21 Sep 2010
Party Out of Bounds

If I hear the "Tea Party" called "libertarian" one more time, I think I'm gonna puke. The vast majority of their candidates are at best hypocrites and at worst outright con men..

Take Joe Miller, darling of the Alaska Tea Party movement:

Alaska's Republican Senate nominee Joe Miller, who has railed against wasteful federal spending and pledged to abandon earmarks, received some $7,200 in farm subsidies on land he owned in Kansas.

Spot the hypocrite! Taxing me to subsidize somebody else is bad. Taxing somebody else to subsidize me is good policy! Spending is bad, unless of course it's spending on me!

Choke...

A bit more subtle is the case of Pat Toomy, one of the founders of the Club for Growth. The growth this club's all about is their own, and they're not afraid or unwilling to use the State to get their way. The story of Toomy and corporate taxes illustrates this perfectly:

After two days spent trying to hide his position on eliminating taxes for Wall Street banks and Big Oil, Congressman Toomey will not deny his support for zero corporate taxes, even at the expense of Pennsylvania’s working families.

Of course, this blog by his opponent in the Senate race in Pennsylvania thinks this is just awful! But ya know, I agree with Pat! There shouldn't be any corporate taxes! I know, as an anarchist, I can't really support taxation theft on anybody, but corporations shouldn't even exist: they're mere creatures of the State, designed to let the wealthy hide their liability behind some imaginary veil.

So, Pat, how about a deal? We eliminate corporate taxes by eliminating corporations. Of course, that would make you fully liable for your actions in the marketplace... no deal, eh? I thought not.

And there's the con artist: all in favor of those interventions by the State that support his positions, all against anything that smacks of actually having to pay his protection money.

Think about these guys constant harping to privatize Social Security - qui bono? They aren't talking about eliminating Social Security taxes, oh no. You'll just have to payse your moneys into their private mutual slush funds instead of an ostensibly public treasury. They'll manage it for you, taking a piece of the action in the process. When things go up. You'll be left holding the bag when things move the other way. Which is why many of my coworkers now refer to their retirement accounts as "201K's".

Politics is naught but the art of government, and government is nothing but raw, naked power applied for the benefit of those wielding it. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that those who seek political office, despite their protestations of wanting to do good for the common folk, are hypocrites and con artists - what other kind of person would want the job?

Update: Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone agrees with my assessment of the Tea Party movement...

Update: More Tea Party Hilarity.

23:22 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link