In defense of the "tea parties"

The Republican-organized anti-tax "tea party" demonstrations have been much maligned. It has been pointed out that they are funded and organized by the same old-money families that bankroll most conservative think tanks. It has been pointed out that the tax hikes they are protesting are only raising taxes back to the level of the Reagan years.

All this is true. But when viewed against the recent behavior of the Republican party, the "tea parties" look like a huge step towards respectability. For one thing, they are dealing with an actual policy issue, instead of slandering their enemy (swiftboat, "Obama is a Muslim," etc.) or spouting koo-koo conspiracy theories. For another thing, cutting taxes - unlike torture and warrentless surveillance and arbitrary detention - is a policy that does not tear at the very fabric of what America stands for.

In other words, if marching for tax cuts is the worst thing the Republicans do, I will swell with hope for America's future.

That said, I of course disagree with their policy ideas. If you keep cutting taxes forever, you eventually get to the ideal level of taxation; any more cuts will do more harm than good. So taxes can never go permanently in the downward direction. Trying to make them do so has had pretty negative results for our public finances over the last decade (although as a supporter of the Obama budget, I'm not exactly in a position to trumpet the paramount importance of fiscal responsibility!).

But in an ideal world, taxes should go up and down as dictated by practicality and the preferences of the electorate. The original Boston Tea Party was protesting "taxation without representation." We now have taxation with representation, and the hooting hollering Republican rent-a-crowds are just exercising the right that our forefathers fought so hard to win. Let's leave them alone.