I thought Eric might appreciate this commentary from our friend Anthony
Gregory.
Greetings from Mexico City everyone. Its interesting to watch the state
on the move south of the border...
About Those Conservative Tax Protesters
by Anthony Gregory
<http://www.lewrockwell.com/gregory/mailto:anthony1791@…>
by Anthony Gregory
It's wonderful that rightwingers are making noise all around America
through the Tea Party tax protests. We must remember, however, that this
April 15th we are still suffering the burden of Bush's leviathan
government. We are filing for 2008, the last year of Republican rule. We
are still and will long be enduring the cost of Bush's wars, spending
and bailouts. We should be wary of letting the Republican establishment
co-opt the grassroots, anti-government spirit of these protests and turn
them into a platform to shill for GOP statism.
For eight years, Republican protest of income taxation was scant. Some
conservatives complained quietly about Bush's domestic welfare spending,
but all in all they were apologists for the regime we are still paying
for. They certainly did not talk about the state as their enemy, as many
of them do today. The quickness of their transition to opposition
rhetoric has been staggering.
"Tyranny vs. liberty," "the collective vs. the individual," "the state
vs. you" - this is suddenly the language of the conservative movement.
Well, that is not quite right: The conservatives have still maintained
their excitement about national greatness and war.
The contradiction is a wonder to behold. In one breath, they talk about
the fundamental violations of natural rights and constitutional law that
modern American statism represents. In the next breath, they decry the
president for being insufficiently enthusiastic about American
imperialism and the national security state. He is too soft on
foreigners and not proud enough of the history of the US war machine -
this is still a key rightwing criticism of Obama, right alongside the
contradictory claim that Obama puts love of the national government
ahead of individual rights.
Conservatives seem to define tyranny as losing to the Democrats, just as
Jon Stewart <http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/026301.html>
has said. And so now they echo the rhetoric of the American colonists
who stood up for independence, even as they still speak the language of
empire. Sean Hannity and others of his kind say the "conservative
underground" and Tea Party revolts are not just about opposing socialism
and high taxes - they are also about reclaiming "American
Exceptionalism," the idea that the American national warfare state is
just and good, even holy, and that we oppressed patriots will not
countenance a president insufficiently enamored of American imperial
glory. Presumably, as today's conservatives see it, the American
colonists dumping British tea were also upset that the British Crown was
inadequately boastful of English Exceptionalism, cutting spending on the
British empire and coddling the enemies of England's occupying armies.
(Actually, there is one fair parallel here: the American nationalists
wanted the French-Indian war, and then didn't want to pay for it. Same
American nationalism, different war.)
The rightwing criticism of Obama's dovishness is not just ironic but,
unlike the criticism of his collectivism, it is 100% off the mark. Obama
is increasing military spending, going well beyond Bush in arguing for
secretive, unchecked presidential power, widening the war into Pakistan
and redirecting military resources toward uses of active belligerence.
He is commissioning fewer Cold War weapons so as to build more weapons
for actual use in today's conflict. He is not calling it a war on
terrorism but is ramping up the policies, at home and in most theaters
abroad. He is a more pragmatic and thus more effective warmonger than
the neocons. A New Left peacenik he is not.
So the right hates taxes but loves the wars and rightwing projects that
make them necessary. Furthermore, their government under Bush was so
enormous that it could not finance itself on taxation alone - much of
his warmongering and central planning was funded through borrowing, even
as his Ownership Society relied on inflationary easy credit. The
depression we face resulted mostly from these policies and every single
horrible thing Obama is doing had its precedents in the Bush era.
Indeed, the Republicans made such a mess that a full Democratic takeover
and move toward socialism were practically inevitable.
Looking further into the rightwing contradiction, we see more paradoxes
abound. The liberals in power want to use the No-Fly List to disarm
Americans. Conservatives are horrified. Rahm Emanuel says that suspected
terrorists should obviously not be allowed to have guns. The rightwing,
which a year ago trusted the government to define who was and was not a
terrorist and strip him of his freedoms of speech, due process, privacy
and travel, thinks the idea of using the same government determinations
to take away Americans' guns is tyranny itself.
Conservatives complain about government listing them as potential
violent agitators due to their anti-tax, pro-gun politics, but mostly
defended the Bush government as it spied
<http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=2&q=http://www.lewrockwell.com/gre
gory/gregory181.html&ei=m77jSb6JBcugmAeIs_W3Ag&usg=AFQjCNH0LZ5cJh7VCpVB7
KK4p0W27ad1zQ> on antiwar activists and created the fusion centers that
now associate conservative ideas with dangerous militias. The
conservatives worry about Obama putting the UN above the American system
of government, yet they thought a UN mandate was plenty good reason to
go to war with Iraq, regardless of having no official Congressional
declaration of war. The conservatives fear national service, but for
much of the last decade, serving the nation-state and especially its
enforcement agencies was considered the height of patriotism. They now
say Obama's social planning will fail in America; for years they
championed U.S. economic planning and public works projects in Iraq.
This April 15, Americans have to prove to the government that they paid
their taxes for 2008, to fund Bush's empire and corporatism. Perhaps
this is why conservatives want to emphasize not just their anti-tax
rhetoric, but the areas where Obama's current policies stray from their
own program. And here, most of what conservatives say is either
disingenuous, given their previous sycophancy for the profligate and
invasive Bush regime, or a monstrous call for even more bloodshed.
It is a tragedy that today, when liberals have taken over and have a
thousand plans to micromanage domestic life, nationalize our children,
socialize finance and industry, institute a global New Deal and enlist
the whole country in left-liberal national-socialism, the red-state
fascists have become the dominant opposition, stealing half of our
rhetoric while maintaining so much of the hypocrisy and statism of the
Bush era. Instead of America Firsters, they are like they were out of
power during the Cold War, bashing the president for being too soft on
the enemy. Instead of upholding a model of free enterprise, they
continue to defend the Bush legacy, ignore the depth of the financial
crisis and refuse to put nearly enough blame for it on the Republicans -
when most of it belongs to them. Instead of rediscovering the
Constitution, they have only rediscovered the half of it they like.
Instead of truly embracing individual liberty in all its implications,
they still want the federal government to mold society to their liking,
punish vice, maintain their favored demographics and police the planet.
Bush created the biggest bubble ever in the name of free enterprise and
waged two wars with potentially cataclysmic implications for a century
to come. He was like a Hoover and Wilson mixed in one, and by refusing
to reject Bush conservatism as strongly as Obama liberalism, today's
conservative movement is still more than a let-down as opposition to the
Obama nightmare. Until conservatives adopt libertarianism, the love of
peace and freedom regardless of party, they can only be taken so
seriously when they complain that taxes are too high.
Thankfully, there are more Americans than ever who eschew the statism of
both right and left, who seek liberty, peace and free markets. Those who
resent tax day and are searching for real solutions can join our ranks,
rejecting the conservative as well as liberal policies that have gotten
us into this mess.
April 15, 2009
Anthony Gregory [send him mail
<http://www.lewrockwell.com/gregory/mailto:anthony1791@…> ] is a
research analyst at the Independent Institute
<http://www.independent.org/> and editor-in-chief of the Campaign for
Liberty <http://www.campaignforliberty.com/> . He lives in Berkeley,
California. See his webpage <http://www.AnthonyGregory.com> for more
articles and personal information.
Copyright (c) 2009 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or
in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.