A New American Tea Party The Counterrevolution Against Bailouts, Handouts, Reckless Spending, and More Taxes

by O'Hara, John M.; Malkin, Michelle

• ISBN13: 9780470920084
• ISBN10: 0470920084
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-01-04
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

The tax protester manifesto, written by a leading organizer of the tea party protestsOn April 15, 2009, a grassroots contingency of Americans that would soon become known around the world as the Tea Party made front-page news. Angered by years of excessive government spending-taxpayer financed bailouts of businesses deemed too big to fail and taxpayer handouts to special interest groups-Americans of all ages and all walks of life took to the streets to take back their country. A New American Tea Party: The Counterrevolution Against Bailouts, Handouts, Reckless Spending, and More Taxes is their story, and it's your guide for contributing to the movement to rein in government spending. The book Summarizes the Tea Party movement Explains how the Tea Party protests were organized Presents a call to action for continuing protests and describes how to best coordinate themThe debt resulting from today's reckless government spending will eventually result in massive tax hikes. A New American Tea Party shows how to focus your outrage into a productive movement that will make a positive difference.

Author Biography

John M. O'Hara is vice president of external relations at the Illinois Policy Institute. Previously, O'Hara worked as assistant director of communications at The Heartland Institute. He served under U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao in the administration of George W. Bush and, prior to that, was a Collegiate Network journalism fellow at the American Spectator. O'Hara has appeared on dozens of radio and television programs as a commentator on the tea party movement and current political affairs. For his work with the tea party movement, he received an inaugural 2010 William F. Buckley, Jr., Leadership Award from the Young Conservatives Coalition. O'Hara graduated from Kenyon College with a BA in philosophy and a concentration in the Integrated Program in Humane Studies and was managing editor of the Kenyon Observer. For more about the author, visit JohnMOHara.com

Table of Contents

Bailout Nation: A Spending Timeline.

Foreword.

Preface.

Chapter 1 The Tea Parties.

Unorganized Organizers.

From Stewing to Brewing.

The Planning.

Game Day.

We're All Community Organizers Now.

The Tax Day Tea Parties.

Institutional Organization.

Striking a Balance.

Internal Complications.

No, Really, We're Nonpartisan.

Bureaucrats and Permits.

April 15, 2009: The Million-Taxpayer March.

Chapter 2 How We Got Here: Abandoning Principles and the People.

Touting versus Learning from Reagan.

1994: The Revolution That Wasn't.

The Quasi-Conservative Presidency of George W. Bush.

How to Pretend You Are Something You Aren't.

Meltdown.

2008 Election.

Hope and Change We Can Believe In.

A Center-Right Nation.

Chapter 3 The Whistling Teapot: The Financial Crisis and the Bailout Nation.

The Original Sin: The CRA.

The Tax Code.

Easy Money.

Take a Loan off Fannie.

Crisis.

Bailouts, Handouts, and Corporate Welfare.

Baby You Can Buy My Car.

Newspapers Bailouts.

Balance Sheet.

Account Overdrawn.

Chapter 4 The Political Class Reacts.

Memo from the White House: You Just Don't Get It.

From the Department of Homeland Security: A Preemptive Strike.

Congress Claims We're All Astroturf.

Straight from the Economist-in-Chief Himself.

The Response from the Right.

Others Show a Healthy Respect.

Out of the Loop.

Chapter 5 The Media Strikes Back.

Media Blackout.

Mr. Obama, Are You Watching?

Propaganda and Disinformation.

Sexual Slurs.

Bad Comedy, Worse Commentary.

The Racism Straw Man.

By the Numbers.

The Media Market Reacts.

So You Think You Can Politic?

Chapter 6 Radical Ideas.

Part I: You Earn It, We Spend It.

Part II: The Intrusion.

Sliding Down the Slippery Slope.

Chapter 7 Radical Tactics.

The Playbook.

The Organizers.

The Enforcers.

Sharp Distinctions.

Chapter 8 The Teapot Boils Over: Health Care Takes Center Stage.

The Health Care Policy Debate.

The Government "Solutions".

Real Reform.

Now or Never.

Something's Fishy.

Dems Feel the Heat.

Overwhelming Public Response.

Town Halls.

What Happened to "Democracy in Action"?

Pay No Attention to the Doctors!

Don’t Anger the Trial Lawyers!

White House Spin and Spam.

Axelrod's Turf.

Mobilizing Union Muscle.

Lying to Grandma.

Free-Range or Free-Market?

Fannie Med?

A Civics Lesson for Congressmen.

Chapter 9 The Tea Party Manifesto.

Not Our Turf.

Who They Are and What They Believe.

A New Avenue.

Popular, Not Populist.

Dispelling False Dichotomies.

On the Role of Government.

Not Anti-Tax.

Rejection of Bailouts, Handouts, and Wealth Redistribution.

Personal Responsibility.

"The Ideology of Change".

A Rejection of Class Warfare: The Unholy Trinity.

The Rejection of False Prophets.

Rejection of the Entitlement Ethic.

Common Sense over Regulation.

Rejection of the Mediocrity Ethic.

The Counterrevolution: From Theory to Practice.

Chapter 10 Rules for Counterradicals.

The 9/12 Taxpayer March.

Arguing from an Imperfect Status Quo.

Honing the Message.

Mastering the Art of Rallies.

Utilizing Coalitions.

Coordination not Competition.

Promoting Principles over Personalities.

Keeping Your Cool in a Fiery Debate.

Using Social Networking.

Looking beyond the Rallies.

Taking Consistent, Principled Action.

Maintaining Accountability and Transparency.

Taking It to the States.

The Right Ideals and the Right People.

In Conclusion.

Notes.

About the Author.

Index.