Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for March 21, 2010
March 20, 2010
March 22, 2010
Transcript:
Mark: How does that make any sense? These folks need a new metaphor... We're back and still chatting with Tea Party activist Lamont Whirley... Mr. Whirley, as you know, the original Boston Tea Party was a protest against taxation with representation... but the modern Tea Party movement was formed last spring... in response to your duly elected representatives enacting tax cuts for almost all American workers. Can you explain the Tea Party's philosophical incoherence? Man: Our what? Mark: Never mind - elitist question.
Generations of Americans have forgotten what they once knew: that a government that protects your rights is a blessing, but a government that goes beyond that is a curse.
Once you agree that the government may do anything beyond the protection of rights, you no longer believe in limited government, and there are no brakes on that train.
In a few hours Congress is going to turn America into a full-blown socialist nation of the Scandinavian model. Communists nationalize industries; fascists nationalize CEOs and boards of directors; but welfare-statists nationalize taxpayers.
They can’t spend it until they take it, whether they take your money directly by taxes or they take your future purchasing power by inflation. Either way, it makes no difference that you earned it, because someone else is going to spend it.
I give the Dems an atom of credit for having the courage of their statist convictions and going ahead like a steam-roller, over the taxpayers, the rule of law, and the Constitution. But will the Republicans have the courage to repeal this horror when they sweep into control in November? Why should they start now when they never had enough spine in the past to more than slow down America’s slide from freedom?