Younger Than Yesterday-- Bernie, Not Trump

Hunter Walker, Yahoo News' White House correspondent reported last week that Bernie is set to announce that he's running. My sources inside the gestating campaign told me Walker is just guessing. And yesterday, like every political junking in the country, they were all reading Mike Allen's and Jim Vanderhei's Axios news that coming face to face with the progressive base of the Democratic Party is making 3 of the most conservative Democrats who were thinking of running-- Bloomberg, Biden and McAuliffe-- start reconsidering (along with the Starbucks guy). Gillibrand somehow thinks she's covered her tracks well enough to not fit in with the right-of-center crowd that spawned her to begin with.

"Michael Bloomberg and former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe," they reported, "each of whom were virtual locks to run, are having serious second thoughts after watching Democrats embrace Medicare for All, big tax increases and the Green New Deal. Joe Biden, who still wants to run, is being advised to delay any plans to see how this lurch to the left plays out. If Biden runs, look for Bloomberg and McAuliffe to bow out, the sources tell us. The Democratic attacks on Howard Schultz, after he said he was considering an independent bid, reflect the current party's limited appetite for" what Beltway tools always try to call "moderation," but is actually conservatism. Vanderhei and Allen, like most of the corporate shills at Axios always call the politicians on the right and far right of the Democratic Party "moderates." They were also plotting because polling in Iowa "found that 'socialism' had a net positive rating, while 'capitalism' had a net negative rating."

Of course the establishment will do anything to stop Bernie and it goes beyond ideological attacks. We've talked about the ageist attacks before. Last December, former progressive champion, now a sold-out lobbyist, told the Morning Joe audience that he thinks "the country has moved to the left. It’s shocking to me, but a majority of Americans think that Medicare-For-All is a good idea. Frankly, Bernie gets a lot of credit for that. I don’t think he’s gonna be the next nominee… but he could be. I’m very much for somebody who’s younger. I think my generation has got to get the hell out of politics, start coaching and start moving up this next generation." He then went on to name a pack of mostly unaccomplished newcomers known only to insiders and lobbyists like himself, plugging corporatist Kirsten Gillibrand, as well Kamala Harris, Chris Murphy, who isn't running, and Eric Garcetti, who has wisely announced he isn't running.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote that Biden And Bloomberg Are Too Old To Be President-- Bernie Isn't And Here's Why. It had nothing to do with chronological age, just with ideas and political agendas. When you hear conservative jackasses scolding younger Congress members like AOC, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib and telling them to grow up or stop acting like children, they can probably throw Bernie in there too. What conservatives can't grapple with are the ideas these people are putting forward. On Tuesday, Mike Bloomberg said the push to legalize recreational marijuana "is perhaps the stupidest thing anybody has ever done." Now that's old! Really, really, disqualifyingly old. And ignorant. "Last year, in 2017, 72,000 Americans OD’d [overdosed] on drugs. In 2018, more people than that are OD-ing on drugs, have OD’d on drugs, and today, incidentally, we are trying to legalize another addictive narcotic, which is perhaps the stupidest thing anybody has ever done." His idea on pot is from the 1950s. Biden has similarly old fogey perspectives on the world. He doesn't understand Medicare-For-All and he doesn't understand the Green New Deal. It would be a complete waste of time to nominate the Warren G. Harding of the Democratic Party to follow Trump. Trump is ignorant and venal but his instincts are much "hipper" than two squares like Bloomberg and Biden. Bernie on the other hand... he may not skateboard or do Ramones covers, but his ideas are way hipper-- and more fearless-- than Beto's.

Yesterday, writing for the Boston Globe, Robert Weisman opened a can of worms: Too Old To Lead The Nation? That Sounds Lke Ageism To Some. "Fifty-eight years after President John F. Kennedy proclaimed 'the torch has been passed to a new generation,' many Democrats long for another young dynamo, one who can harness the energy of millennials to oust President Trump. That could bode ill for the parade of septuagenarians readying their campaigns."

