Humboldt Tea Party Patriots Out Of Touch With ... Reality?

Humboldt County is home to a lot of quirky conservative and liberal groups. As most people know, I consider conservatives and liberals to be the same shit separated into different piles. One of these piles is made up of the Humboldt Tea Party Patriots (the "Tea" means "Taxed Enough Already" or some such nonsense). Tonight's KIEM broadcast focused on a protest (how left-wing) in Old Town by this conservative group. The protest focused on the government's proposed health care reform. The Humboldt Tea Party Patriots don't think the rich should be taxed more for the benefit of others. Fair enough. I don't like my tax dollars going to buy corporate welfare and missile guidance systems. We all have to make sacrifices, though.

The point behind this post is not to destroy the Humboldt Tea Party Patriots (or even examine possible links to Odinism, Peter Sotos and ritualistic child sexual abuse). No, Sir! It's a mere observation and it all starts with what one of these enlightened souls said on camera ... for all of Humboldt to see ... forever captured on film.

The woman was pissed. She said the working poor shouldn't expect the government to pay for everything for them (agreed). That they need to get their priorities straight (agreed again). That you see them (the working poor) with their new "VCRs" and "new cars" and they need to think about those purchases.

VCRs? Really? I bet they bought Swatches with their left over dough, too, or maybe those expensive Izod shirts you see all those children of working poor wearing.

With that one statement the Humboldt Tea Party Patriots showed how out of touch with reality they really are. It was surreal, incredible and sad.

I will admit that our working poor (and anyone who works is fairly poor) need to prioritize (don't shop local, first of all -- too expensive -- and let those business owner Tea Party Patriot members know it, too). They also need to upgrade to DVD players. Jesus.

It's not the working poor who expect the government to foot the bill for everything like AIG, the auto industry, Lockheed and a host of other businesses do. (When they do it, it's important to keep the economy going. When people demand more of the government it's greedy.) It's a lot of poor people who don't work and corporations who speak a lot of positive nonsense about laissez-faire economics but are so scared of it that they ask the government to intervene. Those are the people and groups who, in the words of Dire Straits, want their money for nothing and chicks for free.

The Humboldt Tea Party Patriots seem to target the people but not the corporations. Why is that? Which soaks up more of the government's resources? Maybe they are so angry about the poor and their cutting-edge VCRs and touch tone phones that they can't think straight. Or maybe, just maybe, they like going after easy targets, though they really fucked up when that lady mislabeled their scapegoats the "working poor."

A vast majority of people in this country are working poor. Had the Humboldt Tea Party Patriots targeted the usual suspects (welfare mothers and welfare cheats) they may have had a chance of gaining some sympathy. (And for those of you who think that's a good idea, well, I work in Social Services and I don't see a whole hell of a lot of welfare fraud.) As it stands, the Humboldt Tea Party Patriots have not made me a fan no matter how much I might sympathize with some of their message.

I'm all for people taking responsibility for themselves and their actions. I also think that if you have a government (which I don't think is absolutely necessary, by the way), it should take care of its people. That's a role we've given it. Corporations can fuck off. I'm way too tired of the usual "socialize the losses, privatize the profits" mode that we've been running at since Rockefeller got an erection. That said, when you put yourself at the mercy of the government in asking it for help, you have to understand that society (if not the government) may eventually turn on you. But I hate when groups target one segment of society and then leave out another guilty of the same exact "crime" because its a corporation. How many of these Tea Party pussies have gotten tax breaks. How many have businesses that may have benefited from local or federal subsidies? How many of them actually pay their fair share, and how many of them take advantage of loopholes? How many of them have asked the government for help?

The Humboldt Tea Party Patriots had a booth at Eureka's Fourth of July Old Town celebration. One of the local contact people listed on Tea Party sites is a Dorice Miranda -- not a very common name. Locally, there is a Dorice Miranda of Ferndale (Humboldt County) who, in 2001, was attached to Miranda Dairy. In 2001 Miranda Dairy asked for a loan from Humboldt County (actually, the county had to apply for a grant which would in turn be loaned to the dairy -- or at least that's my very basic understanding of it). You can read the actual Board of Supervisors Agenda Item here. Now, I'm not entirely sure this is the same Dorice Miranda, but it seems quite likely. What I find odd is, if this is the same Dorice Miranda, the one who is a member of the Humboldt Tea Party Patriots, why would she ask for a loan from the government?

Yes, loans must be paid back, but so do certain forms of welfare (in Humboldt, General Relief must be repaid, for starters). So why would Miranda, if indeed it is the same person, want to be part of an organization that speaks out against the government "destroying" the free market system yet engages in something that is anti-free market in even the purest Ayn Rand sense. Accepting loans from governments is not the prime example of the free market at work. A loan from a bank, yes. Government? That gets a bit iffy and falls into that privatize the profits, socialize the losses (or risks). You can't really have it both ways. It's okay for government to give money to businesses, but it should not engage in health care reform if it means a higher taxing of those people whose businesses prosper thanks to help from -- drum roll -- the government?

Again, if these are two different Dorice Mirandas I humbly apologize, but really, what are the odds?

Speak the truth as you see it. Just make sure you're fucking consistent. And don't forget to keep those heads clean on your VCRs. Some VHS movies cost upwards of $80 new. You don't want to wreck them.