Why the Insults Against the Right's Protests are Hypocritical

This weekend we saw a protest in Washington D.C. The protests gathered little to no coverage as a group of Americans, angry and upset at their government and leadership marched upon the Capitol Mall to voice their opposition. In the end, they were marginalized, insulted, and told they were nothing more than a group of rouge crazies! They insulted the President, comparing him to Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, and countless other horrible dictators! They insulted him and called him on what they saw were foolish policies that would destroy America.

The problem, though, is that this is exactly what happened in 2003... and 2004... and especially 2005. In 2005, I attended a Impeach Bush rally in Washington DC. Save the crowd being anti-Bush and being much, much larger, we were treated just like the people who protested on September 12th. In 2003 and 2004 at the anti-war protests, the crowd was much smaller, but it was growing.

One thing I keep hearing is that the protesters against Obama are doing it on racial lines, or at the very least, that there is some deep-seated racism in it. Admittedly, I wouldn't be shocked if that is the sentiment of 10% or less of the people protesting, but it is far from it for the majority! Some people are there simply because they don't like his policies, some are anti-Obama because of Fox News.

But the simplest explanation makes the most sense: That the people who are anti-Obama are politically driven. After 8 years of bush and the Republicans in control, when they were able to live in a country more their way, the fact that you have someone coming in who represents most of what they're afraid of (Democrats, economic and health care reform, ending the Iraq War), especially when he is basically trying to undo everything Bush did in only 9 months... well, can you at least understand their fear? Their anger?

Here's footage of their protests on 9/12:



And here's the anti-Bush Protests from 2005:



I'm not asking you to agree with them, but I am saying that we need to realize that it isn't as black-and-white as "well, they hate black people" or "they hate Democrats". We need to listen their side and understand them better.

Image Courtesy of the Seattle Times.

The Tea Bag Protest: What Went Good, What Went Wrong

Today is Tax Day.

To some people, it is a day of dread and fear, one when American's are afraid of making sure they file their taxes on time. For others, it's just another day since they already filed them, or they are so poor they don't have to.

But this year, a portion of our American public has decided that enough is enough. Are we Taxed Enough Already? Apparently so. Today the TEA Parties were held at cities around the country.

Now, the best thing I can do is explain what this protest was originally about and go form there.

ORIGINS:

The idea for the protest, depending on who you ask, basically boils down to opposition to the Federal Reserve. At it's core, people are sick and tired of paying a yearly income tax. The solution to this varies, but plans have gone to taking more from your pay check to creating a national sales tax. I'm not in favor of either move, but another reason for the protest was anger over the stimulus bill and passing, and that is something I agree with to some degree.

So, let's get this straight: The protests were meant to go against the Federal Reserve.

Now, who organized this movement? Again, it differs on who you ask, but it was largely Libertarians. The Libertarian party is a mixture of conservatives and liberals, a group of people who strictly believe in the US Constitution. Ron Paul, who ran as a Republican for President last year, was a member of the party not too long ago.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MOVEMENT:

What happened is that, over a period of time, the protests were hijacked... sort of.

Around the end of March, more and more members of the Republican Party started to latch on and use the protests as a sort of "rallying point", a way to restore the Republican Party brand. Conservatives began to latch onto it as well, and soon, Fox News began to muscle itself in as a sort of "sponsor". In response, liberal media reporters such as Keith Olbermann and the Huffington Post began to label the event as nothing more than an "anti-Obama event", "A conservative rallying point", among other things.

Other media outlets began to take some sides, namely showing the event as a group of fringe extremists on the Right taking their anger and frustrations out on the Obama Administration.

In return, the movement was virtually eaten away from the inside out. What could, and to a degree, should have been an event to simply protest the federal reserve became a rallying point for conservatives, basically aimless, and muddled with things that it did not need.

But did it entirely fail?

THE RESULT:

While it is frustrating and angry as a supporter of this to see it corrupted, it didn't fail. It made national headlines without the derogatory "tea bagging" jokes, and President Obama himself stated that, starting now, that there would be changes to the US Tax Code to make the tax system more fair. In my opinion, the protests helped to push that along a littler faster and made it more of an issue, which means that, to some degree, it did succeed.

MY 2 CENTS:

It's a shame that the protests were so heavily marginalized. A movement that started organically, a movement to protests what citizens thought was wrong with the US Banking and Federal Reserve was , instead, turned into a rallying point for a political party that did not represent their ideals, or, at the very least, may have begun to re-embrace those ideals. I was going to one here in Philadelphia at Love Park at noon, but found out that the organizers pushed it, foolishly enough, to Saturday at noon instead.

People still attended. And Philberity decided to play a dirty, dirty angel:

1) It’s on, with a cast of perhaps 200-all-whites.
2) Not a lot of anti-Obama setiment on the signage, but man oh man, what did European Socialists do to these people?
3) Biggest applause for…the mention of Glen Beck

Nuff said.

To their credit, they are quoting a reader, but still, a dirty thing to print. I would have attended but, like I said, I thought it was postponed.

SHHH! Dissent Kills. - More On Obama being Pro-Wiretapping

SHHH! Dissent Kills. by LuvataciousSkull

Another day, another poster you need to check out. I did this before the inaguration for a series I wanted to do where I basically reminded people that, yes, you can and need to discus the policies of this man that so many are ready to call a god or Superman. We're starting to see people realize and admit that, yes, they did think that to some degree and that he isn't perfect. Thank god for rational thinking!

Keith Olbermann seems to have kept this concept in mind last night as he continued reporting on how the current administration wants to make sure you can never sue for the illegal warrantless wiretapping that was done by the Bush administration, and continues in the "administration of change".

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Apperantly, Being Anti-Obama Pays

I can't make this stuff up:

Back in April, I realized I hated the people left standing. This included Obama, McCain, and Hillary Clinton and, in that order, I made and released a new piece a day based on them pointing out the main problem with them.

Now, in 2004, I'm sure that my anti-Bush shirts would have done incredibly well had I done one that was original (and, lets be honest, the market was flooded by then after 2 years of the hate).

Oddly enough, despite the fact that I've made all of these items within the same span of time (about a week) with a t-shirt and poster on Zazzle, and let me give you some numbers:

• Shirt OBAMA: OBEY FALSE MESSIAH 7
• Print OBAMA: OBEY FALSE MESSIAH Dist... 2
• Print John McCain: War Without End D... 1
• Print Hillary Clinton: LIES! 1
• Print OBAMA: OBEY FALSE MESSIAH 1
• Print John McCain: War Without End 1
• Shirt John McCain: War Without End 1
• Mug Your Candidate Sucks! The Mug! 1

So, let's boil this down. This means I've sold 10 Anti-Obama items, 3 Anti-McCain Items, and only 1 Anti-Clinton poster.

...I'm sorry, buy am I the only one who actually sees a problem here? I hate all these people and, granted, yes, I despise Obama the most (his ego is going to be our undoing, I know it)... but aren't people sick and tired of the Republican Party? Polls show that Americans want the Democrats to win, but are still leaning towards McCain.

So what is causing his effect? Is it that Obama is so famous that ANYTHING with his face or name on it, good or bad, means people will buy it willingly? Is McCain really THAT more likable to Obama? And are people over their Anti-Clinton feelings? Is it because of the design? It's also worth noting that sales have picked up of this anti-Obama gear since the Democratic National Convention started.

The odd thing is that I actually prefer the design of the McCain one, but I enjoy the message and the pop-culture feel of the Obama one. Maybe people are going on the same feeling.

Or maybe they just hate Obama. Who knows.