There were two beverage themed protests in American history way, way back in the ancient times of our people, back when the Founding Fathers still roamed the prairies in great herds before they were killed by doctors wielding leeches for their hides.
The first, of course, was the Boston Tea Party, when brave patriots dressed up like Native Americans and threw a bunch of tea into Boston Harbor.
This started several great events that would continue to impact the continent for some time: the American Revolution and the other long standing practices of polluting Boston Harbor and having Native Americans portrayed by white actors.
Lesser known, was an event that took place after the war, when a bunch of small businessmen and yeoman farmers took exception to a new tax on whiskey.
From wikipedia:
Congress designed the tax so smaller distillers would pay by the gallon, while larger distillers (who could produce in volume) could take advantage of a flat fee. The net result was to affect smaller producers more than larger ones. George Washington, the president at the time, was one such large producer of whiskey. Large producers were assessed a tax of 6 cents per gallon, while small producers were taxed at 9 cents per gallon.
So we have a law that favors the rich over the small businessman and that rewards those in government who also had a share in the business that benefited from the tax.
Now, if I were to decide to throw a beverage themed protest based on the idea that it was rather obscene to tax the middle class and hand that money over to special interest groups and favored corporations who blew all of their funds on the New York Roulette Exchange, I have two choices. I could:
- Opt to adopt the Boston Tea Party as my model. Call ourselves Tea Baggers, keep information about the protests largely confined to an insular Republican Chorus of broadcasters, invite other people to come down and tea bag with us, and march around waving tea bags to the sky hoping that by doing so, I can send a message that if you don't change your policy, then at the very least you'll have a lot of bad mental imagery of fat, pasty hillbillies teabagging each other in the park.
- Or, I could invite a bunch of people down to a protest party, invite all of the local community down, let the Jameson and the Jack Daniels flow and actually, you know, have some fun and maybe attract some new people to hear about my ideas. Post a few attractive folks outside the event getting contact info and let everyone know that we can have some fun while making a simple point that we don't approve of taking from the middle class to give to the rich.
This is why the Republicans are losing.