On Wednesday, in more than 300 locations and in every state in the Union, ordinary people assembled at city halls and state capitals to protest higher taxes and unrestrained government spending at TEA (“taxed enough already”) parties. At these gatherings, people held up signs saying that they were “mad as hell” and that they were “partying like it was 1774.”
When I first heard the idea, I wrote it off as something that was barely significant. But the more I learned about the protests, the keener I became on their idea and purpose. Most of the tea parties were not organized by a political party or by politicians but by normal citizens who mobilized their own communities.
In fact, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele was respectfully turned down when he requested to be a part of the proceedings at the tea party in Chicago. The organizers of the event declined Steele’s request to speak by saying that “this is an opportunity for Americans to speak and elected officials to listen, not the other way around.”
In a time where politicians from both parties are attempting to be the heroic firemen who can extinguish the current economic blaze, this is the exact extinguisher that America needs. Americans need to gather together, regardless of party, color or religion and hold our elected officials accountable for the things that they do.
Also, for the Republican Party, the tea parties may serve as a highly effective wake-up call. Regardless of what CNN reporter Susan Roesgen said, the tea parties were not a part of the vast right-wing conspiracy or part of Fox News’s Republican agenda. Sure, conservatives definitely favor small government and low taxation, but a lot of people who value these things have been ostracized by the GOP in the last eight years.
Republicans have been just as guilty as Democrats in the recent past for increasing the size of government — and this is where Republicans have gone astray on their overall message. It is time that Republicans start touting their small- government principals, and I think that these initial tea parties (yes, there will be more) are just the catalyst that is needed to shake the dust off of the old, white-headed GOP.
But what does this mean for us as college students? While some youths attended the tea parties, the number of college students in attendance was not formidable enough to justify it being called a youth movement. Most of the protestors were middle-aged and older American citizens.
However, with the way things are going, there definitely should be overwhelming youth involvement in protesting the “pass the buck” economic policies of the Obama administration because, well, it directly affects every single one of us.
President Barack Obama promised during his campaign to not pass our current problems to future generations. But his eagerness to tax and spend since he has been in office suggests that this may have been just a part of the rest of his empty campaign rhetoric.
When he exited office, former President George W. Bush left a $5.8 trillion national debt. But if Obama were to serve eight years as president, The Heritage Foundation estimates that the national debt would increase to something along the lines of $12.5 trillion by 2019.
Now, even if you have faith that all the spending and taxing that Obama is doing is going to solve the current problem, it is worth noticing that his economic policies are also going to create new problems in terms of the aforementioned national debt. And, theoretically speaking, this gargantuan debt must be paid off by someone, someday.
Enter you — the college-aged American citizen who will be working for at least the next 35-40 years. It is us, our generation, who will foot this incredibly exorbitant bill.
So while college students remain relatively unaffected by the current economic crisis, we should begin thinking about our futures and the futures that our elected officials are paving for us, regardless of our volition.
If you are like me and you are truly mad as hell at the politicians in Washington for passing their problems to us, then you should join the masses that are standing up and speaking out. This does not mean that you need to join the Republican Party or even necessarily vote for Republicans. It does require that you hold public officials accountable for their actions and vote for the ones that have your best interests — not their burning political aspirations — at the forefront of their minds.
Earnest is a business junior.
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