I have three questions about the Teabaggers:

[rucky]

What are they protesting?

What are they demanding?

What would happen if they got what they were asking for?

[WeDidIt]

1. I can answer those

1) Obama being president.

2) That Obama be removed by the military and Sarah Palin installed as president.

3) There would be no United States of America any longer as a military coup would have just occurred.

[rucky]

2. understood. there's a hidden agenda.

But let's take it on face value for a moment and play it out.

[katmondoo]

3. When I was protesting the war first in Afghanistan

then Iraq there were helicpters flying over and police on horseback. Will the teabaggers get the same reception? Most likely not. This was in Florida.

[rucky]

4. I'm guessing there will be a strong police presence at the locations

to assure that their right to peaceful protest is protected.

Our antiwar message was clear, and that was seen as a threat. As long as the teabagger cause is sufficiently vague, it just seems like street theater - an indirect threat against stuff.

I don't think anybody will be able to answer a single question in my OP, even though the questions are pretty basic.

[SpiralHawk]

5. Teabaggers want MORE MORE MORE tax cuts for RICH Republicon Homelanders

and to make working American men and women carry the burden for RICH Republicons.

That's why overpaid Republicon chickenhawks like $40 million a year 'Ass Pimple Deferment' Limbaugh, Spinmiester 'Felafel Deferment' O'Reilly, 'Gucci Loafer Deferment' Hannity' and Glen 'Never Served My Country a Day' Beck, are all TEABAGGERS. They want other people to carry the tax burden for them and the so-called 'elite' Republicon plutocrats.

[Telly Savalas]

6. I'll take a stab at this

What are they protesting?

They're upset that the government is spending more money in response to the severe recession.

What are they demanding?

Drastic spending cuts and tax cuts. A greatly diminished role of government.

What would happen if they got what they were asking for?

A heightened continuance of the economic death spiral (job cuts due to lower demand which leads to even lower demand which leads to more job cuts, etc.) This leads to major revenue shortfalls at the state and local level resulting in the inability of government at these levels to meet even their most basic obligations. It would be a disaster.

[Catch22Dem]

8. Thanks for the honest answer

I'm not even the OP, but I still appreciate it.

[rucky]

11. Thanks

this is kinda what I've read into it, as well. But it's hard to tell because the protestors aren't really delivering a clear message.

[madrchsod]

7. the resurrection of ronald reagan

[KharmaTrain]

9. If They Really Knew, They'd Be Protesting That...

Actually this isn't a protest...it's a tantrum.

They're attempting to protest "Taxation without representation", but then weren't it their "representatives" that lost last November? Ooops. Wasn't it their "representatives" that looked the other way as Wall Street turned into a gambling casino and cheered all the greed on? Wasn't it their "representatives" that voted in favor of an illegal war for profit, kept the costs off the books, turned a budget surplus to huge defecits and then made it worse with tax cuts?

Their ignorance and arrogance drove the moderates and independents away from their corrupt party and now they're bitching about it.

I think they're asking for a clue.

[rucky]

12. Do they have some agreement about what a "fair" system of taxation would be?

[KharmaTrain]

17. Sure...You Pay For Everything...

I guess they imagine that garbage can be picked up, roads built and police and fire just come out of thin air...some kind of divine entitlement or so.

I've had fun in the past asking that very question to rushpublicans I know. You'll almost always get the "big government" shuck and jive and how privitizing everything somehow creates comeptition that lowers costs. Yep, we've seen how well that's worked. Or you'll run into the "flat tax" jokers who think a national sales tax is the ultimate answer until you start asking them who will enforce this tax and then have them support their math.

The fact that 95% of Americans will see their taxes either stay the same or go down is the ultimate irony of this "protest"...as this manufactured tantrum is almost all PR...a massive lobbying effort by large corporations presented on a corporate owned network as being "grassroots". Astroturfing can't be better defined than this.

Cheers...

