Chris Matthews: Bite me

  So about those rascally tea parties? The question rages, as the news media tries to paint tea partiers as racists, homophobes, anti-government. Any population has a certain degree of kooks and fringe elements, but for some reason, tea partiers are being held to a higher standard than the rest of society. 
  In truth, the Perrysburg Tea Party (which isn't really an organization) is made up of God fearing patriots who just want to hand down to our children a country that respects the Constitution, lives within its means, encourages and rewards hard work as opposed to laziness and appreciates the great country in which we live. We do believe in American exceptionalism; we do believe that this is the greatest country on the earth and even those of us in unions don't want unions to swallow alive the treasure of this country. 
   Another truth is that this movement, some of which is organized and most of which really isn't, is made up of patriots of all stripes. Believe it or not, Chris Matthews, there are gay patriots. There really are. There are black patriots. There really are. I could go on. There are motorcycle riding patriots. There are patriots who use the F word and like adult beverages. There are elderly patriots in their 90s who are stuck in nursing homes watching Glenn Beck with great longing to, one more time, march on Washington in August in support of this movement.
  Now MSNBC is trying to paint us as loons, as overthrowers of the government (in spite of what the Declaration of Independence says), as wild-eyed extremists who are going to march in the streets and try to take over the local school board (you might be surprised how many secret tea partiers are on local school boards). Using the Michael Moore technique of selectively edited video and audio(as usual), Matthews throws everything in the same pot:
 The problem with that theory is that we are the conservative ones. We are the ones who go to work every day: to school, to the office, to the nursing home as caregivers. We aren't the loons.

  So we're supposed to just shut up and take it, the way we always have. We're supposed to give up our rights while the left takes over everything this country has represented since its founding, distorts it and turns it into a steaming pile. 

  Mr. Matthews, you're accustomed to having your talking head panels of 3 liberals and 1 so-called conservative so you think everyone in your world is liberal. Not so. This is a center right country. And we don't like what you're doing. 

  You have a tv program (which hardly anyone watches...you had to talk about US to get your ratings up. You HAD to be inflammatory). 

  We have our Gadsden flags and blogs. 

  We aren't going to be quiet anymore. We've had it with the fist of the left, we've been mocked and ridiculed for being too provincial, we've been slurred with the "teabagger" name by the most elite and supposedly erudite of liberals. It's disgusting. But you won't intimidate us by using that slur because now we know we are not alone.

  The movement is in favor of smaller government, not "no government" as even that perpetual protester Thoreau suggested was improbable.

  So here y'all go. 

  International tea parties.

“I think the message of the American Revolution is global. The message of natural, unalienable rights, the message of opposition to tyrannical government — that’s not just well-known, that’s universal,” Boris Karpa, organizer of the Israeli Tea Party, told The Daily Caller in an e-mail. “As you know well, many countries have based their founding documents on the U.S. Declaration of Independence or other American documents.

ISRAEL:

We are tired too. Let's join together to tell the political bureaucrats to get out of our hair. Let's tell them what We The People really want for a change.

Moscow:

В четвертый раз сторонники свободной экономики соберутся на Болотной площади. И на этот раз это будет грандиозно! Планируется более пяти тысяч участников, видео-мост с Евгением Чичваркиным (бизнесменом, который с нуля создал известнейшую компанию в России), живой концерт, топ-фигуры российского бизнеса. Читать дальше »

Netherlands:

Merkwaardig, hoe twee zeer uiteenlopende systemen van ideen elkaar aanvullen en een vorm van samenleving opleveren, die helemaal is toegesneden op de menselijke natuur. Die samenlevingsvorm is niet perfect, maar wel optimaal.

Though we may not understand the language, we understand the message. 

And the Gadsden flag that Matthews views as so threatening?

Look at the Gadsden flag that they wield, that warning of "Don't Tread on Me" with its coiled rattlesnake. In 1776, it served as a warning to those who threatened America from abroad. Today, it's being waved in contempt of our honestly-elected American government in Washington. 

  Honestly elected? We have our doubts about what's going on in this administration.
  We'll wave our flags as we dang well please, Chris Matthews. We'll hang 'em on our porches and in our hearts, because we know what you don't seem to know or have forgotten: like a coiled snake, you didn't know we were there until you stepped on us. 
  And then we rose.
  The Founding Fathers blog has a history of the meaning of the Gadsden flag and why colonists used the coiled snake to symbolize the not so united at the time states, first illustrated by Benjamin Franklin:

I like seeing all the American flags. I do have my complaints about the American government, especially about how intimately the Washington D.C. politicians feel they should be involved in the daily lives of their subjects, I mean, citizens. But the flag isn't just a symbol of the American government. It's a symbol of shared American values -- especially our highest common value: freedom. 

When it comes to symbolizing freedom and the spirit of '76, I do think there's a better American flag. With all due respect to the stars and stripes, I prefer the yellow Gadsden flag with the coiled rattlesnake and the defiant Don't Tread on Me motto. 

The meaning of Old Glory can get mixed up with the rights and wrongs of the perpetually new-and-improved government. The meaning of "Don't Tread on Me" is unmistakable.

  Got that, Chris Matthews? The meaning is unmistakable and transcends governments. Our rights are granted to us by NATURE'S GOD, not the GOVERNMENT. 
  There is no replacement for freedom. Those politicians who have lorded it over us, utilizing this nation's treasure to benefit themselves and then accusing US of laziness, cheapness, homophobia, racism, those politicians NEED TO GO. 
  Other countries are beginning to get it. Now how about YOU, Chris Matthews???
  So bite me. 
  I just remembered.   
  I bite back.