The Tea Party vs. Ocean State Action: No Contest
Monday, April 18, 2011
Present at the RI Tea Party’s third annual Tax Day Rally last Friday was a handful of Tea Party critics, who mocked the conservative crowd with signs that read “We Want Crumbling Roads” and “No Education for Poor People.” Certainly, and per usual, these were statements meant to castigate Tea Party members as cruel and selfish individuals. But they were also meant to deride the idea of reducing government spending, insisting that cost-cutting policies will result in poorly delivered government services.
Standing in solidarity with the Tea Party detractors was Kate Brock, the Executive Director of Ocean State Action – a Marxist advocacy outfit closely connected to organized labor. Brock elaborated on the sentiments of the counter-protestors: “Taxes pay for our schools, roads, public safety. We need to raise revenues to support our government.”
Brock maintains that Rhode Island must sustain, and even expand, its already exorbitant tax structure in order to provide cops, schools, and roads.
But Rhode Island had paved streets and public servants well before it became one of the highest-taxed states in the country. Only after the implementation of progressive government did Rhode Island’s roads and bridges become continuously ranked “among the nation’s worst,” and its public schools become known as some of the “lowest performing” in the country.
Brock doesn’t need the Tea Party to destroy the state’s schools and infrastructure. Progressive Democrats have already accomplished that.
Recycling Bad Policy
Still, Brock and other progressives persist in their attempt to recycle their tax-and-spend strategies in order to revive the Rhode Island economy. As Brock expressed recently on Channel 10 News Conference, “[We can’t] cut our way to prosperity.”
Moreover, Brock’s simple statement on the purpose of taxation is emblematic of how the Left dishonestly downplays and mischaracterizes the Tea Party’s message of limited government. For conservatives, the efficient delivery of basic government services would be a pleasant occurrence. It’s just that legitimate public programs are now being ignored by politicians who are primarily beholden to the desires of the government ruling class, rather than the needs of the taxpayers. The potholes will be filled. Your kid will learn his math. And business owners will get tax relief. But only after government employees get their 3 percent pay raise!
Those have been the priorities of progressive government. And that’s the culture of oppression the Tea Party aims to identify, isolate, and obliterate. Conversely, Brock is just another member of the state’s powerful establishment, doing her best to protect the Democratic kingdom.
Brock’s Socialist Roots
But Brock’s political instincts are of no surprise to those who understand her socialist roots. As she explained on Channel 10 News Conference, “I volunteered [at Amos House] when I was 12 years old, and that’s when I learned about social justice and about how our world is not just. There are some people that are haves, and there are have-nots.”
Armed with this anti-capitalist perspective since childhood, Brock has set out to rectify the situation: “I want to live in a state where…every child has a high quality education. Everyone has access to healthcare. Everyone is able to feed their family and heat their home.” Credit reporter Bill Rappleye for then asking, “But feed their family and heat their home because the taxpayers are paying for it?” Stumbling a bit, Brock responded, “Look, we have a responsibility to our citizens. We have a responsibility to one another. And this is what I learned when I was volunteering at Amos House. We have a responsibility to look out for our fellow citizens. We all do better, when we all do better.”
Wrong, Kate. We already had this debate. It was called the Cold War.
Progressive Government Has Failed
Progressives can call the Tea Party “extreme” all they want. And progressives can call proponents of free-markets “cruel” all day long. But they can’t run from this reality: Absent of conservative influence for decades, Rhode Island now serves as a perfect specimen of progressive government. And the results are in—Total Failure.
For years, union-Democrats have been savaging the state’s most desperate communities – enslaving minorities to failed school systems and sentencing them to lives of crime, poverty, and despair. For everyone else, the quality of their lives has been diminished by high tax rates, redistributive policies, empty pension funds, a stifled business climate, a decline in economic prosperity, and the break-up of Rhode Island families – whether by a son who moved away for a job, or a grandmother who retired to Florida.
So the next time Kate Brock shows her face before the hard-working people she has been taxing for decades in order to fund her unfulfilled utopian dream, perhaps she should confront them not with arrogant signage, but rather on her hands and knees, groveling for their forgiveness.
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Travis Rowley (TravisRowley.com) is chairman of the RI Young Republicans and author of The RI Republican: An Indictment of the Rhode Island Left.
