A Rally for What, Exactly...?

So, people across America protested on April 15^th.  They came out with rallies and signs and speeches.  Against what, exactly?  You people who were out there: why were you protesting?  What were you protesting?  Because if the answer is: government spending, then I have a question for you.  Where the hell have you been?

In the first place, the skeptic in me questions anything which is billed as a “groundswell.”  Sorry, but rallies don’t just break out in numerous places all at once.  They’re staged.  Now, I wouldn’t have a problem with the staging part if it sold itself honestly.  But these rallies didn’t.  They were sold as non-partisan but were actually put together by a former Republican Congressman whose group is backed by a variety of major corporations.  In other words, this is right wing stuff concocted to start some sort of movement and unity among Republicans.  Whatever.  They’re allowed to do anything they want and call it anything they like.  The only problem is if we buy it.

So who is buying it?  That’s another problem.  Almost half the people in the country believe that their taxes are about fair, the same as the number of people who think they pay too much.  Doesn’t exactly sound like the fertile field of a populist movement, does it?  I don’t think it was taxes. 

So let’s assume it was government spending that brought out the people.  I’ll just skip down to that one because the others make no sense.  Also, saying no to the Democrats’ stimulus spending is the Republicans’ only argument.  Coincidental, isn’t it?  Anyway, suddenly people are complaining about spending money now that our children and grandchildren will have to repay.  They’re worried about throwing good money after bad and they don’t see that any good will come at the end of all of this spending.  To them I say, welcome to the party!

Where were you all these years?  What were you doing when Ronald Reagan cut taxes while increasing government spending?  That’s how he did it, with “borrow and spend.”  It was a cute sleight of hand, too.  He attacked Democrats as the party of “borrow and spend.”  That’s when you tax people today to cover today’s spending.  You know, sort of the way all of us do it.  We work for the pay to fund our lives.  While Reagan attacked tax and spend, he was refining borrow and spend.  Spend today but stick a future generation with the tab. 

That practice continued through the Ray-gun years and Bush One.  We took eight years off under Clinton and actually slowed the rate of indebtedness, but it began again with a vengeance under W.  Again I ask; where the hell were you?

When Bush invaded Iraq and not a single dollar showed up on his budget, where were you?  After the first year everyone knew we were going to be staying for years.  How come no one said a peep when we spent $2.5 billion a week and never made an allowance for it in our national spending?  When the body counts mounted week after week and we were clearly throwing good money after bad, where were you?  When the President said we could fight a war and have a tax cut, didn’t that idea strike you as absurd?  We’re suddenly going to dramatically increase spending and still pay lower taxes?  Why didn’t that make you suspicious? 

So now some of you are finally out in the streets.  Good.  Now, if you want to help, let’s hear your ideas.  And sorry, but “no more taxes” is just not enough.  Tell us what we should do to save our teetering economy.  I’m one of those people who feel that spending billions here at home is better for us in the long run, even if it incurs deficits, than spending billions in Iraq. 

Now, if you don’t have any ideas, that’s okay.  Maybe you’re new to this.  So when you get done marching and chanting go home and pick up a newspaper and start reading.  Because real change doesn’t start with rallies and speeches, it starts with paying attention.