Give Us Liberty (24 page)

²⁰
Indeed, the TARP Congressional . . . been severely critical: Elizabeth Warren, “Accountability for the Troubled Asset Relief Program,” Congressional Oversight Panel, January 9, 2009, available at www.cop.senate.gov/reports/library/report-010909.cop.cfim.

²¹
“While the purpose of [the TARP legislation] is to stabilize . . .”: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, “Statement on Stabilizing the Automotive Industry,” HP-1332, U.S. Department of the Treasury, December 19, 2008.

²²
“
If
we possess all the relevant information . . .”: F. A. Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society,” in
Individualism and Economic Order
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948), 77.

²³
“The constitutional questionability of some provisions is worrying . . .”: Stuart Butler and Edwin Meese, III, “The Bailout Package: Vital and Acceptable,” The Heritage Foundation, September 29, 2008.

²⁴
“. . . inaction is not a good option”: https://www.afpmo.org/index.php?id=6475.

²⁵
“grassroots reaction is visceral . . .”: Lisa Lerer, “Bailout Critics Say They're Losing,” Politico.com, September 24, 2008, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13809.html.

²⁶
“economic freedom means the freedom to succeed . . .”: Terence P. Jeffrey, “Pence Calls on Conservatives to Oppose Bailout That ‘Nationalizes' Bad Mortgages,” CNSNews.com, September 28, 2008, http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/36463.

²⁷
“lawmakers say they have received hundreds of calls . . .”: Sarah Lueck and Michael Phillips, “Lawmakers Weigh Political Risks of Stance on Bailout Plan.”
Wall Street Journal
, September 26, 2008, A6.

²⁸
“As a public choice professor, I used to begin class each semester . . .”: Dick Armey, “My Vote: NO,” National Review Online, September 29, 2008, available at http://article.nationalreview.com/372981/my-vote-no/dick-armey.

²⁹
“If ye love wealth better than liberty . . .”: Samuel Adams, speech, August 1, 1776.

³⁰
“Americans' anger is in full bloom . . .”: Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Constituents Make Their Bailout Views Known,”
New York Times,
September 25, 2008, A27.

³¹
“Exempts from the excise tax . . .”: Lawrence H. White, “The Financial Bailouts: ‘See the Needle and the Damage Done,' ”
The Freeman
59
, no. 2, March 2009, http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/the-financial-bailouts-%E2%80%9Csee-the-needle-and-the-damage-done%E2%80%9D/#.

¹
The Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter noted: Joseph A. Schumpeter,
Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy
(New York: Harper & Brothers, 1942).

²
the “seen and the unseen”: Frédéric Bastiat, “That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Not Seen,” in
The Bastiat Collection,
2 vols. (Auburn, Ala.: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2007), 2:1–48.

³
“. . . What are their names?”: Personal recollection of Dick Armey and Phil Gramm, confirmed with Gramm.

⁴
2009 budget deficit was 10 percent of GDP: Jackie Calmes, “$1.4 Trillion Deficit Complicates Stimulus Plans,”
New York Times,
October 17, 2009, A1.

⁵
interest on the debt alone: Jeanne Sahadi, “$4.8 trillion: Interest on U.S. Debt,”
CNN Money.com,
December 20, 2009, http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/19/news/economy/debt_interest/index.htm?cnn=yes.

⁶
He replied “a republic if you can hold it”: Notes of Dr. James McHenry,
American Historical Review
11 (1906), 618.

¹
“As veteran Russia reporters . . .”: Mark Ames and Yasha Levine, “Backstabber: Is Rick Santelli High On Koch?” in Megan McArdle, “Playboy Dips a Toe into Investigative Journalism,” http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/03/playboy-dips-a-toe-into-investigative-journalism/4770/.

²
FreedomWorks as the “Armey of Darkness”: Paul Krugman, “Armey of Darkness,”
New York Times,
April 11, 2009, http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/11/armey-of-darkness.

³
“They're Astroturf (fake grass roots) events . . .”: Paul Krugman, “Tea Parties Forever,”
New York Times,
April 13, 2009, A21.

⁴
“This [Tea Party] initiative is funded by the high end . . .”: KTVU interview with Nancy Pelosi, April 15, 2009, http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/15/pelosi-astroturf.

⁵
“Dick Armey's group is out there . . .”: Press gaggle by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=86538.

⁶
“. . . things that you could not do before”: Gerald Seib, “In Crisis, Opportunity for Obama,”
Wall Street Journal,
November 21, 2008, A2.

⁷
“It is now evident,” they argued, “that an ugly campaign . . .”: Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, “ ‘Un-American' Attacks Can't Derail Health Care Debate,”
USA Today
, August 10, 2009.

⁸
“I'm not afraid of August”: Press conference with Nancy Pelosi, July 23, 2009, http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0709/Pelosi_Im_not_afraid_of_August.html.

