So the 9/12 disciples of Glenn Beck have descended on Washington DC, in colonial garb, carrying pseudo-witty signs about fiscal responsibility, as though they invented the concept, and as if they had adhered to it with similar protests when Bush and the Republican Congress veered so far away from it. Or Bush Sr. Or Reagan.
Yeah, you're just like the revolutionaries, teabagger 9/12ers. The revolutionaries who put their lives on the line to fight against monarchical tyranny, kangaroo courts, cruel and unusual punishments, religious decrees, the lack of elected representatives. Wait ... what are you teabaggers protesting again?
Really, though, I'm glad you're having a 9/12 Glenn Beck tea party. Freedom of speech! Good for you. But if you think this is a real protest, a significant one, think again. More below the fold.
See the original American revolutionaries had something you don't: IDEAS. You have chants, signs and costumes. There's a difference.
The Revolutionaries were in it for the long haul, for years, and their necks were on the line, a royal price on their heads. You, on the other hand, happen to have a day off, so you'll parade for a while, completely forgetting the fact that, as Rachel Maddow so wonderfully pointed out recently, liberalism is the reason you have a weekend at all. We won't wait by the mailbox for your thank you card.
The original revolutionaries also didn't have something you have: corporate backing. Freedomworks is cheering you on, to be sure, and writing checks to the organizers and backers, and cashing checks from the industries you're protecting. Must be rough for them and you to go out on such a limb.
But if I overlook the fact that Glenn Beck is on air right now as I type this, having kittens, almost bawling, again, as he nostalgically remembers the day after the terrorist attacks when we were all "united", I can also remember a day when there was another set of protests. Real protests. Against the coming Iraq War.
It was February 15, 2003. And instead of a few thousand Beck-ites dressed to the colonial nines waving signs, there were 28 million people worldwide. 28 MILLION. They marched everywhere, including hundreds of thousands in DC and New York, and a million in London. They stood in front of the cameras and the White House and tried to prevent an illegal, idiotic, destructive, expensive murderous war and yet they were flatly dismissed by a President who responded:
In the United States, protesters gathered in more than 100 towns and cities. However, on the Tuesday after the weekend marches, President Bush said the protests did not change his mind.
So march to your heart's content today, "revolutionaries". Glenn Beck your eyes out. Joe Wilson your "liar!" from the rooftops. Because today, we're going to return the favor of February 15th, and just ignore you altogether.
UPDATE 1: I just gave another $50 to Rob Miller as a teabag fine. Have a nice day.