The Other Side column 4-16-09 Daily Republic

Nothing grass-roots about protests

By Kelvin Wade | | April 16, 2009 14:52

As has been pointed out by many, the teabagging protests are an AstroTurf (top down) action instead of grassroots, having been set into motion by right wing groups such as Freedomworks and Americans for Prosperity.

Don't these protests remind you of the ones several years ago when conservatives took to the streets to protest President Bush and the Republican Congress' outrageous spending, earmarks and exploding deficits? You don't remember that? Oh. That's because it didn't happen.

No, there was no discernible national right wing outrage. Fox News and right wing radio didn't arrange a national photo op to cover the GOP's recklessness.

So, let me see if I can understand their rallying cry. Tax and spend? Bad. Tax cut and spend? Good.

It's convenient how protesters act as though government spending is occurring in a vacuum, as if we're not in the middle of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Even conservative economists such as Martin Feldstein, Ronald Reagan's chief economic adviser, agree government spending is necessary right now. But why let facts get in the way of a great tea party?

Fortunately, the majority of the American people, just like the majority of voters last November, get it. In a recent New York Times/CBS News poll 63 percent of Americans think President Obama would be more likely to make the right decisions on the economy as opposed to 20 percent who favor the Republicans in Congress.

Most Americans have learned the lessons of the Republicans' horrendous fiscal mismanagement. Turning to old Republican ideas on the economy is like seeking investment advice from Bernie Madoff.

It doesn't stop there. A brand new Gallup Poll finds 48 percent of Americans think the taxes they pay are 'about right' while 46 percent think they're too high. The 48 percent is the one of the highest scores in more than 50 years.

According to another new Gallup/USA Today poll 56 percent find that the government is the right size or needs to be bigger.

But the protests go on. Perhaps next we'll see thousands of angry anti-Obama protesters on horseback riding through city streets screaming in horror, 'Stimulus money is coming! Stimulus money is coming!'

Look, who likes taxes? If there's a way we can reduce the deficit, pay down the debt, not import foreign oil, provide affordable health care for all, take care of our seniors, invest in students and train Navy SEALs to blow off Somali pirates' heads and have it not cost me a dime, sign me up. But that stuff costs money and I think it's worthwhile, so I'll pony up.

Seriously, there is cause to be alarmed about the debt we're leaving to our grandchildren. A reckoning for our profligate spending, failure to deal with entitlements and ballooning debt has been in the cards for a long time. But the fact these tea parties sprang up only on Obama's watch shows the calculation and concern is far more political than patriotic.

By the way, I suspect the real winner of Wednesday's protest was Lipton, who will probably have an excellent quarter. Peace.

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To continue the teabag theme on the DR blog, click HERE.

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