If Government is the Enemy, paying Taxes is a form of Treason

[Tom Rinaldo]

That simple subliminal equation is a big part of how Republicans continually manage to convince a high percentage of Americans who do or could benefit from services paid for by government to instead support their hardline position: No New Taxes, not on anyone, not even on "the job creators". True, paying taxes is not typically framed as treasonous behavior, but it Republican circles anyway it seldom is lauded as patriotic. Taxes are usually described as theft; the government taking your hard earned money away from you - most likely to give to someone else.

That is the mind set that Republicans have painstakingly been implanting in Americans since "the Reagan Revolution." Thirty plus years spent villainizing governnment makes running against it easier. It provides cover for cutting off foodstamps and trimming medicaid rather than reversing any of the tax cuts that made the wealthiest in America even wealthier.

Ronald Reagan famously proclaimed: "Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem." Left unchallenged that ideology demands that taxes go in one direction only, down, since taxes are literally what pays for "the problem".

Democrats have too long been too timid in defending how government exists to protect and promote "the Common Good." Government isn't a "they", government is a legitimate expression of "us". Americans fought a Revolution to establish our Democracy. It represents "We the People". In our guts virtually all Americans get it. We want the FDA on the job guarding our food to keep it wholesome. And we want the Department of Justice on the job protecting us from predatory business practices.

Americans SUPPORT Social Security. We SUPPORT Medicare. And Americans will SUPPORT the Affordable Care Act also if, as Vice President Biden just said, Democrats have "the courage of our convictions". The public would rather that the rich pay their fair share than let the most vulnerable among us die unnecessarily. Polls continually show that about most Americans. IF we make the case AND expose the lie. Ultimately we are the government, and WE are not the problem.

[Scootaloo]

1. But then there's the 14th amendment...

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Penned of course to keep the former elected officials who went to the Confederacy out of office, but still strikes me as perfectly applicable today. Especially given how many of these stooges worked so hard last year to violate another part of the 14th amendment...

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.

[Tom Rinaldo]

2. I think it's called "creative ambiguity"

It allows some to declare the government the enemy while being paid to be part of it, among other things.

[HopeHoops]

3. I've heard the words in the OP subject line come out of a wingnuts lips.

[Tom Rinaldo]

4. Yikes. It's impossible to stay ahead of the wingnut curve. n//t

[HopeHoops]

5. Actually, that part's easy - just assume they'll say something stupid.

[Tom Rinaldo]

6. Actually, I do....

But I always find out later that they've already said whatever stupid thing I think they will probably say next