{"id":294654,"date":"2010-02-08T19:48:17","date_gmt":"2010-02-09T00:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2011018803_anyonefortea.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-02-08T19:48:17","modified_gmt":"2010-02-09T00:48:17","slug":"anyone-for-tea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/294654","title":{"rendered":"Anyone for tea?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Tea party\u2019 an erroneous moniker<\/strong><\/p>\n

Editor, The Times:<\/p>\n

The National Tea Party Convention last weekend brings to mind just how perfectly appropriate the name is to this movement [\u201cTea-party convention a milestone,\u201d page one, Feb. 5]. Like their predecessors tossing tea in Boston Harbor in December of 1773, they profess a righteous nonpolitical people\u2019s movement against the tyranny of governmental oppression. In neither case is this actually true.<\/p>\n

Most Americans believe the Boston Tea Party was a protest against a British tax on tea. In truth, that tax dated back six years to 1767, so why the long delay? Because the \u201cparty\u201d was actually a protest against a seven-month-old British act that reduced tea taxes so that the better-tasting British tea became price-competitive with the less-desirable Dutch tea smuggled into the American colonies by men such as Samuel Adams \u2014 who organized the tea party to protect his business but promoted it to Bostonians as righteous indignation.<\/p>\n

The modern tea party pretends to attract disgruntled citizens of all walks. Its modern equivalent to Adams appears to be the Koch family \u2014 one of the richest families in America, whose Koch Industries is the largest privately held American corporation, doing about $110 billion in annual business in oil and gas [industries]. The corporation helps fund many conservative lobby groups and think tanks, so it\u2019s doubtful they believe in apolitical populist movements \u2014 Google them and you\u2019ll find stories of lawsuits, multimillion-dollar settlements, environmental disasters and family members accusing other family members of organized crime.<\/p>\n

\u2014 David Richardson, Shoreline<\/em><\/p>\n

Tea party symptomatic of larger problem<\/strong><\/p>\n

The recent tax revolt led by the tea party is understandable, but misguided. An economic climate exists that began with Milton Friedman\u2019s \u201cneoliberalism\u201d and grew with Thomas Friedman\u2019s \u201cflat earth\u201d globalism, in which the economic playing field has been leveled through competition with slave-wage countries.<\/p>\n

Beginning with Carter\u2019s relaxation on trade tariffs \u2014 continuing full force with Reagan, the both Bushs, Clinton and now Obama \u2014 we have essentially become a Third World country and the largest debtor nation in the world.<\/p>\n

We now have an aristocratic corporate elite with an obscene amount of wealth. The upper class that used to be represented by professionals such as doctors and lawyers are now the middle class. The working class that attained middle-class status through New Deal gains and strong labor unions have now become a labor class struggling to make ends meat and resenting taxes \u2014 despite the fact that state and federal governments can\u2019t pay the bills either.<\/p>\n

The tea party revolt is a symptom, but not a solution. I wonder if they realize the possible consequences of their revolt, such as the cessation of government programs such as Social Security and Medicare?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Chris Anderson, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

Convention wasn\u2019t fiscally responsible<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let me get this straight: Tea partyers paid over $500 to attend their convention, $300 to hear Sarah Palin \u2014 who was paid $100,000 \u2014 and these people are screaming about deficit spending?<\/p>\n

I\u2019d be willing to stand in front of these folks and mouth empty-headed platitudes for 45 minutes for only $75,000. If they had any real sense of fiscal responsibility, they\u2019d take me up on my offer.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Timothy Walsh, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Tea party\u2019 an erroneous moniker Editor, The Times: The National Tea Party Convention last weekend brings to mind just how perfectly appropriate the name is to this movement [\u201cTea-party convention a milestone,\u201d page one, Feb. 5]. Like their predecessors tossing tea in Boston Harbor in December of 1773, they profess a righteous nonpolitical people\u2019s movement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-294654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}