"No taxation without representation" is idiotic in 2009

Once in a while I hear Glenn Beck on the radio, or see him on cable news. One of his catchwords these days is how "taxation without representation" supposedly is going on in the United States.

Huh?

We just had an election in 2008. Barack Obama was freely and fairly elected President. The Democratic Party freely and fairly enlarged its majorities in the House and Senate. I don't get this "without representation" stuff.

Beck is plugging tea parties as part of his 9/12 Project (nine principles and twelve values he came up with that are supposed to take us back to the good old we're-all-Americans-together days that followed 9/11).

The Boston Tea Party in 1773 had a legitimate "no taxation without representation" gripe. But the 2009 right-wing cry babies, who lost an election and can't get over it, are making a big ado about nothing.

Or, at least, very little.

This libertarian blog tries to defend the slogan. It turns out that taxation without deliberation really is what the anti-Obamaites mainly are steamed about.

They feel the stimulus package was passed by Congress without our representatives being fully informed about what was in it, or having time to debate it at length.

OK. So what else is new? During the Bush administration Republicans did the same thing a lot. Not the best way to run a Congress, yet hardly grounds for revolution.

That's what I hear, though, when I make my ears suffer through listening to conservative talk radio -- a call for revolution. Like this article, it's disturbing to hear the undertones (and sometimes overtones) of violent insurrection.

If I, or Rush, or Beck set up a freedom foundation to organize a real people’s revolt against the current destruction of our constitutional republic, how much money, time and effort are you prepared to sacrifice to support that effort? What are you willing to sacrifice for the future of your country, for your own personal freedom?

...Whether by peaceful means or violent action, only YOU can alter the current course of events.

...If the people fail to take peaceful action by defunding the evil befalling our nation, only violent options will remain. If they wait until they are broke, living a soup line existence, stripped of their Second Amendment rights, then they will have waited too long and they will no longer have the power to reverse any of it.

...If you don’t have the courage to take peaceful action, you won’t have the courage to take violent action either.

That's unpatriotic, unAmerican, and utterly idiotic. The United States has prospered by our unwavering commitment to respecting the Constitution, elections, and the rule of law.

"Only violent options will remain." These right-wing jokers remind me of the left-wing jokers in the Weather Underground, SDS, and other groups who played at being revolutionaries in the '60s.

I was pretty radical in those days. But not violent. I loved it when the Beatles came out with "Revolution."

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right 

Yes, things are going to be all right. Chill out Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and all you other revolution-inciters.

The United States is a representative democracy. If the people don't like what their elected officials are doing, tax-wise or otherwise, they'll say so in the next election.

So have your tea parties. Drink some chai, gripe about Obama, and then accept that the will of the people is being carried out -- even if you don't like what's going on.

Back in November Glenn Beck urged his listeners to accept Obama as President and to support him in every way posssible.

Good advice then. Good advice now.

Comments

[Rain]

Being on a long drive across the country, we also heard Glenn Beck, Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh along with a few other right wingers. One thing that struck me is that much of the country has no other choices for talk radio. Those guys are all you can find as you drive through much of the West. So for a lot of Americans, they think whatever these guys tell them has to be true. They have a mental image of this country that would not match what they would see if they stepped into big cities. It is very disturbing and it really gets me after 8 years of having to tolerate Bush's extreme right actions when he didn't even win the first time with the popular vote and it took fraud to get him inaugurated. We didn't talk revolution. We talked changing people's minds and that's what we set out to do. Now the right loses and violence is their only answer? It makes me madder at them than I was after those 8 years of Bush blind support and I was pretty irked then.

[Harry Vanderpool]

I miss Bill O'Rieley in the AM.
I didn't care for Glenn Beck at first but decided that I would listen long enough to give him a fair trial.
The trial period is over.
I will be changing the channel (maybe to airhead America) until Lars comes on.
I just can't get into all of the negitive harping and harping and harping and grinding, whining and crying and...... for 3 long hours. Even when I agree with his position as I often do.
Otherwise, I would have my radio superglued to KXL.
No longer.

[bohem]

To provide the previous poster "rain" with some answers ... there is a reason for there not being any liberal talk host radio as you suggested and the reason being there are no listeners. Guess you will just have to wait for the "Fairness Doctrine" to become a law once again to get it your way.

[Rain]

I don't believe in the fairness doctrine and do think people should have a right to choose what they want to hear; but if you only hear one side, don't think you got the whole story on anything. Hearing what pleases us isn't always the safest or wisest way to live responsible lives.

But I don't want government regulating it although it might well be that it's regulated now but by big money who can afford to buy all the stations and promote their agenda. Music certainly is as we have learned by how it gets decided who is played on the big radio stations. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?

[Sunshine]

All bills should be read thoroughly before voted on. How can anyone vote for something that they have know idea what it says. Shame on our government. Tell me how is that representing us? We haven't had any representation for a long time. It's to bad so many people vote for someone to represent them when they know nothing about them , what they believe or what road they will take us down. I hope they can see and learn by their mistakes. Maybe next time they will investigate who they are voting for.

[Dave in Texas]

The problem is that people are having difficulty deciding which of the "two evils" to vote for. The solution is to stop engaging in a two sided dialectical debate, and step aside, look at the larger picture, and then decide what needs be done.

The larger picture is that BOTH parties have been corrupted, and no longer represent you. They have sold out to internationalism, globalization, world banking and world socio-democratic forces. BOTH parties are eroding our rights by slowly but surely surrendering sovereignty to international organizations such as the United Nations. They undermine the will of the people by using NGO's to do the dirty work of the United Nations, thereby bypassing U.S. Legislatures, and their voting authority.

People are so fast to place blame on one party or the other, all the while the assault on our nation continues. We are NOT being fairly represented by ANY person we elect, because the entire game is rigged. It is rigged because ALL the candidates that are internationalists are wooed by the main stream media, while all other non-internationalists are minimized as being "non-traditional" thinkers who do not make sense. Whether or not you like him, Ron Paul was minimized because he was NOT involved in the new international economic order, and was calling that this new order be dismantled in order to re-establish American sovereignty.

So, stop engaging in useless Hegelian debates, get your heads outta your asses, and begin to educate yourselves about the realities of this world.

This government has been overstepping its constitutional boundaries for a long time, hence all the states that are re-asserting their 10th amendment rights, including Texas that just joined in a couple days ago.

The states are being treated like agents of the Federal Government, instead of the Fed acting as an agent of the states, as is clearly defined in the 10th amendment.

So are we the people being represented? NO!
Is it Nobamas fault? YES!
Is it ALSO Bushes fault? YES!
Did Clinton help too? YES!

getting the picture yet? It does not matter who we elect anymore, because the march towards a one world government continues either way.

If we dismantel the PRIVATE federal reserve, then we sever a vital link between the USA and the international banksters that have been working to destroy this country since the revolution. If we reject international treaties that are contrary to the US constitution, then we sever another vital link between these socialists and US Sovereignty. If we restore an honest electorial process in this country, THEN and ONLY THEN can we make a real difference.

Lets hope that these things can be accomplished without violence.

[Susan]

What Texas Dave said

[Toine]

Go Dave!