such a thing as financial oppression? Do the products of a citizen’s life’s work belong to the government and any other citizens who demand them? Is the fruit of future labor also forfeit? Is there any limit? Is that limit written down anywhere?

What kind of oppression is good oppression? Which people are okay to oppress?

I haven’t, really, except when I was in the Navy, and that was my fault, since I chose to join, I asked for it.

But I don’t need to actually be oppressed, in what ever way you choose to define it, to know where our gov’t is heading, and that it will use taxes to get there and drag us along, too.

Here’s my opinion. I think the Founders would be absolutely shocked and horrified if they came back and saw what the Federal Government they envisioned and then created, upon kicking the monarchy out, has become. And I think they would go up to the Tea Partiers and say – what the hell took you so long? And why are you waiting until July 4 for your next one – get moving!

The whole astroturfing thing has more to do in my mind with the Republican political machine than with rank-and-file voters. The Republican machine is trying to get a handle on these things and take credit for them because the message of the grassroots in the movement is directed as much towards them as it is towards Democrats.

When Republicans (or Democrats) come and protest because they agree that our future is being spent away by the ruling class in Washington, and that we should have a voice and a capacity to say “NO!”, that’s not astroturfing, it’s genuine participation. I welcome it.

When Republicans (or Democrats) come and try to eclipse the message of the grassroots with the party line, that’s astroturfing. Michael Steele tried to do it in Chicago, and he was told “no”.

It’s time for the parties and the ruling class to listen to the ordinary, tax-paying citizens for a change. This is a movement where the message is coming from the people and going upward. The astroturfers want to turn that dynamic on its head.

The envy thing was original, I’ll grant you that. But equating reasoned criticism of Obama to racism and saying the tea parties have no point because the current rate of taxation hasn’t changed is straight out of the Democratic Party/MSM playbook. You might have arrived there through a different path, and I apologize for any insult if that’s the case.

Quincy,
I really don’t think I am parroting anyone. It may be that I have similar thoughts or have come to the same conclusions. Parroting on most blogs seems to be a given. Occasionally there may be some original thought. When I started reading this blog it was quite different than it is now and I don’t know why it is still a habit.