April 15 Tax Protesters: Don’t Call Us ’Tea Baggers’!

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April 15 Tax Protesters: Don’t Call Us ’Tea Baggers’!
by Steve Weinstein
EDGE Editor-In-Chief
Wednesday Apr 15, 2009

It all began on CNBC, where a newsman in Chicago proposed an updated version of the Boston Tea Party to protest the Obama Adminstration’s bailouts and stimulus plan. "No taxation without representation" was the rallying cry of the original protesters, who dressed as Native Americans and threw British tea overboard in Boston Harbor.

The "tea party" concept spread through the Internet and right-wing talk shows such as Sean Hannity and Fox News, which has become a sort-of sponsor of these rallies. On April 15, thousands are expected to protest in cities across the country.

Only now, the protesters and their organizers are fighting a battle on two fronts: not only against what they see as a government gone wild with giveaways; but ridicule for the double meaning of "tea bagging."

The cheeky Urban Dictionary has expanded its definition of "tea bagger" from "a man that dips his scrotum and testicles into the mouth of another person" to include "a conservative activist who is so ignorant that they protest against tax cuts (that benefit them) by throwing tea into a river."

As any gay man who has ventured into some of our more louche nightspots can testify, the practice is venerated among go-go boys dancing on top of bars and boxes who will dip their family jewels into the welcoming mouth of a generous tipper. (It should be noted that the Urban Dictionary started its definition originally with a male-female scenario, so, as in so many cases of late, there is sexual parity here.)

Proving that she’s as hip to the gay underworld as she is to politics (or lesbian life), Rachel Maddow covered this burning topic on her MSNBC program. As seen here, she’s using all of her journalistic skills to keep from cracking up.

It’s no laughing matter to the protesters or their supporters, however. In their eyes, equating what they’re doing with a sleazy gay sexual practice is akin to a swastika-bedecked bar mitzvah celebration.

The Business & Media Institute, which bills itself as "advancing the culture of free enterprise in America," decries the association. Jeff Poor cites another MSNBC commenter, David Shuster, filling in for Keith Olbermann on April 13.

"For most Americans, Wednesday, April 15th will be Tax Day," Shuster said. "It’s going to be teabagging day for the right-wing and they’re going nuts for it. Thousands of them whipped out the festivities early this past weekend, and while the parties are officially toothless, the teabaggers are full-throated about their goals."

Ouch! Shuster continued the string of puns: "They want to give President Obama a strong tongue-lashing and lick government spending."

Over on Free Republic, the comments were predictable over Shuster’s monologue: outrage and disgust.

"I bet his scuzzy queer audience just about jizzed themselves over it," one commenter said.

"Typical of their type, they take a normal everyday term, assign some disgusting meaning to it and then try to infer that we are the ones that are somehow degenerates and piss themselves laughing about it," wrote another. "Childish potty humor, at best."

Over at the Democratic Underground, the response was equally predictable. Several threads involved the John Waters film "Pecker," which first brought the term "tea bagger" to the general public. One commenter proposed a drinking game: Every time a Fox news reader mentioned "tea bagger" or "tea bagging." Guaranteed to help ease the stress of April 15, since the players would be drunk in no time.

Meanwhile, on our side, there are protests planned to call attention to the way LGBT Americans are denied tax advantages because we can’t formalize our relationships. Go here to find out where you can particpate.

And just for the record, Anderson Cooper has jumped into the fray. On his "Anderson Cooper 360 program" on Tuesday, in response to a comment that Republicans were "searching for their voice" after two electoral losses, Cooper quipped, "It’s hard to talk when you’re tea-bagging."

EDGE Editor-in-Chief Steve Weinstein has been a regular correspondent for the International Herald Tribune, the Advocate, the Village Voice and Out. He has been covering the AIDS crisis since the early ’80s, when he began his career. He is the author of "The Q Guide to Fire Island" (Alyson, 2007).

COMMENTS

"April 15 Tax Protesters: Don’t Call Us ’Tea Baggers’!"

