This evening at sundown, many Jews all over the world begin observing Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. Contrary to some popular beliefs and medieval slanders, the day is not a “get out of all obligations free” card. The sages carefully distinguish between transgressions relating to what are solely religious obligations and ethical obligations. The former may be atoned through Yom Kippur. The latter may not, unless there is a prior effort not only to seek forgiveness from those one might have offended or wronged, but a sincere offer to make amends. If one attempts to do so three separate times and is refused, then the issue moves into the other category. Accordingly, it is traditional for Jews to ask pardon of everyone they know on the eve of the holiday for any offense they might have given, consciously or not. In that spirit, I ask pardon of all Moose for any offense I have given in the past year, whether known to me or not, and offer to make amends in any way that I can.
(I told you this was random in the freaking title, so don’t look for elegant segues here).
OWS is a distinctly promising phenomenon. One of the criticisms is that it isn’t completely clear what the movement is trying to accomplish. I’m of the opinion that this is less of a problem than the lack of any organizing symbol or image or name. Occupy Wall Street is wholly negative, and amorphously so. Should the financial system simply close up shop? Then what? Is it supposed to hand over all its profits to the protesters? There might be a few participants who feel that way, but most aren’t looking for an immediate structural revolution to transform us into something we haven’t yet articulated. At this juncture, there needs to be some symbol or rallying cry that resonates. The “Tea Party” has that. This movement, if it’s going to provide a counter-balance, needs something comparable.
If democrats are going to successfully push conservatives back on their heels, they have to start running against the Tea Party. This isn’t purely tactical. The Republican Party has ceased to function in any real sense. There are no GOP moderates, and no diversity of opinion in the GOP. Boehner, Cantor, Ryan, McConnell, Romney, all of them operate at the beck and call of the Tea Party. We need to run against the Tea Party directly. Voting for any republican at this point is tantamount to voting for an idiot in a tricorn hat with tea bags hanging off of it (oddly resembling tampons, but that might just be my issue) and screaming for government to leave his medicare alone. Let’s isolate the degree to which these people, who constantly invoke the “will of the people” do not hold opinions on any significant issue that even approaches representing the perspectives of most Americans. How many Americans support higher taxes for those making over a million dollars? 75%. That’s right. 75% of Americans are for increasing taxes on millionaires and billionaires.
And we’ve got to stop avoiding the demonization of taxes. Michael Medved revealed the degree to which he is a bona fide ass yesterday when he quoted Obama and others who saluted the ingenuity and creative economic contributions of Steve Jobs and asked whether Jobs should have been “punished” with higher taxes. First of all, he’s a real guy who just died, and so Medved, in tune with conservative patterns of decorum and decency, used him to try to score a political point. Secondly, Jobs was vocally committed to liberal causes. I’d be shocked if he would have objected to paying a higher tax rate. But most importantly, it’s unamerican to call federal taxes a punishment, or slavery, or rape, or theft, or anything else they call them. Every time one of these people speaks in this manner, they should face a fire storm of accusations exposing how absurd these analogies are, how insensitive to real injustices, and mostly how distinctly anti-American they are. Taxes pay for soldiers and teachers and firefighters, and humanitarian aid, and infrastructure, and the regulations that keep companies from poisoning us in an attempt to squeeze another quarter of percent of profit. It may be impossible to make a full on enthusiastic pro-tax argument. But we must defend the principle and practice of taxation from the tee party slanders. That is something we can and must do.
And for John in sincere solidarity: GO TIGERS!!!
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