Wednesday, August 8, 2001
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Wednesday, August 8, 2001 |
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Hamrick can't get facts straight about Revolution Dave Hamrick's latest dalliance with waste matter should be included in a Dr. Doolittle remake. As a literary "Push Me, Pull You," from the beginning it's difficult to tell where he's going. He starts by reducing the Democratic Party to a bunch of "low achievers." He doesn't really define who belongs in this great unwashed mass, but we can assume he means people who don't make much money. Whether that's the small South Georgia farmer, the roofer in Alpharetta, or the McDonald's employee in Peachtree City, we can only guess these "low achievers" are the ones who do all the manual labor so that high achievers can be ... well, Republicans. Conversely, he does not mean [a] white boy, born to wealthy parents, educated in private schools, enrolled at Yale as a legacy with a 1200 SAT, given a National Guard pilot training slot otherwise unattainable in a war, who then fails to even complete his commitment, enrolled at Harvard Business school with less than stellar academic record, does nothing significant for 20 years, becomes a baseball owner and somehow governor of Texas and is then purchased the Presidency (but not the popular vote) by Big Business. No, this is a high achiever. Dave goes on to quote Citizens Against Government Waste and their impression of history. "The United States was created as the result of a revolution, sparked primarily over burdensome taxation. Colonial Americans didn't revolt because of who taxed them as much as the oppressive level of taxation." Nothing could be further from the truth, and if they can't get their history right, what did they do to their figures? The salient question that led to the revolution, and the one around which the middle class rallied was: Does the English Parliament have a right to impose internal taxes on us when we have no representation in that body? A growing outcry and boycott of British goods didn't end because the taxes were lessened or abolished. The Sugar Act (1764), Stamp Act (1765) and Townshend Acts (1767) were never crushing taxes, but did serve to put the Americans on notice. Before signing the repeal of the Townshend Acts, George III said: "I am clear that there must always be one tax, to keep the right," so the tax on tea remained. The rest of course is history, one which the CAGW and Dave Hamrick would do well to read. It is funny he mentioned serfs in the same breath as taxes, because there was a series of peasant rebellions in the Holy Roman Empire (which was neither holy nor Roman) about the time Luther was letting the genie out of the bottle. These were people who did toil on the lord's property 33 percent of their time, were not allowed to quit or move, and were subject to his whims up to and including death. For their pains they were allowed to live in constant hunger and deprivation, possibly into their late 30s. Their rebellion was denounced by Martin Luther and, of course, crushed by the nobility. These people were overtaxed and over-abused, but how they were better off than the American taxpayer I'm not too sure. Which brings us to the subject I think Hamrick was trying to address: Taxes. Thomas Paine wrote: "Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness." We are stuck with government without which we would have some other form of law. Governments spend money, are normally profligate, and must be controlled so that people have incentive to work hard and keep what they make. If the Republicans stick to that message, they will find the proverbial middle politics. Instead the Republican leadership has become the mouthpiece for Big Business, protecting it at all costs. They seek to shift the tax burden down, away from those who benefit the most to those least able to pay. The Democrats, while no models of consistency, at least give voice to the otherwise powerless. So, Dave, continue to spew your venom at a local audience hungry for their own affirmation. You may get a Seig Heil around here, but the rest of the country doesn't lean quite so far, and I believe the Republicans will find that out in the next election. Timothy J. Parker Peachtree City
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