As I posted Tuesday, some people took time off to protest yesterday. I am not sure what exactly they object to or what they want. It appears that they don't like paying taxes and they object to government spending. Although they may not have realized it, their real purpose was to help News Corp (NYSE: NWS) to whip up the faithful who watch Fox News and boost its viewership so it can sell advertising.
How did things turn out for those folks? Yesterday a few hundred people stood in the rain outside the White House and a few hundred more did the same in Philadelphia. But in places like Texas and Utah, there were more tea baggers. 1,000 cheered Governor Rick Perry who suggested in Austin that Texas might secede from the U.S. And a crowd booed Governor Jon Huntsman of Utah for accepting $1.5 billion in federal stimulus money.
Here's the thing. There are 300 million people in this country and enough of them vote so that the thousands of people who showed up at the 750 teabagging ceremonies are not likely to make any difference -- even if they could figure out what they wanted to see change. Nevertheless, they have every right to voice their opinions and with the exception of the White House protest -- which was stopped when a protester threw a package onto the White House lawn -- they did.
Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College. His eighth book is You Can't Order Change: Lessons from Jim McNerney's Turnaround at Boeing. He has consulted to News Corp.'s CEO and has no financial interest in its securities.











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-16-2009 @ 1:47PM
Iridium said...
I don't want any government services other than fire, rescue, protection, and roads.
The funny thing is that all of this can be done with $750 billion or less. That leaves $2.25 trillion paying for things I do not want.
Things like welfare, massive pork, medicaid, and social security. I have no choice because the goverment takes my money and spends it. I have no choice because my vote is drowned out by 10 people on welfare who each vote 4 or 5 times.
You are better off not working of making under the poverty level. Even though you don't pay a dime in feredal taxes you get huge tax refunds up to $4000. You get food stamps up to $700 a month for food. You can get a $200k townhouse for $199 a month. You don't even have to worry about the cost of health care.
Maybe you make too much money Peter. I think that is the problem. You don't have to worry. You can live with the goverment taking half of what you make. Maybe you think the poor deserve government handouts. Well they don't.
Nobody deserves to be completely irresposible and get rewarded for it. To pop out 5 kids just to get extra money from the government. You cry out against the banks recieving bailouts yet you don't care about trillions going to the undeserving underclass that is poisoning our society.
That is what the teaparties were about. People like you just can't understand what it is like to see 40% of your money taken away from you just to be given to a deadbeat 3rd generation welfare case. You don't have to watch them load up three shopping carts with food and not even care about the cost when you can barely afford half a cart. You don't have to worry about how you are going to pay for a $4000 medical bill because your wife had a gallstone. You see a emergency room full of people with common colds using the space as a doctors office. Every one of them draining money out of your pocket.
That is the real world. Something you obviously have never lived in. This wasn't a Fox News stunt. This was real people that are just fed up. Liberal groups have to pay people to show up at events like this. They have to use lies to rally people to a cause.
4-16-2009 @ 1:55PM
ncsustash said...
Why does everyone refer to it as teabagging ceremonies? Sounds a bit gay.
Tea Party please.
4-16-2009 @ 2:05PM
carrdon said...
looked like a LOT more people showed up than you stated. Particularly South Carolina, California and other places. I doubt Fox had anything to do with getting people mad about the utter waste in the stimulus package and all the subsequent budget earmarks and pork. At least they are honest enough to report the truth - unlike MSNBC which is nothing but a propaganda machine.
4-16-2009 @ 3:27PM
Ian said...
Iridium, you hit the nail on the head. Obama is slowly dragging the USA into socialism. Peter Cohan sounds like a bounder, a fake and a charlatan (tea party language).
4-16-2009 @ 3:27PM
Ian said...
Is Peter Cohan a real human being or an alien controlled fascist blogger?
4-16-2009 @ 4:45PM
Chris K. said...
Cohan said:
"Although they may not have realized it, their real purpose was to help News Corp to whip up the faithful who watch Fox News and boost its viewership so it can sell advertising. "
As if he didn't realize the only purpose of his blog posts is to boost viewership for this Time Warner website so it can sell advertising.
Regardless, I find it very amusing to listen to liberal extremists like Cohan make fun of political protesters from the minority party.
4-16-2009 @ 5:46PM
NewsJunkie said...
What makes all these events even worse was the buzz created by Gov. Perry's comments. I can't believe he is willing to sacrifice all legitimacy the political party system has for some good PR for his reelection bid. How he can be taken seriously in the future as a politician is beyond me. I don't care what party you belong to, but comments like this completely undermine all authority the government has. What kind of American are you if you want to secede because of some taxes you don't agree with. Here's a video about all the media coverage of the event:
http://www.newsy.com/videos/don_t_mess_with_texas/
4-16-2009 @ 8:39PM
gsan201 said...
Peter Cohan and his teabagging sounds like a liberal douchebaggger. Peter(DICK) knows exactly what he is doing with his Propaganda and vile rhetoric. Douchebag douchebaggggg!!!!!
4-16-2009 @ 10:11PM
Zephram Stark said...
Washington D.C. can "require" all the taxes it wants, but (per 16 Am Jur 2d, Sec 177 late 2d, Sec 256) we don't give our federal employees the power to bail out banks. As soon as Washington D.C. started buying Goldman Sachs junk loan derivatives with tax dollars, it lost any chance of forcing us through a jury trial to pay taxes. My name is Zephram Stark, and I promise you that I will never pay another penny to the IRS as long as I live, and I have made provisions to live a very long time.
4-17-2009 @ 6:40AM
Michael J. Loftis said...
Mr Cohen missed the mail in group and it is not surprising since he is one those Liberal College Professors. The People are sick and tired of Washington using our Taxes for unnecessary and wasteful projects. It is our money not theirs and it must be spent wisely or they may not have any to spend.
4-17-2009 @ 11:13AM
dude said...
I wish we really could "Tea Bag" our politicians that raise our taxes. They don't have any problem bending us over when it comes to raping us of our money. How come if you are on welfare you don't pay taxes yet you STILL get tax rebates and get subsidised housing, food and medical care... but if you lose your job and can't pay taxes on your house they kick you out in the street and take your house away ??? You can tell this Peter Cohan is a lib... he doesn't seem to care if his taxes are raised and given to deadbeats. He thinks it was Fox News that Organized the Tea Parties. He can't seem to realize that people are pissed that banks were bailed out with trillions of dollars then they turned around and used that money for billions in bonuses for the very employess that almost bankrupted them. Meanwhile the average taxpayer gets $13 extra in their paycheck.. and weak tax incentives to buy automobiles and houses. Very few people that are losing there homes will be helped. I would rather see the money go to people that are being foreclosed on than see the money go to greedy overpaid bank execs.