A guide to the TEA rallies, for dumm... leftists

Irate Tireless Minority of one, Call Me Mom, has posted a pretty good analogy at her blog attempting to explain for leftists what the TEA rallies are all about. If you've read any of Call Me Mom's posts concerning the TEA Parties (at her personal blog, and at the AFB), specifically the Madison WI Tea Party which she attended, then you are well aware that she apparently took copious notes while there. Either that, or she has a photographic memory.

Call Me Mom writes:

It seems that the MSM and others of the collectivist mindset do not quite understand the reasons behind the tea party movement. I thought a helpful illustration might be of assistance. It's not an exact parallel, but close enough, I hope, for basic comprehension.

In my mind, as well, I think, as in the minds of the founding fathers, government is like an unruly child that must be watched over every second of the day, lest the entire family come to harm through his mischief. Let's say, for the sake of this illustration, that our unruly child has become a college student and we, his parents, sent our credit card with him to use for certain, very specific expenses or in case of emergencies. This is not money we have, but money we are willing to work in the future to provide for those specific expenses. He was fairly responsible at first. After a few blips here and there, we have gone on with our lives and not paid much attention to the totals on the credit card statement.


We have just received a bill for several trillion dollars. The extra zeros caught our attention. We thought "how could that possibly be correct?" After checking with the company, we have been assured that it is indeed correct. Our unruly child, bereft of our close attention, has been behaving badly. He seems to have decided that, since we are(or were)the richest family on the block and since he has a credit card that seems to have no limit, there's no reason he shouldn't help others as well as himself. In fact it looks as though our unruly child has decided that he can provide for the entire world...as long as he has our credit card. He seems to believe that it is his duty to do so, since he has the means...our credit card. He has purchased houses, food and medicine for his friends, his friend's relatives and strangers. He has even allowed thieves to come into our home and take our things for themselves. These thieves are not required to follow our rules, but we are supposed to treat them as honored guests no matter how they behave because our child thinks they will return his generosity with a like measure of their own.

We have invited our unruly child to a tea party to explain the consequences of his actions.

As I've said a couple of times before at this blog, I don't particularly care for the "Taxed Enough Already" acronym because I think it really misses the larger point of what the TEA rallies are all about -- they're not just about excessive spending and taxation, although that is certainly part of what they're about. At the same time I haven't expended any effort in coming up with a better slogan, so there ya go. But like I said above (and in a comment to the post via email since I'm having trouble posting comments at her blog) Mom's analogy is a good one. In the end, though, leftists aren't going to get it because they're the ungovernable spendthrifts who have racked up the credit card bill.

Beyond that, after they'd robbed from Peter to pay Paul to the point that Peter said "enough!" and demanded repayment, they started to look for get-rich-quick schemes in which to 'invest' borrowed money on someone else's name in order to cover their losses, and in an attempt to hide from their parents what they'd done. And you know that there are any number of get-rich-quick schemes and schemers out there. And when that fails we have the lottery and gambling casinos on virtually every corner now. These 'gaming' casinos are particularly enticing to ungovernable spendthrifts such as those unruly children Mom alludes to. Indeed, I would be willing to bet my last dollar that upwards of 80% of those who frequent these casinos, and/or play the lottery, do so on someone else's dime, keeping with Mom's analogy. In other words, I'd bet that the vast majority of 'gamers' are people who receive some kind of government assistance; that they receive in benefits more than they pay in taxes. Anyone care to wager with me on that point?

But anyway, do read the rest of Mom's entry. Also, Mom was kind enough to post my comments to the entry which I sent to her, as I said above, via email. In that comment I make a suggestion as to what ought to be done to our illustrious leaders who brazenly continue to squander the wealth of productive Americans on unruly vagabonds. And I still ain't smiling.