Comments:
ed curtis
7:30am on Monday, April 18, 2011
Someone has to ask these Progressives (like Ms Brock), "How much do they donate 'personally' to any charity?"
When you see how much the conservatives like O'Reilly, Beck and Limbaugh donate to REAL charities, where are the social justice counterparts? Where's Sean Penn's million dollar donation to Wounder Warriors? Where's Bill Maher's monster check to the American Cancer Society? Where's Joy Behar's money going?
These people are so misleading with the "social justice" rhetoric. Never do they offer anything from their own wallets, only stealing from the taxpayers to give other people's money to the parasites.
Stop the madness and SHRINK anything the government has their hands in. Especially everything with a social justice agenda.
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Andrew Dzykewicz
7:42am on Monday, April 18, 2011
One only needs to study the recent RIPEC study, "Overview of Rhode Island Expenditures and a FY 2012 Budget Blueprint" to understand that Rhode Island needs to look at its human services budget to eliminate the deficit. At forty percent of the expenditures, I would bet that there is enough waste and fraud here alone to eliminate the deficit. Adjusting this budget to be more in line with regional per capita spending would probably result in decreased revenue requirements - what a concept - lower our taxes???.
The idea that the state should increase these expenditures further is just plain ludicrous.
Edward Rivers
6:49pm on Monday, April 18, 2011
Much ado about nothing. The turnout was abysmal, not even 200!
Michael Trenn
8:14pm on Monday, April 18, 2011
There were many more than 200. 500-600 is more like it. This is not an election year, only the year after mid-terms. I was certainly there. In the Projo video, I am the guy with the red (Patriots) hat and the Patriot jacket, holding the historic flag that has come to be associated with our movement. If Mr. Rivers was there, he was most likely one of the infiltrators; the people that I and others followed around with our "Not With The Tea Party" and "infiltrator" signs. I asked one of the infiltrators where he was from. He replied "New York City". I told him that I was originally from the West End, and I would be following him until he left. As happy Hour came, the infiltrators left.. They should have stayed to hear Keith Anderson, the man profied in the Sunday Paper a couple of weeks ago. All should pay attention to him; for he was the most impassioned speaker of the day.
Max Diesel
12:28am on Tuesday, April 19, 2011
____________________________________
No one is responsible for their own actions anymore. We're either paying to support fatherless babies or drug addicts and alcoholics that are disabled because of their addictions. That doesn't even take into consideration those that are plain scamming the system. I believe the 2010 Federal Budget included 14% for so called 'safety net' programs to the tune of $496 billion. These programs are only a portion of the entitlements that totaled over a trillion dollars.
Craig O'connor
4:28pm on Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Uh, during the cold war we had massive, massive government programs to help the poor. started by hard line cold warriors like Nixon and Eisenhower. And since when does volunteering for Amos House make on anti-capitalist or a Marxist? I say that makes one a good person. "We have a responsibility to our feloow man" is not socilism, its christian morality.
GLP should be ashamed to allow tripe like this on their site. Rowley offers not one fact to show that his ideology works. And the foulness of saying unions "enslave minorities" is beyond belief.
ed curtis
4:39pm on Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Any of this sound like what the liberals want?
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Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state.
Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country.
Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc.
- Better known as the Progressive agenda the Democrats are pushing! The Communist Manifesto.
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Kevin O'Connor
3:50pm on Wednesday, April 20, 2011
The guy who said there were 200 people at the RI Tea Party is a liar. 400 at the very least. But I suspect the number of people that came and gone throughout the day was even more than that.
As if the number really matters. What really matters is that d-bag has to spread a lie to justify his side. Immoral cowards.
Good article again. Ocean State Action is a communist group. Gasp! Yes, COMMUNIST!
Edward Rivers
4:13pm on Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Dear Tea-bagger (aka Kevin O'Connor),
You folks are renowned poor spellers. Now it seems you can't count.
Have a nice day.
ed curtis
4:24pm on Wednesday, April 20, 2011
"Dear Tea-bagger (aka Kevin O’Connor),
You folks are renowned poor spellers. Now it seems you can’t count.
Have a nice day. "
We have our own wanna-be Bill Maher on board. Please say that pejorative to my face at the next event.
Edward Rivers
4:28pm on Wednesday, April 20, 2011
The odds of spotting you will certainly be in my favor . By then the numbers should plummet to 6. I look forward to meeting you...and your 5 friends.