Archive for the ‘History’ tag
The Tea Party and History: The Mythmakers Go to Work.
One of my favorite stories about American history is about the original Tea Party, in 1773. It goes like this. The British wanted to find a way to boost the sagging fortunes of the East India Company. The brain trust in the Colonial Office in London came up with a genius idea. Dump cheap Indian tea on the American colonies at a great price, to boost the EIC’s bottom line. The way they decided to do it was to reduce the duty the colonies paid on the tea. That pushed the price down just below the price that American smugglers charged for the Dutch East Indies tea they distributed in America.
Pretty sneaky. But it gets more amusing. The smugglers were enraged. After all this was just another classic example of Britain’s wanton use of its prerogative over the Colonies, who wanted “no taxation without representation” (even if the taxes were, umm, lowered). The British said they wouldn’t back down and insisted that the tea be shipped. The smugglers took matters into their own hands in Boston Harbor.
Of course, the modern Tea Party are less concerned with Royal prerogative than they are with lower taxes, which are sacrosant. So if they were discussing this in the coffeehouses of Philadelphia and Boston would they have supported the smugglers and their higher prices, or the East India Company and it’s shall we say ‘competitive’ pricing?
Demagogues love history, or at least a simplified, sanitized highly convenient version of it. Read the rest of this entry »
The Truth About The Boston Tea Party
Cheaper Tea? How Dare you!
Americans are “mythmakers”. There’s nothing they love better than discarding the inconvenient bits of a story to fit their purpose, whether that purpose is to sell mattresses or glorify the nation’s founding.
A classic example of this is The Boston Tea Party of 1773. Indeed, so central a story is it in American Folklore that it’s the inspiration for the ‘party’ of the same name, currently running amok in American political life. The Tea Party believes in lower taxes, and cutting the deficit (go figure), and one of its favorite banner quotations is “No Taxation Without Representation”, which just happened to be a big favorite around the time of the orginal Boston Tea Party.
What today’s three-cornered hat wearing nutters don’t realize is that the use of the term “No Taxation Without Representation” was a rather convenient cover for what the Boston Tea Party of 1773 was really about. To explain why requires a brief overview of something which people pay little attention to these days. History. Read the rest of this entry »
Obama and His “Team of Rivals”. Necessary?
he did good
President Elect Obama is a big fan of Abraham Lincoln. He’s not alone. One would be hard-pressed to find someone who wasn’t. In the last few days Lincoln has become famous for creating a “Team of Rivals” made up of his former adversaries to face the looming crisis of secession head on. It was all documented in Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book called…. “Team Of Rivals”. Lincoln’s decision to invite his adversaries into his administration enabled him to create the unity he needed to face the crisis. History has shown it was a great move. But as we face our own, not quite so existential, crisis in 2008, would it be the right move now? The answer is – no.
If Obama were to actually invite a large number of contrarian opinions into his cabinet and inner circle, it would, in my view, be a very bad idea. The reason is simple. In economic, environmental, welfare and foreign policy, we already know full well what needs to be done to salvage the country’s future. Read the rest of this entry »
Transformative. This Week’s Word Du Jour.
Every week we’re presented with a new word du jour. This week it’s “Transformative”, as in, “wow, that election was way transformative.” The herd of sheep that used to be the Press have made it their own and now it’s everywhere, replacing such gems as “game-changer”, “meltdown”, and “bailout”.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m as happy as anyone that the GOP brats can no longer continue trying to drown the puppy that is the United States. But let’s not be too hasty about how “transformative” this election was. Perhaps a little trip down memory lane might help. Read the rest of this entry »
