Teabagging Portland: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (pics and comments)

[depakid]

As a veteran of many a Portland protest (and the Wellstone candlelight vigil) during the Bush administration, it seemed fitting to cap it off one last time- on the other side of the fence. In a way, I'll miss these sorts of deals down under. So without further ado:

The Good

This being Portland, there were more than a few wandering around having a laugh- and often a say of their own.



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The Bad

These folks were a uniformly sorry lot- dime a dozen. Talking to them was a waste of time, and quite franky taxing. Their motivations were obvious, and they had nothing interesting or amusing to say.



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The Ugly

Now these people piqued curiosity, often drawing strange or befuddled looks from passers by and observers. Something about psychopathology, bizarre beliefs, and astonishing stupidity that just invites inquiry. The results were often surreal.



I asked this fellow how Obama was killing charities. He responded quite matter of factly that taxing the rich (especially the very rich) would cause them to stop giving to charitable organizations, and that this was proven by economics. When I mentioned that people who make donations to charitable non-profits get a tax deduction- and queried whether or not a higher bracket or estate tax might be an incentive or motivation for people to actually increase their philanthropy, there was pregnant pause, followed by some mumbling about Jon Huntsman, and all the good that he does.
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I asked this woman (with her husband in the wheelchair) how higher taxes on the wealthy equals greater poverty. She went into a bit about their small business, and how would employ more people and how they could hire more people. I said: other western nations have much higher tax rates than the US- and yet they have much lower poverty rates. Why is that? She piped up, looking a little riled, and replied: do you know how many people in Belgium are on welfare? "Belgium?" I thought, and said, no how many?


"Well a lot!" "Maybe that's one reason nations have so much less crime and don't have to spend so much on their prison system? Could be it's pretty good deal economically to have that sort of safety net"?

The husband then chimed in with a long diatribe, the essence of which was: I don't want the government to take MY MONEY and pass it out to anyone else (and this included, on inquiry- people who turned up at hospitals- they should be turned away if didn't have the means to pay. He seemed unimpressed with public health notions like disease left to spread afflicts the rich and poor alike.
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The woman carrying this sign was from somewhere in the South per her accent- but had never been to Europe (or Canada or Australia). She also didn't believe that in many European countries, people got 3-4 weeks paid vacation. And when we talked about health care- (which she conceded "costed her an arm and a leg") she also wouldn't believe that people in countries with universal health care scored much better on leading health indicators than the US.

She proclaimed (rather emphatically) that the media would have told us! "Hasn't Fox news said anything about that?" "No, but they've talked about how long people have to wait to see a doctor that the government chooses for you." She really said that.

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I have no idea what a "libophile" is. Must be some sort of code. Too crowded to go and ask. Figured I'd google it up when I got home.

Not much comes up, other than this entry on a reactionary blog: Fed Up And Angry At Obama And His "Libophiles"

http://www.tcunation.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2476373%3ABlogPost%3A71392&page=1#comment-2476373_Comment_71560
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I asked the young guy scratching his head what his sign meant. Apparently, he and his crew off camera to the right believe that Obama (and Congress through HR something or another) are going to involuntarily conscript 18-21 year olds send them off to perform some sort of service (they weren't sure what). Wasn't Amercorps or the draft. They were also concerned about "The FEMA camps."
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and what stroll around a freakshow would be complete without these guys!

http://www.constitutionparty.com/party_platform.php

It sure will be nice to get back to sanity again.

[AspenRose]

1. Nice

"Forgotten who got us into 'hot water'...and you want to make tea?"

VERY nice :thumbsup:

I'm stealing it!

[depakid]

3. That was a great one

Feel free to "steal" or pass on any one of these that you'd like!

[Wetzelbill]

2. Great job!

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

4. ah teabaggers...so very, very white

pass this stuff on t huffington if you get a chance. they're doing a collection

[depakid]

5. I saw exactly one Asian woman among the actual teabagging crowd

Apparently, that's been the every else in the country as well.

[gratuitous]

17. Portland's pretty white to begin with

But yeah, there does seem to be a certain hue to the hue and cry. What I liked best about the teevee coverage is how all these diverse signs, people, and messages got boiled down to a couple of people whining about having to pay taxes for government spending, and why can't government just stop the spending?

My own experience demonstrating in Portland for other, worthier causes, is to see the coverage get hopelessly mucked up with the one or two PETA demonstrators, the fanatic fundies with their heueueueueueuge signs, and the inevitable guy in the rainbow fright wig. As if the eight people their footage features are representative of the thousands who showed up to protest the war, demonstrate for gay rights, or some other worthy cause.

[mnhtnbb]

6. The teabaggers appear to uniformly be unable to think for themselves, or

process anything other than propaganda fed to them by Faux News.

We're all laughing at their stupidity, but it is a serious problem that there are so many people in this
country unwilling to think for themselves. It puts our democratic system in jeopardy.

[HughBeaumont]

7. #2's middle sign says it all: WHERE WERE ALL OF YOU FOR 28 YEARS??

Realistically, what DAMAGE has Obama done in 11 weeks? What COULD he do in 11 weeks?

These "I hate Obama" rallies are silly piles of bullshit. These scumbags are pissed off that a white male is no longer running this country, they're trying to either rewrite history or pretend it never happened and they're failing miserably.

[stevedeshazer]

8. Nicely done.

[doctor jazz]

9. So just who the hell were those 'founding principals'??

(The guy in the wheelchair)
:eyes:

[TahitiNut]

10. I had no idea their dessicated remains were being preserved.

Go figure. :shrug:

[depakid]

12. Apparently they weren't enlightenment principles

because among other things, he seemed to reject all considerations of the nature of the social contract and was unable to reason about the overall economic (and his own personal benefits) that might be derived from social safety nets. He struck me as a good example of a person willing to cut off his nose to spite his face (with respect to rising health care costs) and cut off all of our noses by funding a massive prisons rather than public education or modest social programs that would reduce crime.

In other words- classic big "L" libertarian. His wife didn't seem to be quite so off the deep end- but still seemed to have gone along with the dysfunctional ideology hook line & sinker.

[lies and propaganda]

11. the pink towel!

OMG!!

PDX never lets me down!

[Regret My New Name]

13. Ahhh... Pioneer Square...

I miss Portland.

[Robb]

14. Thanks for this

Quality reporting there. :thumbsup:

[recoveringrepublican]

15. May I facebook these? I'm going to put them up, but will take them down if you want. nt

[depakid]

21. Help yourself- they're donated to the community

The more you share 'em the better.

[JSK]

16. You did a wonderful job with this

Thanks.

[depakid]

20. Let me say, on behalf of all the DU'ers who braved these events- it was taxing!

With a lot of this :wow: going on.

But in the end, it was worth it. Sort of. I guess.

[Dulcinea]

18. "King Hussein lies?"

Isn't King Hussein dead?

[reggie the dog]

19. 3 to 4 weeks paid vacation??? only in the worst countries

France is at 5, Denmark is at 6 and in France the work week is 35 hours long, but many people but in 40 hours and get an extra week of vacation every 7 weeks. Many people in France are actually in the 8 to 10 weeks paid holiday ballpark, Denmark I do not know, but only 3 weeks paid vacation? Quel horreur!