But a growing movement of older Americans bristles at the notion that gray hair is a deficit-- that the demands of a youth-obsessed culture require candidates with long resumes to step aside. When some candidates say generational change, they hear ageism.

“Of course it’s ageist,” said Ashton Applewhite, a writer and activist whose 2016 book, This Chair Rocks, is billed as a manifesto against age discrimination. “Any call for young blood without evidence that an old person is incompetent or that a young person can do the job better is like saying a black person can’t do the job, or a woman can’t do the job.”

Generational change may be the central dynamic in the 2020 presidential campaign. Age is the subtext of every conversation about new ideas versus experience, every debate about whether a candidate can capture the millennial imagination. And there’s a clear generational split in the crowded field of those hoping to replace Trump, now 72, who was the oldest candidate elected to the presidency in American history.

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who formed an exploratory committee last month, turns 70 this summer. Several other prospective contenders are in their mid-70s: former vice president Joe Biden, who is 76; Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, 77; and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, 76, to name a few.

Another cohort of those eyeing the nomination is at least 20 years younger, including Senators Kamala Harris of California and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who are in their 50s, and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, former Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke of Texas, and former Obama administration housing secretary Julian Castro, also of Texas, who are in their 40s.

At the same time, the electorate’s demographics are changing. An analysis of census data by the Pew Research Center found that millennials and Generation Xers-- people ages 18 to 55-- together cast nearly 70 million votes in the 2016 presidential election, a majority of the 137.5 million total.

“Millennials are emerging as the dominant force in American politics and will soon supplant baby boomers as the group that decides elections,” said state Senator Eric Lesser, 33, a Longmeadow Democrat who worked as an Obama aide and runs a millennial caucus in the Legislature. “And they’re fed up that everything in their lives has changed-- the way they work, the way they shop-- except government” and its inability to solve problems.

But some advocates for older people object to the notion that the seventysomethings are yesterday’s news, or are simply “too old,” as some activists have complained.

“Saying people are ‘too old’ is reflective of an outmoded idea,” said Eric Schneidewind, a Michigan lawyer who stepped down last year as AARP’s national president. “If you can get through the meat grinder of a presidential election, whatever your age, you’ve made it through trial by combat.”

Voter preferences don’t always hew to generational lines. Sanders racked up margins of more than 2 to 1 among millennials in his antiestablishment campaign against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic primary. And while young voters in the November midterms also powered insurgents who won seats in the House like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 29, of New York City, and Ayanna Pressley, 44, of Boston, they were joined by many older voters, especially women and people of color.

Still, a surfeit of older candidates could be a problem for the Democrats, who need to electrify the party’s base in the next presidential race.

“The Democratic Party is getting younger, but some of the candidates are very old,” said political strategist Brad Bannon, president of a Washington polling firm. “That’s a dangerous combination. We’re on the cusp of a generational change, and generational change is incredibly disruptive.”

Rather than tap into that sentiment openly, younger candidates will make the appeal obliquely, he said.

“You can’t say Joe Biden is too old,” Bannon said. “You can say he represents the policies of the past. You can say there’s a need for a fresh approach for a new age.”

The mayor of South Bend, Ind., Pete Buttigieg, 37, who launched a long-shot campaign for president last week, is appealing explicitly to fellow millennials by calling for “intergenerational justice” and stressing issues, like school shootings and climate change, that resonate with young people.

But candidates have to be careful in making generational arguments.

Representative Seth Moulton, 40, of Salem, who’s also weighing a presidential run, was roundly criticized by Democratic loyalists when he called for a “new generation of leadership” in initially opposing the bid of Representative Nancy Pelosi, 78, a woman with decades of experience, to be House speaker. One lesson: Many voters don’t see women, largely absent from the power structure until recently, as part of the old guard.

