Today’s Conservatives Falsely Claiming Boston Tea Party Legacy
Far-right activists are staging so-called “tea parties” on April 15 to protest the fact that in a free society one must pay taxes and abide by the decisions of the electorate. (Old-time image of tea party above.)
The claim being made by these extreme elements, when they are not advocating violence, is that somehow we are moving towards tyranny.
By trying to steal the symbolism of the Boston Tea Party, Republicans and the extreme right (no distinction appears to exist between the two) are confusing the idea of no taxation without representation with bitterness about losing last November’s election.
(Here is the link to the Boston Tea Party Historical Society.)
Below is from the web home of a tea party web site. They say here that “Revolution is brewing.” Just what does that mean? Is it violence? What do they think a revolution is in this context?
The actual New Englanders who were part of the real Boston Tea Party are the same people, or the fathers of the people, who would later become Federalists, Unitarians and abolitionists.
Today’s Southern-based overwhelmingly white American right has nothing to do with the legacy of the Boston Tea Party.
The only historical tradition these people are drawing upon is that of the treason of the first shot fired on Fort Sumter in 1861 to begin the Civil War. (Engraving below.)
America does have a visible representative of the best and most inclusive traditions of American History— The America of Thomas Paine, William Lloyd Garrison, Abe Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, Sitting Bull, Franklin Roosevelt, Martin Luther King and Caesar Chavez.
That leader is the President of the United States and his name is Barack Hussein Obama.
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Welcome To Texas Liberal
Texas Liberal is a blog of politics and political history.
My name is Neil Aquino. Here is my profile.
I can be reached at naa618@att.net.
Additional focuses of the blog are books, art, poetry, personal relationships and, also, sea life and marine mammals.
( The picture above is of the Houston Ship Channel. A narrow channel can lead to a wide sea.)
The signature post of this blog is the Martin Luther King Reading & Reference List. This list is the best of it’s kind on the web.
Another good post is my reciting the words to the Shaker hymn Simple Gifts on Galveston Island, Texas as a ship passes behind.
I live in Houston, Texas and I do sometimes write about political issues in Houston and in Texas.
I also often write about my former hometown of Cincinnati, and about the great beach city of Galveston, Texas.
I define liberalism as a role for government in the economy to help make life more fair, and a broad acceptance of people regardless of who they are.
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Texas Liberal began regular posting on July 25, 2006.
I also blog at the Houston Chronicle as one of eight featured political bloggers, and on Where’s The Outrage? which posts out of North Carolina.
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I like that they think they’re the majority. No, the majority voted for Barack Obama–that’s why he’s president.
They think that only people like themselves are true Americans and that people unlike themselves don’t really count.
Thanks for this. I don’t remember us liberals acting like this when Bush was elected – at least when we were concerned about issues like choice and gay rights they were actually being threatened. I wish the neo-cons would realize that no one is going to take their guns, doctors are not going to be forced to perform abortions against their will (as prominently featured in many of the tea party fliers here in my state – what does that have to do with taxes?), letting gay people marry will not somehow cause them to divorce, and letting poor people have health care will not turn us into Soviet Russia.
Then again, if Rush says it’s true …
I think ”Revolution is brewing” should mean that they are going to serve brewskis. But they are not serving brewskis, at least not in Amarillo. They are meeting at the courthouse lawn and at the post office where brewskis are frowned upon.
If they served brewskis, I might go talk to them. Maybe if they had enough brewskis they could be helped to understand why all of us paying into the system helps us all benefit from the system.
I think you’re missing the whole point. This is not a conservative or liberal movement. This is a movement about how our political heroes in DC passed a $700B bill, without even reading it.
I don’t care who voted for it, or against it. They’re all crooks.
The left has to be the most blissful people on earth.
Brandy, you should really know what a neo-con is before you state what you wish they would believe. Apparently, you have no clue.
“I don’t remember us liberals acting like this when Bush was elected” I think you are too young to remember what the left-wing radicals behavior was like after Geo. W. was elected.
Please do not mistake this comment being the ranting of a “neo-con”. Geo. W. is a neo-con, I however am proud to claim the title of paleo-con. 🙂
Come on you libs, lighten up and light one up. Your smoking would be good for my health.
asp–So liberals smoking and dying from smoking would be good for your health. I see.
I’m going to agree with ASP on this one. Yes, the United States would be a better place if there were more people who took personal responsibility for their actions (conservatives).
Light ’em up!
There you have it folks. The real nature of the American right.
Absolutely. Take responsibility for your actions. If you refuse to do so and expect the nanny state to do it for you, please remove yourself from our gene pool.
Have you read the Constitution? Take a look at the 10th Amendment. In the United States (not whatever socialist nirvana our government is trying to create), the power of the Federal Government is limited to only those items enumerated in the Constitution. The 10th Amendment CLEARLY lays this out.
Our government (again…. BOTH SIDES) has completely ignored the Constitution.
Try reading the document, then let’s talk.
Dim thoughts from the usual liberal dim wits. Same old crap from all these years. Politics of hate and cultural division where only the elites will prosper. Keep the people down. Drug them, give them humanistic pap and call it “education”, keep them dependent on the man/government, and keep yourselves in power. That’s what it’s all about anyway, right?
Terrific to find this blog! I’m a former Texan, former and present liberal. I left a lot of good liberal friends in Texas, and I’m glad to find a place to see what you’re thinking currently.
Ann—Thank you and please visit the blog again.
Cheesehead–You got me for a time but I zapped it.