Teabags n' Texas

It's a stretch to say that yesterday's "Tea Party" protests were an outright failure, though the nationwide turnout seemed to fall far short of the "millions" organizers talked about attracting beforehand.

Maybe that's because the whole point of the rallies, like a good cup of tea, seemed rather dark and murky. Organizers used the image of the 1773 Boston Tea Party as a symbol for their anti-tax protest. But the Boston Tea Party wasn't a stand against paying taxes; it was a stand against paying taxes to Great Britain without receiving any political representation in return. It's a claim that doesn't stand up today, except perhaps for residents of Washington DC, who still do not have a voting member of Congress.

Those at the Tea Parties seemed to have a similarly fuzzy view of American history. One sign I saw said that we should get back to the fiscal responsibility of our Founding Father, George Washington. Sounds great, except that George nearly spent the country into bankruptcy, one reason the president has a salary today is because Washington originally just wanted Congress to pay his expenses - they thought it would be cheaper to just give free-spending George a salary instead.

Another said that we should return to the respect for individual rights shown by President Abraham Lincoln, which again sounds good, so long as you ignore Lincoln's decision to suspend Habeas Corpus, which is still seen as one of the worst abuses of civil liberties ever taken by a President of the United States. One thing protesters at this 'non-partisan' rally seemed to agree on though was that President Obama is a fascist (or commie, or socialist, take your pick).

And taking the whole protest thing one step too far was Texas Governor Rick Perry who told a Tea Party rally in Austin that if the federal government continued to 'oppress' Texas, then the state might just have to secede from the Union.

Of course the Supreme Court ruled that states do not have the right to secede (see, ironically, the Texas v. White decision), and then there was also this little thing called the Civil War that seemed to settle the matter. But in Texas' case, there may be a loophole to exploit. Former (Texas) Congressman Tom DeLay let the theory slip on Chris Matthew's Hardball program Thursday night.

It's a little known fact, but when Texas joined the US, they reserved the right to break their territory into five separate states should they choose sometime in the future. So, Tom explained, Texas could just threaten to do this sending, in effect, ten senators from 'Texas' to Congress, rather than just the current two, which, by Tom's way of thinking, would cause Congress to think it was just too much bother and lead them to kick Texas out of the Union. In other words, make a big enough pain in the rear ass of yourself, and they'll ask you to leave.

It's an utterly bizarre idea, but one that some people of note (Gov. Perry, DeLay) seem to have rattling around in their heads. What’s that old saying about those who don’t know history?