Youthful Democrats who can draw a generational contrast more artfully have been rewarded in presidential races over the past decades. Kennedy was 43 when he was elected president in 1960, while Bill Clinton was 46 when he won his race in 1992, and Barack Obama was 47 when elected in 2008. All of them defeated older Republican candidates-- and succeeded older Republican incumbents.

“There’s a compelling argument for a younger candidate,” Lesser said. But he added that ideas for creating opportunity and improving people’s lives matter more to millennials than age.

“We’re the first generation that will have lower living standards than our parents,” he said, “because of student loans, rising inequality, and skyrocketing housing and health costs.”

But Americans over 65, a bloc of about 50 million people who are among the most reliable voters, are dealing with their own issues, including workplace discrimination and financial stresses, that some believe aren’t fully understood by younger candidates. While they benefit from Social Security, one of the few government programs that enjoys a sterling reputation, they worry about health care-- a concern Democrats traditionally exploit during election season by warning voters that Republicans want to cut Medicare.

“From my perspective, the concerns of older persons aren’t very well addressed in the general population,” said Jack Kupferman, president of Gray Panthers NYC, an advocacy group.

“There’s always a need for new ideas,” he added, “but there’s also a need for continuity and experience. And some of the older candidates are the ones that have the new ideas.”

Looking at the business world, Harvard professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter said younger entrepreneurs and managers bring innovations vital to commercial success.

But she also finds value in “adult supervision,” especially in the political realm. Kanter cited Pelosi, 78, who she said channels her experience into effective action. “There’s a lot of feisty energy that in another era might have been put out to pasture,” she said.

A president doesn’t have to be young to “make room for a new generation’s fresh thinking,” she added. It’s available for hire by smart leaders.

“Every White House is full of young fresh idea people running around,” she said.

By the way, the recent Marist poll for NPR that measured popularity among Democratic voters for their candidates indicated that the only candidates with a favorability over 50% were all pretty old-- Bernie, Elizabeth Warren and Biden.

Marijuana Legalization And the 2018 Elections

The Oklahoma Republican Party knew that putting Question 788 on the general election ballot could be very bad for them. It was expected to turn out an inordinately large number of people who don't usually vote-- and those people would not be conservatives. So they put Question 788 on the primary ballot on June 26. And, sure enough, primary election polling places were swamped with votes, quadruple the number who normally vote, in some cases 10 times the number! We're talking about Medical Marijuana Legalization Initiative. And it passed-- 507,582 to 385,176. Yeah, one of the reddest states in America... with a PVI of R+20! Trump won every county. More people voted for Question 788 than had voted for Hillary, who only got 420,375 votes (28.9%).

The GOP had opposed Question 788. They were gobsmacked by all that support for it-- not that that's stopping them from screwing around with it behind the scenes now, much the same way the GOP had done in Florida, after their marijuana initiative had passed overwhelmingly. They're doing it through the Board of Health, which was tasked with drawing of implementation guidelines. They're not doing so in good faith.

The board, which oversees the Oklahoma State Department of Health, voted Tuesday morning on 75 pages of rules creating a rough framework for patients, physicians, caretakers and business owners interested in medical marijuana. It also added two new rules that a coalition of health groups had pushed: the ban on smoking products and a requirement that dispensaries hire a pharmacist.

...Julie Ezell, the Health Department’s general counsel, cautioned board members that the two new rules they added to the proposed rules might not be allowed under State Question 788, which legalized medical marijuana. That could invite a court challenge, she said.

Dr. Jean Hausheer, president of the Oklahoma State Medical Association [and a deranged right-wing anti-marijuana fanatic], praised the vote.

“We are pleased with the rules adopted today by the Oklahoma State Department of Health and look forward to working with them to promote public health throughout the state,” she said in a news release.

Few others said they were pleased.

