Tax Day Tea Parties

Today is income tax day in the United States and "Tea Parties" are being held all across the country in protest of the expanding power of the federal government, the unprecedented federal spending and the huge tax increases that are on the way. The protests are drawing inspiration from the (rather silly) Boston Tea Party which was one of the events leading up to the American Revolution. Although I am of the Tory persuasion (in terms of the American Revolution not the modern political parties) I am fully supportive of these tea parties. Many of the protestors are flying Revolutionary War flags, particularly the rattlesnake "Don't Tread on Me" design. Having nothing of the sort in my flag cabinet I graced my flag pole with the nearest thing I had; the Grand Union flag which was used by the Continental Army prior to the declaration of independence (hence the Union Jack in the canton).

The Obama administration has instructed the Department of Homeland Security to keep a close eye on the protests even though they are completely peaceful. However, in my home state anyway I have heard more than a few sane, normal people who have said that it might come to that for the ruling elites to pay attention and finally change their ways. At the same time, my home state of Texas is passing a resolution to reassert our sovereignty and to emphasize the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution which states that any power not specifically assigned to the federal government by the Constitution is reserved to the states -something the federal government seems to constantly forget. Every election the party out of power promises to remedy the mistakes of the previous administration only to do the same or worse as soon as they get into power. In the last election it was the Democrats who were crying about the rampant spending and power accumulation of the Bush administration. Now that Obama is in office he is spending even more than any administration in American history and keeping all of the powers Bush claimed for the executive branch.

To put the tax issue in terms monarchists might be able to identify with I will say that the current situation here is the opposite of what happened in the English Civil War. Then it was the Roundheads who were opposing taxation, however, the money King Charles I wanted was to fund the operation of the government and to pay for the military (due to the war in Scotland mostly). I can assure everyone that no one involved in these tea parties would protest paying taxes to support our military. In fact, the military budget is one thing that Obama has cut funding for. What these protests are about are the tax dollars going to bail out private companies and then expand government control over them or any of the myriad pork projects that tax dollars have been allocated for such as studying why pigs stink, paying for tattoo removal and looking into the uses of wood (I only wish I were joking). If things keep on as they are going, if the Obama administration continues to refer to its domestic opponants as "terrorists" while refusing to use that term to refer to the fanatics who have attacked us and killed thousands of people things are going to get worse and I would say that civil violence and even challenges to the Union itself would not be impossible. If things get worse I would say, in my own state, it would not be impossible for the state to hold a referendum on leaving the union and resuming our independence as the Republic of Texas.