Tea party as the new 'kulaks'

The oddball media slander of the tea party, now routine, shows more than a little calculation along a rather perilous historical line.

In the 1920s, in advance of the collectivization of private farms, Soviet leadership stigmatized as "class enemies" a productive set of landowners known as "kulaks."

In the beginning, the Soviets attempted to turn peasant farmers against the kulaks by denouncing them, in Mr. Lenin's illiberal words, as "bloodsuckers, vampires, plunderers of the people and profiteers, who fatten on famine."

Before he was through, Stalin and his progressive pals killed off at least 5 million of these people either though starvation, ruthless deportation or outright murder.

If you think the analogy between tea party and kulak a bit extreme, allow me to share a few recent quotes, the first from Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd of the New York Times (whose ace reporter, Walter Duranty, covered up Stalin's terror-famine and won a Pulitzer for it):

"Tea Party budget-slashers … were like cannibals, eating their own party and leaders alive. They were like vampires, draining the country's reputation, credit rating and compassion."

Bloomberg columnist Margaret Carlson weighed in as well, her mangled prose not quite obscuring her unhinged contempt:

"There's a nihilist caucus which is, 'Listen, we want to burn the place down.' I mean, they're not, they've strapped explosives to the Capitol and they think they are immune from it."

Steven Rattner, MSNBC's economic analyst, extended the jihadi metaphor on Morning Joe:

"It's like a form of economic terrorism. I imagine these tea party guys are, like, strapped with dynamite, standing in the middle of Times Square at rush hour and saying, 'Either you do it my way, or we're going to blow you up, ourselves up, and the whole country up with us.'"

the broad brush attacks on civil servants remind me of the outlandish charges leveled against the kulaks during the period of collectivism.

Of course, a good socialist/communist is compelled to say that. Never mind that the comparison is absurd, one being a producer, the other a parasite.
I'll let others sort out which is which.

The poor abused pigs, the "more equal" animals deserve the better status, wealth, perks and position they enjoy so much so, that they can spend hundreds of millions$ to maintain their priviledged position.

The working taxpayer, the horse, better not complain, cuz their perfect paradise depends on him.

...it's odd how some seem to want to write people like myself (a retired postal employee) out of the conservative movement simply on the basis of who we happened to work for. That sort of guilt by occupation reminds me of the guilt by social class/occupation of the kulaks.

This "guilt by occupation" is unfortunately as real as the rising of the sun.
It is a deserved guilt applied to the millions of parasites whose last refuge is always "I was just doing my job; following orders."

Of course, a good socialist/communist is compelled to say that. Never mind that the comparison is absurd, one being a producer, the other a parasite.

I never considered myself a parasite. I performed a service for customers. I didn't sit around and draw a paycheck for nothing, and I tried to perform my work to the best of my ability. Post offices are explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, so one can't say that the existence of my job was any sort of unconstitutional usurpation.

I never sought to manipulate myself into better status, wealth, or position. I simply wanted to make an honest living.

The working taxpayer, the horse, better not complain, cuz their perfect paradise depends on him.

My relatives, friends, and fellow citizens are working taxpayers. Why would I want to harm them?

They are vilified as exploiters of the private sector. The so-called governmental class is attacked on the basis of their relationship to a supposedly separate private class.

They are vilified as beneficiaries of the government, which exploits or at least burdens the private sector, which happens to be true. Part of what makes conservatives conservatives is that they are not friends of Leviathan. Does that bug you?

Government employees are demonized by people who may have an influence upon the government.

Which isn't exactly the same thing as being demonized by the government and its friends, is it.

But here's the real nub of all this: the communists saw the kulaks as an enemy class who had no right to even exist. They wanted the kulaks eliminated. Likewise the Democrats (and their media friends) would love for the Tea Party to cease to exist. In their vision of a proper world there is no Tea Party. The attitude of conservatives towards government employees, on the other hand, is fundamentally different. Conservatives don't believe that there should be no government "class", just that it should play its proper role -- i.e. that the govt workforce should be smaller, with pay and benefits more in line with the private sector. Seeking reform and seeking annihilation are not the same thing.

The attitude of conservatives towards government employees, on the other hand, is fundamentally different. Conservatives don't believe that there should be no government "class", just that it should play its proper role -- i.e. that the govt workforce should be smaller, with pay and benefits more in line with the private sector. Seeking reform and seeking annihilation are not the same thing.

I understand what you're saying, and the question of reform and adjustments to the public sector is certainly a fair one. If making sacrifices in my pay and benefits was needed for the well being of my fellow citizens then I would have to gladly bite the bullet. Sometimes I dwell on the rhetoric of the most extreme anti-government types and fail to realize that most conservatives, while having a healthy skepticism toward government, do not believe that the average civil servant is actively trying to harm his fellow Americans.

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