"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Friday, May 17, 2013

The IRS Scandal and the "Low Information Voter"




















One of the biggest hurdles to get over in convincing the American people that the Obama administration is what we have always said they are -- a ruthless gang of Chicago thug-politicians who will do anything and say anything to maintain power and expand the state Leviathan -- is what some on the right call the "low information voter."   It is hard to convince this dim-bulb guy or gal that tyranny is around the corner if they don't know that Obamacare is now the law of the land, or don't know where Benghazi is on a map, or can't tell you that the State Department or the IRS or the ATF or the DoJ are all parts of the Executive Branch and therefore parts of Obama's responsibility, and not entirely separate entities whose activities can't be blamed on him.   Stupidity and time are the great allies of mendacious politicians, because there may very well be a critical mass of Americans who don't know the facts of a given scandal, or else can be convinced, if your stonewalling is effective, that it all happened "a long time ago" (see Carney, Jay).  

This fact, however, has a chance of getting even the "low information voter" over the hump regarding the IRS scandal.   Apparently the head of the IRS department that was carrying out the harassment of Tea Party groups in 2009-2012, Sarah Hall Ingram, received over $100,000 in bonuses over the same three year period.

$100,000.

Of our money.

Bonuses.

Now, I don't know about you, but I think most Americans don't like the IRS.   They don't like the paperwork, the hassle, the fear of audit.   They don't like the complexity.   Mostly they don't like the fact that they have to ship so much of their hard-earned money off to Washington.

Paid to the woman who led the charge to harass Americans simply because Obama didn't like their politics.   Bonuses for infringing on our civil rights, our right to free speech, our right to freedom of association, our right to be treated equally before the law.  

$100,000.

Of our money.

I think that "meme" (as they say) might have legs.   Even the low information voter might understand now that the federal government has become a protection racket where they hold a gun to our head, tell us to pay up or else, and then put the money in their own pockets.

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