Subverting the teabagg'n... Thom Hartmann style.

[backscatter712]

Thom was pointing out that the original Boston Tea Party was an anti-corporatist act against the Wal-Mart of the 18th century, the British East India Company, who had managed to get a law passed that allowed them to import tea into the Colonies with zero tariffs, completely undercutting independent tea importers and other competitors, and threatening to drive them out of business. The colonists were so pissed off about this that the Sons of Liberty did what would today be millions of dollars of property damage in protest.

Anyways, we all know that today's Teabagg'n movement is nothing like that. It's a well-funded astroturf campaign designed to promote, rather than protest corporatism. Thom was suggesting that we show up to the teabagg'n parties, not openly identifying ourselves as Democrats or progressives, but bringing signs that attack the corporatist agenda: "BREAK UP THE BANKS!!!", "STOP WAL-MART!!!", "REPEAL NAFTA!!!", "TAX THE RICH!!!"

Obviously we need more sign ideas - engineered specifically to undermine the corporate astroturfers...

[Wapsie B]

1. Honestly I think the best way would be YouTube.

Have people attend with hidden video cams and then put it all on the 'net.

[ShortnFiery]

2. That was an excellent suggestion. However, be aware of what TYPE of wingnuts

are attending. Are they the upper-middle class snobby types who won't know what's up OR are they the just plain nuts armed to the teeth "Yosemite Sam" types.

I'd recommend attending gatherings by the former. ;)

[TornadoTN]

3. I'm not so sure about this idea

On one hand, it does confuse the message of the Freepers.

However, it will do two things: put more people at tax tea baggings and since its already attached to the GOP idiocy, it will give the impression that they are gaining steam with their message.

My opinion would be to counter-protest or just leave these idiots alone. All of the teabaggings I've seen so far have been abysmal failures.

[FrenchieCat]

6. I agree. Why add to their numbers? The media would love to be able to

count more heads!

[omega minimo]

10. Pranking it IS counter protest

[muntrv]

4. How about a sign sayin' "GOOGLE TEABAGGING, MORONS!"

[get the red out]

5. Earl Gray with a touch of lemon

[nichomachus]

7. Very simplistic explanation of the tea controversy in the colonies

The East India Company did not ship tea to the colonies. It sold it at wholesale in London to other companies who did.

The whole tea tax thing was very very complicated with all sort of laws, tariffs, rebates, tax breaks, etc. It ended up with a lot of smugglers bringing tea into the colonies to undercut the taxed traders. Then, the British government relaxed their taxes on the East India Company's wholesale business, eventually undercutting the smugglers. So, it wasn't the high price of tea that set the thing off.

The Sons of Liberty were essentially in cahoots with the smugglers. They were what we would call today "domestic terrorists," since they terrorized merchants who didn't fall in with them -- attacking them in their shops and in their homes.

It's not quite the version you heard in fourth grade, assuming you were paying attention.

[omega minimo]

11. So it undercut the smugglers AND other dealers......

[nichomachus]

12. There were no "other dealers"

You had the people who were smugglers and the people who dealt with the wholesale market in London and all charged the same price.

[arcadian]

8. The first Boston Teabaggers were actually pirates.

Ship, check.
Seized cargo, check.

[jmondine]

9. My suggestion would be to show up, point, and laugh

[Norquist Nemesis]

13. Montel is taking down a couple of the wing-nut organizers right now

LOL!!! Just tuned to to Air America for a listen of his new show. He has a couple of the "grass roots" organizers for the TPs. He ran through the list of how much the average person pays out of their taxes (education, transportation, military, etc.) then asked which of them they would like to cut. He's demanding to know where they were when Bush was in office (they're claiming it's now about Bush or Obama but "the liberals" in Congress).

He's doing as good as today as Thom did yesterday! :applause:

[Overseas]

14. If Fox and the GOP continue pushing this astroturf movement after April 15th

then it I think it would be appropriate to show up with the more honest messages against corporate power, such as Thom has suggested. But so far, those astroturf events get very few participants and may just be dropped by their wealthy promoters.

If the Fauxs keep the protests going after April 15th, then yes indeed, let's take them over. Because it was sad to see the demonstration organized by A New Way Forward get very little attendance, I think in part because people didn't want to be associated with the teabaggers. That made me wonder whether the manufactured tea bag movement was also designed to de-legitimize any genuine populist outcry against corporate bailouts.

The right has ample fora to express their conviction that we must pursue the same Bush policies that pushed our country over the cliff. They're regularly invited onto news chat shows and their clips are shown often, without any disclaimers that they are advocating the failed Hooverite policies that got us into this Bush Depression. They still dominate the broadcast amplifiers.

President Obama has asked us all to speak up for what we want. Progressive populist demonstrations can show people that our president is pursuing more moderate Democratic policies and there are many of us that want him to go further with government spending on infrastructure projects and other programs that will put us back to work. Give us jobs that address the cruel neglect of the public sector and the deferred maintenance the Bush Gang heaped up so they could pay for their wars of choice and Trickle Up economics.

Put us regular folks back to work and we will spend our paychecks and put more demand back into the market to revive our economy.

[backscatter712]

15. Thom was again suggesting subverting the teabagg'n today.

I do like the idea of subverting the tea parties, try to confuse or redirect the message from what the astroturfers are pushing to what we're pushing.

I'll bet at least some of them could become Democrats and not even know it...