Anonymous, 2009-04-15 23:40:38

The report on "Teabagging" made my day;i was soo anoyed by these iresponsible so cal protesters, but after i got the whole Teabagging process, i had the best laft of my life. Thanks MSNBC.

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Anonymous, 2009-04-16 07:04:47

Obviously the lefties know all about teabaggin. They’ve been doing it for Obama since he showed up. Typical hate-speech from those who hate freedom and America.

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Anonymous, 2009-04-16 09:23:05

I heard the word rachelmaddow is a lewd word that makes people "in the know" laugh their heads off when someone with that name appears on tv.

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Anonymous, 2009-07-15 23:27:53

Republicans teabag better than anyone since they are all in the closet. That’s why they are so homophobic

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Anonymous, 2009-08-10 21:49:01

Americans who voice there opinion should be celebrated and encouraged. Instead anyone with a different opinion, instead of giving an argument simply resort to name calling because they have no argument or simplly can’t put two thoughts together.

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Anonymous, 2009-11-20 13:23:51

Madcow, you are a filthy-mouthed lesbian with a reprobate mind.

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Anonymous, 2009-11-27 08:48:23

Voicing an INFORMED opinion is a good thing. Unfortunately some of these people don’t even understand the simple math used to calculate a progressive tax. And, to quote Warren Buffet: "It’s class warfare, my class is winning, but they shouldn’t be." , "The 400 of us [here] pay a lower part of our income in taxes than our receptionists do, or our cleaning ladies, for that matter. If you’re in the luckiest 1 per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.". from http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Warren_Buffett

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Anonymous, 2010-01-22 19:15:08

Again leave it to the liberals to slander what most Americans feel. We work hard, pay our bills raise our kids and try to save for a rainy day.That is moderate conservatism defined. We "teabaggers" as you call us are passionet people who truly love our country and want to join together to protect our rights. Laugh all you want make fun of us all you want Massachusetts was just the beginning!

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Anonymous, 2010-02-01 21:10:09

