I write like
Cory Doctorow

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Bag or loose-leaf?

Checking the e-mail and got an update from Pajamas TV.  America's favorite plumber-adjacent political pundit has filed a quick video from the site of a recent "Tea Party" in Washington D.C.  After watching the video clip, a number of questions came to mind:  How well attended was the "tea party"?  What was the protestors' agenda (or, how would they address the bank bailout/car manufacturer bailout/bad mortgage situation) ?

Best question: How closely does the spirit of this most recent "tea party" match the original Boston Tea Party in 1773?

In one sentence, the original Boston Tea Party sought to protest against the Colonies having to pay taxes on tea to Britain without receiving representation of its citizens in government.

Unfortunately, I could not find an unbiased report on the multiple Tea Parties which took place last weekend.  I did find a site which posted first-hand video from the same Washington D.C. tea party attended by A.F.P-A.  It speaks for itself.

This past weekend's "tea parties" tried to capture the spirit of the original protests.  CBS posted an opinion (yeah, I know . . cannot find hard news on any of this, so I'm stuck with opinion) piece on how last weekend's "parties" came about.

Outside of trying to capture the spirit of the original Tea Party, last weekend's gatherings veered very far off of the path of the original protests.

I can appreciate the feelings of homeowners who are now being asked, through an increase in our nation's deficit (money our country has to pay back at some point), to support efforts to stem further foreclosures.  My guess is that this feels a little like trying to help an obviously drunk driver immediately after the driver has caused an accident.

I just question whether the kinds of protests seen last weekend are going to provide an alternate resolution to the problem.  Left alone, as these protesters appear to advocate, more people would let their mortgages lapse, more foreclosures would happen, more involvement by law enforcement would be needed to enforce the evictions and banks/finance companies would take on a bigger burden of bad debt.

Who wins in that scenario?

No comments:

Search This Blog