Hausheer wants to severely restrict the number a dispensaries and claims Oklahoma voters "didn't understand" Question 788 when they voted for it. How Republican is that? And Oklahoma isn't the only state where right-winger officials are trying to fight a losing battle with their own citizens against marijuana legalization. Half a dozen states have ballot initiatives coming up in November, initiatives that are going to hurt Republicans.

Two measures are already scheduled to appear on November ballots: Michigan voters will decide whether to become the ninth state to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes, while the electorate in Utah will choose whether to join 22 other states by legalizing pot for medical use.

In Missouri, as many as three separate measures could make the ballot. Supporters have submitted signatures for both medical and recreational regimes that will now be inspected by the secretary of state’s office.

Oklahoma, which voted last month to legalize medical marijuana, could see a ballot measure to approve a recreational scheme as well. Legalization measures are also circulating in Arizona, Nebraska and North Dakota. Supporters in Ohio are trying for a second time to qualify for the ballot, in 2019.

Supporters say they will focus on the benefits of creating a regulatory and taxation system for a market that would otherwise be controlled by cartels and street dealers.

“We’re careful to talk about it as creating a regulatory framework,” said Martin Hamburger, a Democratic strategist who has crafted campaign advertisements for previous marijuana measures and who will work this year on the efforts in Michigan and Missouri. “Regulate it and tax it. And that frame of creating regulation so it can be used responsibly by adults 21 and over is pretty important.”

Hamburger said legalization campaigns have also made inroads among minority communities by talking about decriminalizing marijuana sales, something that resonates in areas where authorities prosecute people on minor possession charges.

“We often find that there’s sort of a social justice message there,” Hamburger said. “One arrest for marijuana can ruin your life and give you a felony, and it’s on your mark forever. A stupid mistake as a 19-year-old shouldn’t mess up your life.”

Marijuana legalization has also meant a business boom for companies that are able to enter the market soon after regulatory schemes are enacted. Opponents of legalization have cast those businesses as Big Marijuana-- a boogeyman as threatening to public health, especially children’s health, as Big Tobacco in earlier times.

Increasing access to marijuana products, especially edibles like candies and chocolates, that might tempt children is something that can move voters away from legalization, said Kevin Sabet, who runs Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a group that opposes legalization.

“Most voters don’t understand that legalization actually means commercializing edibles, pot candies, pot concentrates that are 99 percent THC,” Sabet said, referring to the main psychoactive component of marijuana. “What voters think it’s about, and what the pro-legalization side has been good about framing, is going to jail for a joint.”

Casting marijuana as a get-rich-quick business for Wall Street hedge funds helped the legalization opponents notch their most notable win at the ballot box: Voters in Ohio three years ago resoundingly rejected a legalization measure, by an almost 2-to-1 margin. Even proponents of legalization grimaced at that campaign, where backers rolled out an ill-advised mascot named Buddie to greet voters.

“We won in Ohio by a 2-to-1 margin because the singular message was about the marijuana monopoly, not whether marijuana is bad or good,” Sabet said.

As campaigns for and against marijuana legalization have become more sophisticated, costs have risen, too. Supporters have outspent opponents; in California, $25 million poured into the campaign in favor of legalization, while opponents spent $2 million. In Massachusetts, supporters outspent opponents by a margin of $6.8 million to $3 million. And in Maine, where a legalization initiative passed by 4,000 votes, backers outspent opponents more than 10-to-1.

This year, supporters in Michigan had raised $1.6 million to back their measure, through last week. Opponents had pulled in $280,000, though Sabet said he expected the opposition campaign to have a seven-figure budget.

The shifting battlefield, away from liberal coastal states and into more traditionally swing and red states like Michigan, Ohio and Oklahoma, illustrates the unusual coalitions of support on which each side relies. Far from the traditional conservative-liberal split that divides modern politics, older men and younger progressives tend to favor legalization, while women with children-- typically guaranteed Democratic voters-- tend to harbor doubts.

