One of the many frustrating things about the last eight years was that when many folks who were unhappy with the direction the country was going in, those who supported the administration would say things like, "Get over it" or otherwise mock the 'hysterical left' -- and while much of it was genuinely objectionable for the way they did it (suggesting anyone who dissented was a traitor or didn't love his country, etc.), what really got under my skin was when it was more laughing disdain.
That's why I've tried not to pay attention to two things going on in the Republican Party these days. But, it's Friday night, my kid is sleeping and my wife is actually baking cookies and the Giants are in a rain delay. So, if I'm going to spend some time here, it's going to happen now.
First, there is this thing about "Going Galt." If that doesn't mean anything to you, you probably haven't read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, a book I enjoyed quite a bit. It's a novel (and often, not a terribly well written one, though again exceptionally entertaining) that outlines the Rand framework of objectivism, something many people have adopted as a personal philosophy. (One of the biggest? Alan Greenspan.)
In any case, Galt leads a charge with the leading industrialists where they stop working, they "stop the motor of the world" to refuse to support a government that is giving their money away to the 'looters.'
The 'genius' suggestion - made by a leading Republican blogger who is also the wife of the author of Instapundit, one of the pre-eminent such blogs and written by a college professor who is also somehow a complete nincompoop -- anyhow, the idea is that those who are being 'punished' by Obama's henious tax code should do the same - stop working or cut back so that they have less income to be taxed.
In fairness, the original suggestion was really more of an open question, but also in fairness, a bunch of people genuinely took it seriously and chatter began (and apparently still exists) about doing exactly this. Listen to the horrors this group of folks are enacting on themselves and the world economy:
"I have frozen hiring in my firm. ... No investments will be made in taxable accounts -- only 401k/IRAs. I am buying silver and gold instead of CDs or stocks with non-qualified money and savings. I have stopped taking new clients, thus freezing my income. I barter more and more. Spend less. I stopped leveraging assets (don't borrow)."
"I have cut WAY back -- I'm no longer buying retail, driving out of a 10-mile radius, spending money on eating out or putting my money in a savings account. I am using the money to pay off all of our debt. It has made our family closer, more appreciative."
I'm trembling here, because by Going Galt these folks are threatening to be ...fiscally responsible. NO!!!!!!!!! (What's more, in the book, it was the truly successful engines of capitalism...If Rick Wagoner and John Thain want to Go Galt, I'm begging them to do just that.)
It's a silly, idle threat but I'm all for it. If people want to make less money as a statement, they should feel free to do so.
But it pales in comparison to the TeaBag movement.
Now, it's hard to really write about this without giggling, and that's because like just about everyone but the people who started this know, there's a whole other meaning to the word
teabagging that's not quite in line with the Fox Family values. But anyhow, it's a name for the protests that some people are doing, and planning on reaching their zenith on April 15 to protest ... well, that's not as clear. It's essentially just an anti-Obama rally, focused around the supposed tax hikes he's waged against the country. (Except, he gave 95% of the country a tax
cut. Apparently, the GOP has a hard time understanding the difference between raises and cuts - see the fake hubbub about the Defense budget this week.)
I don't have any problem with people protesting against President Obama. (Especially when they make signs like the one shown here.) Protest is important and it's a hallmark of our country. (Whether networks and corporations should be sponsoring these as is happening is another question, but not one I'm particularly fired up about.)
What does really surprise me - bother, yes, but primarily surprise - is that this is all really about returning tax rates to where they were less than ten years ago. People make fuss about deficits, but they're the same folks who didn't blink when President Bush turned surpluses into the biggest deficit ever. Every other issue is really small potatoes to the taxes.
And that's the thing -- they impact five percent of the country. Now, that's a
loud five percent, and it includes the majority of the folks covering the news on TV, which contributes to why it gets aired. There are many on the right who think that any tax increase is the work of Satan himself (though they excuse their hero
Ronald Reagan for doing it throughout his administration) ... but as Seth Meyers would say, "REALLY? Really? That's what you are going with?"
Eight years ago, these people got disproportionately large tax cuts over everyone in the rest of the country. The economy is in disarray -- while the official unemployment rate has soared to somewhere just south of eight percent, the real number in many large, metropolitan areas is close to twice that. We're in two wars that have been mismanaged for years. And the richest of the rich want to lead a charge about the fact that they won't get to make as much money?
It's so petty, it's so selfish - it's really galling. These people have every right to their feelings about it, but really - this isn't a position they should be boasting about. It's a position they should be ashamed of. And I should be wagging my finger at them, but ...
It IS fun to watch the party sort of self-immolate and collapse, because everyone stops to look at a car crash. While most people I know who are Republicans are perfectly nice, the party itself over the last eight years turned into something truly loathsome. So I don't mind watching this car crash, slowly, and intentionally and, most of all, amusingly.
My favorite thought-piece about Ferris Bueller is the "Fight Club" theory, in which Ferris Bueller, the person, is just a figment of Cameron's imagination, like Tyler Durden, and Sloane is the girl Cameron secretly loves.
And it's worth remembering ... wow, Mia Sara (Sloan) was really hot back then. 