[Retrograde]

29. in the ideal libertarian world

everyone will just pay a private enterprise for the services they want, of course. Don't want to pay Joe's Garbage Company to pick up your trash every week because you think it's too expensive? Then don't, just let the stuff accumulate: surely in the sacred capitalist system some enterprising person will find a way to offer the service for less. Why build roads? No place you want to go, it there? Same with police: you've got all the guns you need after all now that the government's not there to steal them or tax them or regulate them. And who needs a clean municipal water supply when Pepsi will be happy to sell you liquids at $$$ a gallon.

It's selfishness carried to the extreme, just as Ayn Rand preached (but did she practice it? I really don't know)

[Tesha]

28. "No taxes for nuthin." (NT)

[HughBeaumont]

10. As I see it?

1. "Tax Booty for ANYONE and ANYTHING other than upper middle class to rich GUYS like myself = SOSHULISM! Privatize everything, let the free markets govern and regulate themselves. Oh, and using my tax dollars to waste us some towelheads = basically OK." . . . or something.

2. Instant impeachment of the Democratic president they don't like, repeal of the 22nd Amendment and permanent installation of George W Bewsh as President for Life. Or the installation of Sarah Palin as President. You know, because THEY wouldn't almost DOUBLE the National Debt on wasteful spending like Osam . . er. . . OBama is going to . . . . . . . oh, wait.

3. Instead of a mere catastrophe we would be able to recover from eventually, we'd be seeing Great Depression II . .. for a decade. Bad Republican Economic Policy cannot be cured by Worse Republican Economic Policy. History has proven this to be true.

[rucky]

15. Funny how the hidden agenda is easier to figure out than the guise it's under.

[Kip Humphrey]

24. The violent overthrow of the Democratic government, reinstalling the 4th Reich and authoritarian

theocratic rule.

[liberalpress]

13. Teabaggers

What are they protesting?

They are protesting the trillions of dollars in bailouts. They have been convinced (mostly by lying talk show hosts) that to pay for this President Obama will raise their taxes, and this should make them angry. (The purpose of right-wing radio is to make people angry)

What are they demanding?

That the bailouts stop so their taxes will go down.

What would happen if they got what they were asking for?

Ironically, taxes on the rich would go down, forcing the middle class to pay even more.

Having worked among these talk hosts for five long years, I think I can safely say that they resent paying ANY taxes (as Leona Helmsley once said, taxes are for the "little people" (i.e. me and you)).

They fully subscribe to the "trickle down" theory that the wealthy, relieved of their tax burden will be free to start businesses and create jobs for the "little people" to fill.

As history has shown us what actually happens when the wealthy are relieved of the burden of paying taxes is they keep the money, shut down the business, and in a effort to relieve themselves after an overindulgence in Johnny Walker Blue and Dom Perignon take a whiz off their well-appointed balconies whereupon the "little people" (i.e. me and you) get trickled on.

[rucky]

14. So they're protesting against something they're afraid Obama might do?

in their world, this makes sense, I suppose.

Talk-show induced anxiety attack that happens to benefit the people engineering it.

[HughBeaumont]

21. These cockamamie theories they come up with are kind of the basis for my "Complete Idiot" series.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/HughBeaumont/80
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/HughBeaumont/81
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/HughBeaumont/83

[alarimer]

16. Do these people know what that word means?

Because it pretty funny if they don't.
Or are they comparing their movement to the Boston Tea Party?

[liberalpress]

18. Teabaggers

Do these people know what that word means?

In the context of your your implication, no.

Because it pretty funny if they don't.

Even funnier still, because if they succeed, it is metaphorically being performed on the wealthiest one percent

Or are they comparing their movement to the Boston Tea Party?

That is what they THINK they are doing, but of course, it is not even close.