“Democrats and progressive women with children are our swings,” Hamburger said. “They’re the ones we can lose. So a lot of our messaging are about regulations, how to prevent kids from getting it.”

“The swing voters are basically 35- to 55-year-old women,” Sabet said. “That is going to be key for us. We know that we’re not going to get a majority of 18- to 34-year-olds.”

“It’s really going to be those moms” who decide whether legalization passes or fails, he added.

Both sides are already exploring another new way to appeal to that swing demographic: the opioid crisis. Supporters hope to convince voters in states hit hard by opioids, including heroin and fentanyl, that marijuana can act as a substitute, something to ease pain that might otherwise only be stopped by a powerful pill. Opponents say marijuana is a gateway drug that can lead to more serious addictions.

Conservative politicians have a knee jerk anti-marijuana posture. That's opened the door of younger and more progressive politicians to use marijuana decriminalization and legalization as part of their platforms. That's working out badly for the GOP. West Virginia progressive, Kendra Fershee released that above video and this morning she told me that "The GOP is also fighting legalization at the federal level, which is making it hard for states to implement (even weak) cannabis laws. Banking is difficult, federal enforcement looms, and anti-cannabis state legislators can point to the federal laws as an excuse to fight cannabis legalization. It's time to elect pro-cannabis candidates to Congress to get the fed out of the way."

Similarly, Alan Grayson, the Orlando Democrat trying to win his seat back from conservative backbencher Darren Soto, told us that "This represents a new coalition in American politics: Democrats allied with the 'let’s mind our own business'/libertarian vote.  We’ve seen something similar on marriage equality, and I think that we will on abortion."

As so many people do, when talking about medical marijuana, Dayna Steele, who is running for a congressional seat east of Houston, spoke about it from a personal perspective. "My sweet, wonderful mother," she told us, "became so depressed and violent in her last year of Alzheimer's. I often wished marijuana was legal in Texas while she was going through this. I sincerely thought at the time it would make a huge difference for her. And us. Now, recent studies show marijuana could be instrumental in helping those diagnosed with Alzheimer's. It is also helping veterans with PTSD, children with epilepsy, and so much more. It is time to legalize marijuana and bring this industry AND relief to Texas."

Tom Guild is a longtime local activist in Oklahoma City running for Congress-- and in a tough Democratic Party primary runnoff. But he took the time just now to explain how he sees. the marijuama situation in his state:

The actions of elitist politicians and the unelected governing board of the Oklahoma State Department of Health are hijacking the medical marijuana initiative that passed overwhelmingly in the June 26 Oklahoma primary. The board was warned by its in-house counsel that the actions of the health department will likely lead to litigation. As George Harrison sang in the "Sue Me Sue You Blues"-- you get your lawyer and I’ll get mine. We’ll get together and have a bad time. The political ruling class isn’t too concerned about litigation because the money to defend their actions in court will come from taxpayer funds. They have weighted the state tax system to burden working people, the middle class, and the working poor, so that’s who will pay for litigation induced by the health department’s miscalculations. When citizens were circulating a petition to raise the minimum wage in Oklahoma City, the political class rushed through a new law making it illegal for cities to raise the wage. When Stillwater was taking action to regulate fracking in its city limits, the state legislature made that illegal, too. What happened to that old Republican favorite-- local control? Now it’s implementation of medical marijuana in Oklahoma that the ruling class is working overtime to thwart, overriding the overwhelming will of the people of Oklahoma. You get your lawyer and I’ll get mine. We’ll get together and have a bad time. Hopefully this time the good guys and democracy will prevail over Oklahoma’s elitists-those with God’s unlisted phone number. What has the political ruling class been smoking, anyway?

"America -- land of the free and the armed and the crazy"

by Ken

When I came across this December 1980 entry in Michael Palin's newly published Diaries 1980-1988: Halfway to Hollywood and realized I had to share it, for a moment I was disappointed that we'd missed the anniversary by just a week-and-a-bit. Then I was relieved; it's not an occasion I would want to feel as if we were "celebrating."

