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Lately, the Democrats have been demonizing the tea partygoers and using rhetoric that conservatives are the ones to blame for our country’s problems because they simply can’t compete in the forum of ideas. An article in The Los Angeles Times said the public has not distrusted Washington this much since 1980, when Jimmy Carter would go down in the minds of many as the worst president in the history of the United States, and Ronald Reagan was elected president, signaling the beginning of modern conservatism.
Over the weekend, Bill Clinton took shots at anti-government protesters, suggesting they are at fault for the Oklahoma City bombing. He said the country today is like 1995, when there were tough economic times, strong antigovernment sentiment and the formation of militia groups.
In the 1760s, there were economic sanctions and anti-government sentiment against the king of England, which the formation of state militias started to change. April 19, Patriots’ Day, is the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing and the battles of Lexington and Concord, that were fought by local rebel militias.
Conservatives today are criticized as being rich, racist and out of touch with the poor; these same criticisms are lodged against the leaders of the American Revolution.
When running for president in 2008, Hillary Clinton seemed to think it was fashionable or even patriotic to criticize the government. Now that the Democrats see the growing anti-government sentiment as a threat, they are trying to demonize the patrons of tea parties as racist misogynists.
Darryl Postell, a black man and tea party supporter, was asked by an NBC reporter at an event Tuesday if he felt uncomfortable as a minority. “These are my people, Americans,” he said.
Calling tea partygoers racist is an unfounded claim to make them look bad.
If the Democrats thought Americans wanted all of the regulations they are given, they could just ignore the dissenters and campaign on their ideas unopposed. However, if people liked what was being sold to them, the polls would not show the great political disillusionment they do.
Clinton and Obama have something in common: They can blame their problems on Bush. Over the weekend, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner said part of what got the country in this financial mess is that the tax cuts from George W. Bush’s administration are still being paid for. Geithner also said he is against deficits as much as the tea party supporters are.
President Obama has run up a deficit of 7.8 percent of the gross domestic product in his term, while Bush in his eight years only had a deficit of 3.2 percent of the GDP. Geithner is wrong; the Obama regime certainly does not appear to care about increasing deficit spending.
To say tax cuts need to be paid for is absurd. The point of a tax cut is giving the people back some of the money that was taken from them in taxes by the federal government.
The Democrats’ idea of welfare is nothing more than an entitlement program, giving money to people who didn’t earn it rather than back to the workers who pay the largest share of taxes. Paying for tax cuts is another deception they have to spew, because in a fair arena of ideas, the socialist desires of the far left cannot compete.
Jonathan Zappala is a senior psychology student.
