| Although the leaders say the protest was a grassroots internet driven protest, it seemed to me it was just another use of church membership information, in much the same way Karl Rove used these people in the Bush campaign in 2000) to bring people together. I saw quite few members of Owosso's Reliable Religious Right there who seemed to be the leaders of the event.
I found most of the people to be right wing Christian people who are misinformed but sincere in their belief that, although they say they invite everyone to join with them calling for tax reform, the movement really goes way beyond any talk of taxes and includes a laundry list of anti progressive issues, from health care reform to the Employee Free Choice Act, issues they angrily oppose.
Just a mention of President Obama's name drew angry shouts of derision and antipathy from the crowd.
While they call for cutting taxes etc. they fail to mention Social Security and Medicare and I suspect would find their belief in "No Taxes" doesn't extend to those or other social safety net programs their friends, family and neighbors depend on, especially in Shiawassee County where we suffer from double digit inflation.
That being said, the people were friendly and never gave me a bit of trouble. I think some of them didn't quite know what my sign meant. My sign used the same letters, TEA, as the others used. There's stood for "Taxed Enough Already" mine stood for "Taxes Equal Advantages" and then listed some of the things my tax protest included:
Stop Corporate Welfare,
Close Corporate Tax Loopholes,
Stop For Profit Health Care Companies From Making Money off the Elderly, Sick and Disabled,
Support the Troops Support the Tax Payer End the WAR in Iraq
Prosecute Corrupt Pentagon Contractors.
We must work harder in the coming months in our own grassroots efforts to keep these lies, deceptions and misinformation from being believed and taking hold. |
