Tea Parties and King George III

This is what generated the start of a blog - I was thinking last night about the state of affairs and I don't mean marrieds doing it with others to whom they are not married.  This gets more press and media attention than it's worth already.  No I mean the strange thought stream we Americans, oh, sorry, I apologize to the rest of the American continents, that is we US Citizens seem to be in that blames everyone else for the trouble we've seen. well I can see I'm starting another rant.  So here's the thoughts I had regarding Tea Parties and King George:

If I had a picture of George III, against whom some British-American Colonist citizens rebelled in 1773 by staging a raid on a ship throwing bales of tea into the Boston Harbor, I would post it with a title of the “New” Tea Party.  For, you see, while the current tea party favorites fashion themselves as contrary to big government and taxation they ally themselves with the very image of King George III – the major Corporate entities. It is they who now determine: the price of goods; who gets put into today's version of debtors prison; who represent “you” in this government.

You see, King George was only one of a line of kings that had come into power over the years as a result of the feudal system.  All the dukes and other “nobles” were constantly bickering, OK, raiding, raping, pillaging, and killing each other, vying to become the most rich and powerful in the land.  As years passed the vigorous prosecution of rape, plunder and pillage began to threaten the whole fabric of society as they knew it.  Therefore the lords of the feuds came together and agreed that they would all give allegiance to one king who would adjudicate disputes among them and presumably keep the status quo retaining stability and enhancing the ability to ward off threats from other cultures (like those nasty French and Germans).  

The analogy to these competitions over the last two centuries is the shift from independent farmers and businessmen to collectives and trades and large scale industries which are now in the process of congealing into the new kingdoms that span the globe, no longer limited to a geographical region.  Against these, Governments become mere regional inhibitors to their behaviors and that only to the extent that they cannot be convinced that what's good for business is good for the people, i.e., those having political influence or the ruling party.  

Yes, the Tea Party and allies in the Grand Old Party (Good Old Pals), have become the Lords guarding the banks and merchants of England who in 1773 advised King George to hide the tax on tea to teach the irresponsible colonists their proper place.  The current Tea Party has no respect for the millions whose farms have been replaced by factories no longer making anything, whose self reliance on their ability to provide for themselves has been replaced by allegiance to businesses that no longer exist and whose Government  is likely to remove their rights to collective bargaining for the wages and benefits necessary to life in a complex society.  The tax on tea was deliberately reduced by the Parliament for the colonists as an attempt to subvert the colonists' claim they were not obliged to pay taxes enacted by a Parliament in which they had no representation.  Ultimately their intent was for the colonists to pay the bill for the seven years war so the Lords in London who import the tea wouldn't have to.

Today's Tea Party movement is more about having the common citizens pay for the wars and reprehensible financing of America. I say common citizens because it's no longer the middle class. That is a label misapplied to those above poverty and below wealthy which account for maybe 30% of the US population instead of the 60-80% it used to be. According to the Business Insider on Yahoo Finance posted July 15, 2010, “the bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.”  If the top 1% or 2% own 80% of the wealth that doesn't leave much of a middle class.  In my book the middle class no longer exists and it is only the political intent to avoid the truth that keeps us from saying so.  We have steadily transferred the wealth of the middle class to the hands of “Wall Street” in our mortgages and credit cards.  Now, many of us are facing the loss of our homes, many have already lost them.  The only ones left to buy them are those who don't need them.  Many of the new residents of our political houses now promote and press for policies that further enhance the economic station of those that have it, not those that have lost it.  I find that sad and self serving.    (more tomorrow)