As the entry begins, Michael is on the railway platform near his home in northwest London, waiting for a train that will eventually take him to Southwold on the Suffolk coast, where his mother lives. He runs into a schoolmate of his 11-year-old son Tom, who delivers news that alters his world.

Tuesday, December 9th, Southwold

At Gospel Oak station by a quarter to nine to combine a visit to Southwold with my first opportunity to thoroughly revise the Time Bandits for publication at Easter. [Michael had co-written the Time Bandits screenplay with the director, fellow Python Terry Gilliam, and also appeared in the film, which had been shot but was then still in postproduction.]

It's a dull and nondescript morning -- the shabby, greying clouds have warmed the place up a bit, but that's all. I reach the station in good time. Holly Jones is waiting for her train to school, having just missed the one in front with all her friends on. It's she who tells me that over in New York John Lennon has been shot dead.

A plunge into unreality, or at least into the area of where comprehension slips and the world seems an orderless swirl of disconnected, arbitrary events. How does such a thing happen? How do I, on this grubby station platform in north-west London, begin to comprehend the killing of one of the Beatles? The Rolling Stones were always on the knife-edge of life and death and sudden tragedy was part of their lives, but the Beatles seemed the mortal immortals, the legend that would live and grow old with us. But now, this ordinary December morning, I learn from a schoolgirl that one of my heroes has been shot dead.

My feelings are of indefinable but deeply-felt anger at America. This is, after all, the sort of random slaying of a charismatic, much-loved figure in which America has specialised in the last two decades.

Once I get to Southwold I ring George.* And leave a message, because he's not answering.

I work through for a five-hour stretch and we have a drink together by the fire and watch tributes to John Lennon, clumsily put together by newsroom staff who know a good story better than they know good music. And Paul McCartney just says 'It's a drag' and, creditably I think, refuses to emote for the cameras.

What a black day for music. The killer was apparently a fan. The dark side of Beatlemania. The curse that stalks all modern heroes, but is almost unchecked in America -- land of the free and the armed and the crazy.

*George Harrison was a passionate Monty Python fan, and from the group's inception had been eager to find ways to work with them. Unlike your average show-biz phony, he followed through, devoting both time and money to Python-related projects, eventually serving as an executive producer on a number of movies by Pythons jointly and separately. Michael P developed a cordial relationship with him, and paints an affectionate portrait in the first volume of his diaries, Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years.




FAN-WORSHIP POSTSCRIPT

By odd chance, a week-and-change later Michael -- in agony with a foot problem that seems to become more painful after each treatment -- hobbles with his wife (who "has looked in her books and is bandying words like 'toxaemia' around") to an opening-night showing of Woody Allen's Stardust Memories, which is steeped in its creator's discomfort with his too-admiring fans.

The cinema is full and I like the film very much indeed. But I can see that my appreciation of some of the scenes depicting horrific excesses of fan worship comes from having experienced this sort of thing and viewed from the other side, this could be seen as Allen kicking his fans in the teeth.

Though my foot still throbs angrily, I feel the worst is over. I have been cured by a Woody Allen movie!

#

Happy Teabagger Protest Day!

Toiling diligently against the interests of working families

Today is tax day and many Republican extremists and their rightist allies are celebrating with teabag parties denigrating the country in an orgy of selfishness. The DCCC is marking the day by reminding voters in selected districts that their congressional representative opposed President Obama's tax cuts for working families and his economic recovery package. The DCCC is reminding voters that "Representative Young [and that goes for either Don in Alaska or Bill in Florida] just said no to the largest middle class tax cut in history that immediately puts money back in their pockets and helps families afford college tuition for their kids."

