Grover Norquist: Tea Parties Biggest Taxpayer Protest Ever

More than 2,000 so-called tea parties are scheduled to take place around tax day this week, representing the biggest taxpayer protests ever, Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, tells Newsmax.

Income tax rates have not been raised since Bill Clinton was president, and President Obama’s tax increases take effect in two years.

“But interestingly, the reaction is to the spending,” Norquist says. “People realize more spending will lead to tax increases. It’s a very sophisticated response from Americans. There are 2,000 of these tea party demonstrations scheduled around the country to take place around April 15. That is the biggest ever collection of taxpayer demonstrations that has ever taken place in the United States.”

While ATR and conservative coalition activists who attend weekly meetings sponsored by ATR are in touch with organizers of the nationwide tea party rallies, “The good news is these are self-generated demonstrations,” Norquist says.

Let Freedom Ring and the Institute for Liberty, both conservative advocacy groups, are organizing a “mobile petition” that will allow activists to send protests over their cell phones to Obama, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, and their own members of Congress. To sign up for the petition, tea party attendees and others will text the words “Tea Party” to 74362 on their mobile phones.

The petition reads, “We, the undersigned American taxpayers, do not believe that the United States can tax, spend, and borrow its way back to economic prosperity. We call on you to lead the fight to make Washington tighten its belt rather than make us tighten ours.”

What sparked the tea parties was a rant by Rick Santelli of CNBC complaining that Obama's $75 billion bailout of mortgage defaulters “rewarded bad behavior.”

Yes: In an American Idol world, this IS sophistication. In my view, at least.

Holding this view is a sign of functioning neurons, unlike Rachel Maddow, who said, the other night, “Everyone knows from Econ 101 that in a recession, you want the government to spend more money to stimulate the economy”. WHOSE “Econ 101” class is she talking about? Where did that come from? As long as one believes that statement to be true, then by all means, government should therefore spend MORE money to get MORE stimulation to make the economy recover ASAP. This is how far their thinking goes. There IS no consequence, there IS no responsibility, there IS no chain of causation. There isn’t even the understanding that government’s money is really OUR money or in their case, THEIR money. And perhaps the most disgusting thing about our government, particularly in this financial mess, is that none of the leaders who blundered us into this mess seems to bear any responsibility for all the crap they pulled or money they stole. Top to bottom, government appears to ratify and promote the total absence of accountability.

If I may explain, I believe we are battling our adversaries at a very elemental, fundamental, bumper-sticker sloganistic level. I believe we must find that single neural switch, that fundamental distinction, where choosing one “truth” leads to the whole constellation of liberal beliefs and where choosing the other “truth” leads to the collection of beliefs we would like to see prevail. Liberals call Conservatives “neanderthal” thinkers. Nobody here believes that, of course, but we DO have a fondness for simple, concise truths, proven time and again, that we believe are foundational. And we’re not eager to change them just for the thrill of trying something new. We think that having been proven many times, the need for proof is long past. So while we are the alleged dimwits, it is the other side that cannot make the mental connection between endless government giveaways and higher taxes. Even if we can make this connection, it’s not necessarily the case that libs will react with disdain to the prospect of higher taxes. (That is, until it’s too late and they’ve been enacted) Many libs are very willing to make the tradeoff of higher taxes for more and more gov’t svces. At least they say they are. (Personally, I think the $120K-$200K/yr income libs who supported 0bama are gonna puke their guts out when they see their new shiny tax bills, but again, it’ll be too late by then)

So....talking about the Constitution and principles is or may be great, but IMHO somehow we have to get the discussion down to the bumper-sticker slogan level. Because that is what we are fighting. It’s a challenge. To them, the Constitution is a 230 year old crumbly document stored somewhere which has no relevance. To them, having slackers suffer and having standouts reap greater rewards is a sign of our “frontier” cruelty and shows lack of understanding. To them, we should be mimicing the Euros where they manage to stay out of wars instead of being Americans where we step up to the plate when it has to be done. (Especially if you have no knowledge of history)

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.