[Catchawave]

19. From the national site:

Are you fed up with a Congress and a president who:

=vote for a $500 billion tax bill without even reading it?
=are spending trillions of borrowed dollars, leaving a debt our great-grandchildren will be paying?
=consistently give special interest groups billions of dollars in earmarks to help get themselves re-elected?
=want to take your wealth and redistribute it to others?
=punish those who practice responsible financial behavior and reward those who do not?
=admit to using the financial hurt of millions as an opportunity to push their political agenda?
=run up trillions of dollars of debt and then sell that debt to countries such as China?
=want government controlled health care?
=want to take away the right to vote with a secret ballot in union elections?
=refuse to stop the flow of millions of illegal immigrants into our country?
=appoint a defender of child pornography to the Number 2 position in the Justice Department?
=want to force doctors and other medical workers to perform abortions against their will?
=want to impose a carbon tax on your electricity, gas and home heating fuels?
=want to reduce your tax deductibility for charitable gifts?
=take money from your family budget to pay for their federal budget?

********

They're mad at both parties. I guess you can say fiscal responsibility is the new counterculture :toast:

[rucky]

20. ?:

"appoint a defender of child pornography to the Number 2 position in the Justice Department?"

Teabagging is the logical response to that outrage, for sure!

[liberalpress]

23. So many of these bullet points are BS

Just a few:

want to force doctors and other medical workers to perform abortions against their will? (nobody has proposed that)

take money from your family budget to pay for their federal budget? (Well, this one is valid it's called THE INCOME TAX. Been around for decades)

=consistently give special interest groups billions of dollars in earmarks to help get themselves re-elected?

(Aren't earmarks less that on percent of the budget)

=want to take your wealth and redistribute it to others?
(Social Security. Boy that helping the less fortunate stuff is just pure evil ain't it?)

=want government controlled health care?
(Yes I do actually. Then maybe my plan will pay for something)

[Retrograde]

30. why, yes I am

that's why I voted against the Republican candidates in '04 and '08.

"=want to take away the right to vote with a secret ballot in union elections?

This is an odd one - I'd have expected that they would be in favor of this as a way of preventing unionization. But I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at the lack of logical consistency.

[DCKit]

31. The sheer ignorance of half that list is offensive...

the rest is just offensive. I'd almost hope half the crowd could be dissuaded with a simple "You don't really believe that shit, do you?", but I've known enough of them to realize that logic and truth are useless once they've got the meme running.

Oh, and to anyone wondering about the "secret ballot in union elections" it's all about employee choice/empowerment and unions. This would be a direct contribution to the protest from the Chamber of Commerce, a.k.a. Corporate Amur'ka.

[mwb970]

22. What kind of protest movement doesn't even know what they are protesting?

I side with those who say that these people are protesting having lost the election (two, actually, with a third on the way). They have confused tyranny with losing.

Every ignorant fool at these silly demonstrations will benefit from Obama tax cuts, some of which they have already received in the form of reduced withholding. (I doubt that anyone earning $250K+ would be stupid enough to attend.) Some may even use the extra money to attend one of these protests! It just doesn't get much crazier than that. :crazy:

It reminds me of Joe the Idiot railing against Obama policies that would benefit him and his family. As far as I can tell, the teabaggers are frothing at the mouth over an increase of 4% in the marginal tax rates of the richest 2% of Americans, taking them back to 35%, where they were in the Clinton years, to be applied two years from now. These same rates were 50% under the Socialist Reagan and 90% under the Communist Eisenhower, by the way, with no right-wing screeching occurring at the time.

[mrcheerful]

26. Oh I have been hearing wing nuts complaining already that they are getting

more back this year on income taxes then they did last year, it wasn't enough. They were especially upset that the retired, widows and disabled were getting a $250 stimulus check in May, how dare Obama give none workers a free $250, people who did nothing to earn that money. Your dealing with real nit wits who can look at a person or read what they post on line and know they are still able to work. After all, everyone knows that its easy to get a doctor to say your disabled and the free money comes rolling in.

[jody]

25. Perhaps many different things among which are anger at federal govt., wasted tax dollars, and

fat-cat financiers stealing without going to prison.

[alfredo]

27. They are protecting the ruling class. They don't want the idle rich to

pay higher taxes. Nothing will happen, the rich will continue getting richer and we will continue subsidizing them.

[earth mom]

32. Wasn't DU talking about sending teabags to Congress last year?

Guess the rethugs stole our idea and ran with it with the help of the corporate media whores.