Posted on 04/07/2009 6:37:50 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Taking inspiration from a landmark 1970s tax revolt, a determined group of activists say the moment is right for another voter uprising in California, where recession-battered residents have been hit with the highest income and sales tax rates in the nation.
And like Proposition 13, the 1978 ballot measure that transformed the state's political landscape and ignited tax-reform movements nationwide, they see the next backlash coming not from either major political party, but from the people.
If the anti-tax crusaders can galvanize voter discontent, they hope to roll back the latest tax hikes, impose permanent, iron-clad spending caps on Sacramento lawmakers and make the issue central in the 2010 gubernatorial election.
"There's a lot of latent anger boiling to the surface out there," said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, a group named after the California anti-tax crusader who spearheaded Prop 13.
An angry mob of thousands converged on an Orange County parking lot in southern California on a recent Saturday morning for an anti-tax protest, stunning even the organizers with the size of the turnout. It was just one in a series of public demonstrations that have cropped up around the state.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
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Ah! Excellent graphic choice! :)
About time and may it inspire more throughout the country. Along with tea parties, a campaign to vote every incumbent out needs to get going full steam.
Awesome!
As California goes......
These graphics shift from time to time don’t they?
What’s more the Laffer curve effect will kick in. Sacramento will find itself getting more cash with lighter tax rates.
A thought for our Tea Parties.
Instead of throwing the tea in the harbor, drink it. Then if any politicians show up at the events, throw THEM into the harbor.
"...any kind of tax to keep the government fat"
Kick out all the Illegals, California.
California right noe is a failed state.....unless you are a State “worker” who has better retirement than the US military. Unions Suck....all the $$$ s from the Citizens.
How much latent anger is there out there and what evidence of the do we have?
An angry mob of thousands converged on an Orange County parking lot in southern California on a recent Saturday morning for an anti-tax protest, stunning even the organizers with the size of the turnout. It was just one in a series of public demonstrations that have cropped up around the state.
Anecdotal evidence is virtually no evidence at all. Thousands in a parking lot in the middle of a state of more than 20 million people will not do it.
It is idle to talk about a grass roots rebellion comparable to 1978 in the California of 2009 based on this kind of evidence. The demographics have been so shaped by the Mexican invasion that the California of 30 years ago is scarcely recognizable today. I have long insisted on these threads that all politics in America is not local, but racial.
It is not in the character of conservative taxpayers to engage in revolt; they take more direct action on their own behalf, they move out of the state. And that is a fundamental difference between conservatives and liberals: liberals look to the state to solve problems, conservatives solve their own problems. In real life conservatives have all the advantages but in the political world sheer liberal tenacity tends ultimately to prevail.
If liberals cannot have their way at the ballot box, they will have their way in the courtroom. If those two routes do not avail, they will change the electorate. That is real persistence.
Why not just ban taxes altogether?
I always kinda liked this one:
Cheers!
BZZZZZZT!! That comment, together with your screen name and the photo, will get you written off INSTANTLY by anyone who does not already know you well.
And even those that do know you would be forced for self-preservation's sake to dissociate from your company somewhat.
Please, remove your foot from your mouth slowly, and wait outside.
Lefties trolling FR would pay pure gold to use your remark as "representative."
nothing a few hundred thousand more illegals can't cure...
“It is not in the character of conservative taxpayers to engage in revolt...”
Bunk!
This conservative is going to revolt, THEN move!
I wish all the talk of how stuffy and reserved conservatives are would just stop.
Conservatives need to kick some *ss about now, don’t you think?
You can’t just MOVE! The fed will find your paycheck wherever you are in the country.
We MUST resist!
If you find resisting repulsive then stay the hell home and stop spreading apathy and a do-nothing attitude.
There’s nothing noble or high-minded about refusing to create a stink when your masters seek to make a slave of you and yours—STOP IT!
It’s time to stand up to this!
Or suffer your burden silently, PLEASE!
Better yet, check out http://pushbackuntil.com. This is the ONLY way things are going to change.
Better yet, check out http://pushbackuntil.com. This is the ONLY way things are going to change. The TEA parties are a start, but we need to take the fight into the belly of the beast.
You can see all that from Germany?
Being someone who has lived here during five decades, I say you're wrong. It is very much recognizeable, although it is overridden with massive regulation, non-business friendly liberals, and about 5 million illegal aliens (who theoretically do not vote). Gerrymandered districts, along with liberals overwhelming the political stage, have resulted in a disproportionate number of liberals dominating state and local governments.
But all is not dead, and all conservatives have not fled as you suggest to "solve their problems;" surrender or flight is no solution at all. Despite the liberal leaning of our current Governor(R), the man clearly ran on a campaign of fiscal conservatism and the rule of law, and won in a landslide (the two conservative candidates took almost 70% of the vote). Other conservative initiatives have passed, or come close to passing, that show that Conservatism is not dead.
So, please don't be so quick to write off California or succumb to the tired tirade of it being 'ungovernable' or how everyone needs to move "leftward." What we need is moral support, not a bunch of outsiders telling us why it "can't be done." And the tax tea parties, combined with an upcoming special election, are a good time to show it can be done.
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