Explaining the radio ads they are running in several Republican-held districts, Jennifer Crider, the DCCC Communications Director tied it to today's events. “This year on Tax Day, Michigan’s middle class families can thank Representative Thaddeus McCotter for voting against middle class tax cuts that put money back in their pockets to help them make ends meet during this economic crisis. Times are tough, middle class families who are worried about keeping their jobs and paying for their kids’ college education want action in the form of middle class tax cuts and economic recovery, not Representative McCotter’s 'just say no' obstruction.” Listen to the ad running in Wayne and Oakland Counties today:



The ads in Livonia and Detroit radio can almost be heard in South Bend and Elkhart, Indiana; but they can't. The DCCC would have to change the name "McCotter" and run them on stations in those two hard-pressed cities to let the voters know that the congressman from that district, who has opposed President Obama nearly as much as McCotter-- and who has voted against some of the same bills the DCCC is complaining that McCotter obstructed-- also deserves to be defeated in 2010. But they won't do that because the congressman from Indiana's second district is Joe Donnelly, a quasi-Democrat. Aside from neo-Confederate kook Travis Childers (Blue Dog-MS), Donnelly has spent more time crossing the aisle to vote with the Republicans against Obama than any other Democrat. Odd in a district where McCain could only muster 45% of the vote. At least Childers can point out that Obama only drew 38% in his district and that supporting his policies could be very dangerous politically. Donnelly's constituents, on the other hand, voted for the very tax cuts and agenda for change that Obama proposed and Donnelly opposed. Joe Donnelly doesn't deserve to serve another term in Congress-- especially not as a Democrat-- any more than Thaddeus McCotter does.

Yesterday George Harrison was posthumously given a star on Hollywood Blvd-- actually around the corner on Vine in front of the old Capitol Records tower. Here's a little clip I put together of the tongue-in-cheek song he wrote to kick off the 1966 album Revolver by The Beatles, dedicated to the 176 Republicans and 20 Democrats who voted against President Obama's middle class tax cut on April 2, especially Thaddeus McCotter and Joe Donnelly, and to the 750 teabagger parties being thrown to protest a slight rise in the tax rate for millionaires to help finance a decrease in taxes on the middle class. Some of the very worst shills for the richest families in America, like John Boehner (R-OH) and Paul Ryan (R-WI) will be speaking at some of these rallies although they voted against President Obama's tax cuts. Most members of the Republican Party Establishment, however, are avoiding the teabaggers. Mitt Romney is hiding under his bed of course-- way too close to Bastille Day for him-- and Governors Palin, Huntsman and Barbour are all staying away-- as are Eric Cantor and Miss McConnell.

The conservative grass roots are into them-- thanks in part to Fox and [hate] talk radio-- but the enthusiasm has not spread throughout the party to the point that these events are command performances for Republican officials.

The concern, it would seem: being associated with a flop or an event that one cannot control and may feature language not entirely keeping with mainstream political discourse.

Teabagger Tax Day from Howie Klein on Vimeo.


Unlike the crazy, violence-spewing Republicans being herded little sheep into their teabag parties, President Obama is marking tax day by underscoring his administration's commitment to restoring the kind of fairness to the tax code-- providing relief to ordinary working families-- that was wrecked by decades of Republican ideological dominace in DC.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is based on the simple premise: what is good for working families is good for the economy and what is good for the economy is good for working families. Specifically, cutting taxes for working families helps to create jobs because these families are the most likely to spend the money. And staving off a deep recession disproportionately helps working families that would have been most likely to get hurt by the recession. Here are some of the highlights of the plan:
 
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: A Plan to Create Jobs and Help Families
 
*     95% of all working families  will receive a tax cut
 
*     70% of the tax benefits goes to the middle 60% of American workers
 
*     2 million families will be lifted out of poverty by the tax cuts in the Recovery Act
 
*     More than $150 billion in tax cuts will help low-income and vulnerable households during the economic recovery
 
*     About 1 Million jobs will be created or saved by these tax cuts alone
 
*     Already, over $3 billion of tax credits have been paid out to first-time homebuyers.