‘Strange Brew’

Despite broad national support for the Obama administration and its initiatives, one couldn’t help but notice last week that widespread dissent was brewing.

In mock celebration of Tax Day, hundreds of protests invoking the Boston Tea Party of 1773 took place nationwide, with people peaceably assembling to demand a redress of grievances.

Bloomington’s own tea party, which took place outside the office of Rep. Baron Hill, drew several hundred protestors – some coming from as far away as Newburgh, Ind., to vent their own misgivings over bank bailouts, stimulus packages and what they perceived as excessive government activism in light of the ongoing economic crisis.

With little exception, the event certainly tended more toward the civil than the disobedient. The protest’s organizers led the crowd in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and urged them to be mindful of the beliefs of others and not to litter.

The throng that assembled at the corner of Eighth and Morton streets waved signs inviting passersby to “honk if I’m paying your mortgage” and demanding that government “stop porking taxpayers.”

All of this certainly made for an interesting spectacle.

Usually the stuff of peaceniks, tree huggers and Chai-sipping leftists, organized protest proved to be unfamiliar territory for the National Rifle Association and Rush Limbaugh crowd; many in attendance indicated that they had never attended an organized protest before.

Perhaps the inexperience showed in the lack of a unifying message. Protestors brandished signs extolling everything from the virtues of fiscal responsibility and strict constitutionalism to loudly declaring the supremacy of the word of God over the laws of man.

Some, which sported slogans such as “Got Birth Certificates?” and “Impeach Obama, the First Illegal President” suggested that perhaps some of those in attendance had been drinking something other than tea.

Indeed, it wouldn’t be difficult to dismiss the protests as nothing more than futile partisan rabble-rousing motivated more by naked self-interest and a dislike of the Obama administration than by any strong, ideological theme.

One can’t help but wonder where the complaints were when the previous administration was likewise running enormous deficits in order to fund two wars halfway around the world.

However, the general mood proved to be one of genuine concern; those in attendance fretted over how they – and, more importantly, their children – were possibly going to pay for the staggering amounts of debt this country has accrued over the past several decades.

You don’t need to be able to read tea leaves to see the direction in which this country’s fiscal condition is headed.

Taking into account the $787 billion stimulus package, the omnibus spending bill and a laundry list of bank bailouts, loans and Obama’s proposed $3.5 trillion budget, the national debt exceeds $11 trillion.

Tens of trillions more in outstanding social security, Medicare and Medicaid entitlements legitimately threaten to bankrupt the country if a sea change in fiscal policy is not adopted.

Perhaps it’s time the government heed the words of the protestors and begins practicing fiscal teetotalism.