Today I am pondering the way so many citizens can be easily manipulated. There were actually people joining one of those “Tea Party” things around our Capital building in Olympia. We don’t even have an income tax in this state. If a person doesn’t want to pay taxes, they can simply stop buying things. (We don’t have a tax on food.) There haven’t been any tax increases yet, and in fact my Federal taxes have been lowered. I have no qualms about seeing taxes raised on the top 1% of those who take the lion’s share of everything, and look forward to having them pay more of their share toward the Common Good. I think that happens in 2011? Not sure of the date that the Bush cuts end.
There was no gripping about the borrow and spend philosophy of the Bush administration, that inherited a budget surplus and left the next administration with a huge debt. We got more and more in debt to countries like China during the Bush administration, and there were no “protests” from these people. We are stuck in a qagmire of unnecessary wars in Iraq and Afganistan because of the past administration, and that piled up more debt.
I guess the main point to be made by these so-called “grassroots” protests is the number of people present at the protest indicates the number of people in our region who watch Fox News. This “Tea Party” thing is something created and funded by Fox News, owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch. Fox News is Rupert’s creature and mouthpiece.
You can find lots of information on Murdoch online these days.
As this report shows, he is a far-right partisan who has used his empire explicitly to pull American political debate to the right. He is also an enabler of the oppressive tactics employed by dictatorial regimes, and a man who admits to having hidden money in tax havens. In short, there more to Rupert Murdoch than meets the eye.
And this:
Murdoch wields considerable power with his global media company and is often wooed by politicians to persuade him to favorably cover their campaigns. His empire covers television, filmed entertainment, cable network programming, book publishing, direct broadcast satellite television, magazines and newspapers operating in the United States, Australia, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Asia and the Pacific Basin.
When you have the power to control the media, you have the power to manipulate public opinion. I guess these “Tea Parties” are a test of his ability to manipulate public opinion one more time. I’ve been relieved to see that for the most part the “Tea Parties” have been poorly attended, and very unfocused. The gatherings are attracting a mis-mash of people protesting a variety of things, not just taxes, with a lot of slams against our sitting President.
None of this is of any benefit to a real estate professional like me. I’m all for the way this present administration intends to focus on improving the lot of the middle class and working families. I know that the middle class and working families are my best clients when it comes to buying and selling homes. I am shaking my head in wonder at those who are from the working families who are listening to Rupert Murdoch’s mouthpiece, Fox News.
Taxes are not evil. Taxes are the way that a people who join together in a social compact, like a state and like a country, put money into a common pot to cover the expenses for the common good. We have roads, schools, museums, bridges, police, courts, etc. because we have taxes. I am proud to be a tax payer.