Hey Mr. Tea Party Patriot, Why You Are So Mad! Hey you. You there in the Glenn Beck T-shirt headed off to the Tea Party Patriot rally. Stop shouting for a moment, please, I want to explain to you why you’re so very angry. You should be angry. You’re getting screwed. I think you know that. But you don’t seem to know that it doesn’t have to be that way. You can stop it. You can stop it easily because the system that’s screwing you over can only keep screwing you over if you keep demanding that it do so. So stop demanding that. Stop helping the system screw you over. Look, you can go back to yelling at me in a minute, but just read this first. 1. Get out your pay stub. Or, if you have direct deposit -- you really should get direct deposit, it saves a lot of time and money (I point this out because, honestly, I’m trying to help you here, even though you don’t make that easy Mr. Angry Screamy Guy) -- then take out that little paper receipt they give you when your pay gets directly deposited. 2. Notice that your net pay is lower than your gross pay. This is because some of your wages are withheld every pay period. 3. Notice that only some of this money that was withheld went to pay taxes. (I know, I know -- yeearrrgh! me hates taxes! -- but just try to stick with me for just a second here.) 4. Notice that some of the money that was withheld didn’t go to taxes, but to your health insurance company. 5. Now go get a pay stub from last year around this time, from January of 2009. 6. Notice that the amount of your pay withheld for taxes in your current paycheck is less than the amount that was withheld a year ago. That’s because of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan, which included more than $200 billion in tax cuts, including the one you’re holding right there in your hand, the tax cut that’s now staring you in the face. Republicans all voted against that tax cut. And then they told you to get angry about the stimulus plan. They didn’t explain, however, why you were supposed to get angry about getting a tax cut. Why would you be? Wouldn’t it make more sense to get angry at the people who voted against that Obama tax cut? But taxes aren’t the really important thing here. The really important thing starts with the next point. 7. Notice that the amount of your pay withheld to pay for your health insurance is more than it was last year. 8. Notice that the amount of your pay withheld to pay for your health insurance is a lot more than it was last year. I won’t ask you to dig up old paychecks from 2008 and 2007, but this has been going on for a long time. Every year, the amount of your paycheck withheld to pay for your health insurance goes up. A lot. 9. Notice the one figure there on your two pay stubs that hasn’t changed: Your wage. The raise you didn’t get this year went to pay for that big increase in the cost of your health insurance. 10. Here’s where I need you to start doing a better job of putting two and two together. If you didn’t get a raise last year because the cost of your health insurance went up by a lot, and the cost of your health insurance is going to go up by a lot again this year, what do you think that means for any chance you might have of getting a raise this year? 11. Did you figure it out? That’s right. The increasing cost of health insurance means you won’t get a raise this year. Or next year. Or the year after that. The increasing cost of health insurance means you will never get a raise again. That’s what I meant when I said you really should be angry. That’s what I meant when I said you’re getting screwed. OK, we’re almost done. Just a few more points, I promise. 12. The only hope you have of ever seeing another pay raise is if Congress passes health care reform. Without health care reform, the increasing cost of your health insurance will swallow this year’s raise. And next year’s raise. And pretty soon it won’t stop with just your raise. Without health care reform, the increasing cost of your health insurance will start making your pay go down. 13. I wish I could tell you that this was just a worst-case scenario, that this was only something that might, maybe happen, but that wouldn’t be true. Without health care reform, this is what will happen. We know this because this is what is happening now. It has been happening for the past 10 years. In 2008, employers spent on average 25 percent more per employee than they did in 2001, but wages on average did not increase during those years. The price of milk went up. The price of gas went up. But wages did not. All of the money that would have gone to higher wages went to pay the higher and higher and higher cost of health insurance. And unless Congress passes health care reform, that will not change. Well, it will change in the sense that it will keep getting worse, but it won’t get better. Unless the problem gets fixed, the problem won’t be fixed. That’s kind of what "problem" and "fixed" mean. 14. Sadly for any chance you have of ever seeing a raise again, it looks like Congress may not pass health care reform. It looks like they won’t do that because they’re scared of angry voters who are demanding that they oppose health care reform, angry voters who demand that Congress not do anything that would keep the cost of health insurance from going up and up and up. Angry voters like you. 15. Do you see the point here? You are angrily, loudly demanding that Congress make sure that you never, ever get another pay raise as long as you live. Because of you and because of your angry demands, you and your family and your kids are going to have to get by with less this year than last year. And next year you’re going to have to get by with even less. And if you keep angrily demanding that no one must ever fix this problem, then you’re going to have to figure out how to get by on less and less every year for the rest of your life. 16. So please, for your own sake, for your family’s sake and the sake of your children, stop. Stop demanding that problems not get fixed. Stop demanding that you keep getting screwed. Stay angry -- you should be angry -- but start directing that anger toward the system that’s screwing you over and taking money out of your pocket. Start directing that anger toward fixing problems instead of toward making sure they never get fixed. Instead of demanding that Congress oppose health care reform so that you never, ever, get another pay raise, start demanding that they pass health care reform, as soon as possible. Because until they do, you’re just going to keep on getting screwed. And it’s going to be that much worse knowing that you brought this on yourself -- that you demanded it. Thanks for your time. P.S. -- I didn’t mention this because I’m trying here to be as patient with you as I can, but you might also want to keep in mind that in addition to screwing over yourself and screwing over your family and screwing over your own children by demanding that Congress oppose health care reform so that you will never, ever see another pay raise, by doing that you’re also demanding that I never, ever see another pay raise, which means that you’re also screwing over me, and my family, and my children. Not to mention the millions of poor and uninsured and uninsureable people I didn’t even mention above because they don’t seem to matter at all to you. And for that, let me just say the only appropriate thing that can be said to someone so determined to do direct, tangible harm to the welfare of my family: Why do you hate Americans?

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