Posted by Jim Lindgren:
Reynolds on the Tea Parties; Moving Federal Elections to May.
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_04_12-2009_04_18.shtml#1239813897
Glenn Reynolds has a [1]nice piece on the tax-day Tea Party protests
in the Wall Street Journal:
The tea-party protest movement is organizing itself, on its own
behalf. Some existing organizations, like Newt Gingrich's American
Solutions and FreedomWorks, have gotten involved. But they're
involved as followers and facilitators, not leaders. The leaders
are appearing on their own, and reaching out to others through
blogs, Facebook, chat boards and alternative media.
The protests began with bloggers in Seattle, Wash., who organized a
demonstration on Feb. 16. As word of this spread, rallies in Denver
and Mesa, Ariz., were quickly organized for the next day. Then came
CNBC talker Rick Santelli's Feb. 19 "rant heard round the world" in
which he called for a "Chicago tea party" on July Fourth. The
tea-party moniker stuck, but angry taxpayers weren't willing to
wait until July. Soon, tea-party protests were appearing in one
city after another, drawing at first hundreds, and then thousands,
to marches in cities from Orlando to Kansas City to Cincinnati.
As word spread, people got interested in picking a common date for
nationwide protests, and decided on today, Tax Day, as the date. As
I write this, various Web sites tracking tea parties are predicting
anywhere between 300 and 500 protests at cities around the world. A
Google Map tracking planned events, maintained at the
FreedomWorks.org Web site, shows the United States covered by red
circles, with new events being added every day.
The movement grew so fast that some bloggers at the Playboy Web
site -- apparently unaware that we've entered the 21st century --
suggested that some secret organization must be behind all of this.
But, in fact, today's technology means you don't need an
organization, secret or otherwise, to get organized. After
considerable ridicule, the claim was withdrawn, but that hasn't
stopped other media outlets from echoing it.
My colleague Steve Calabresi has often suggested that we change the
date of federal elections from November to May (perhaps the first
Tuesday in May), so that taxes are on voters' minds when they vote. If
we continue to reduce the proportion of voters who pay income taxes,
even that strategy won't work.
References
1. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123975867505519363.html
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