⁹
CNN's Anderson Cooper opted for dirty jokes: “Cable Anchors, Guests Use Tea Parties as Platform for Frat House Humor,” http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/16/cable-anchors-guests-use-tea-parties-platform-frat-house-humor.

¹⁰
managed to say the words
teabag
and
teabagger
: “Rachel Maddow's Disgusting Homoerotic Tea Party ‘News' Report,” http://www.ihatethemedia.com/rachel-maddow-disgusting-homoerotic-tea-party-news-report.

¹¹
“helped create the teabaggers . . .”: Jonathan Alter,
The Promise: President Obama, Year One
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010).

¹²
“They're carrying swastikas and symbols like that . . .”: Interview with Nancy Pelosi, www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFSZiG14GOU.

¹³
“. . . our own right-wing domestic terrorists . . .”: http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWY5ZmYwNTkwMjE0MTMxYTk2ZjQyOTZhMmI0ZWQ3MzY.

¹⁴
“. . . we value our liberties . . .”: Peter Hamby, “Axelrod Suggests ‘Tea Party' Movement Is ‘Unhealthy,' ” April 19, 2009, http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/19/axelrod-suggests-tea-party-movement-is-unhealthy/?fbid=JiSECAjMn8i.

¹⁵
“. . . that picture of him in the
Post
today . . .”: President Bill Clinton, “The Tragedy of Oklahoma City 15 Years Later,” April 16, 2010, http://www.americanprogressaction.org/events/2010/04/inf/clinton.pdf.

¹⁶
“This is about hating a black man . . .”: Keith Olbermann interview with Janeane Garofalo,
Countdown,
April 16, 2009, http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/back-story/2009/apr/17/liberal-actress-says-tea-parties-were-racist/.

¹⁷
“. . . an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity . . .”: Brian Williams, interview with President Jimmy Carter,
NBC Nightly News,
September 15, 2009, http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/15/carter.obama/index.html.

¹⁸
“The public is outraged about the president's policies . . .”: “Statement of Project 21 Fellow Deneen Borelli on Allegations of Racism Against Critics of Obama Policies,” September 16, 2009, http://www.nationalcenter.org/PR-Racism_Obama_091609.html.

¹⁹
“Personally, I'm not a fan of this movement”: David Brooks, “The Tea Party Teens,”
New York Times,
January 5, 2010, A21.

²⁰
“There is an argument floating . . .”: David Brooks, “No U-Turns,”
New York Times,
March 29, 2007.

²¹
“. . . tactics of the New Left”: David Brooks, “The Wal-Mart Hippies,”
New York Times,
March 5, 2010, A27.

²²
“. . . evil is introduced into society by corrupt elites and rotten authority structures”: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/05/opinion/05brooks.html.

²³
“People of the same trade seldom meet together . . .”: Adam Smith,
The Wealth of Nations,
http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWN4.html#I.10.82

²⁴
“Normal, nonideological people are less concerned . . .”: Brooks, “No U-Turns.”

²⁵
“Now I'm not a true Republican . . .”: Amy Gardner, “Republicans in Utah Direct Anger at Former Party Favorite Bennett,”
Washington Post,
May 1, 2010, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/30/AR2010043000770.html.

²⁶
“a proposal for time travel . . .”: Michael Gerson, “Doers vs. Undoers,” townhall.com, February 26, 2010, http://townhall.com/columnists/MichaelGerson/2010/02/26/doers_vs_undoers?page=full&comments=true.

²⁷
“. . . conservatism has been reduced to sound bites”: Steven F. Hayward, “Is Conservatism Brain-Dead?”
Washington Post,
October 4, 2009.

²⁸
“opposition to Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress has sparked a resurgence . . .”: Brink Lindsey, “Right Is Wrong,”
Reason
magazine, August 2010.

²⁹
these informal networks take advantage of what philosopher Michael Polanyi:
Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-critical philosophy
” (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958).

³⁰
“It seems that Greenspan, Bernanke, Fannie, Freddie . . .”: David Boaz, “What Caused Atlas Shrugged Sales to Soar?” http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/05/18/what-caused-atlas-shrugged-sales-to-soar/.

³¹
As Saul Alinsky teaches, “change comes from power . . .”: Saul Alinsky,
Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals
(New York: Random House, 1971; New York: Vintage Books, 1989), 113.

³²
“. . . Democrats have vilified the ‘tea party' . . .”: Neil Munro, “The Tea Party: Do Not Boil,”
National Journal,
April 24, 2010.

³³
Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic political consultant”: Ibid.

³⁴
views of the “Tea Party” (48 percent): “Tea Party 48% Obama 44%,” Rasmussen Reports, http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/april_2010/tea_party_48_obama_44.

¹
“We won't get a public option . . .”: Fred Barbash, “Robert Reich Calls for March on Washington in Support of Public Option,” Politico.com, August 18, 2009, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26224.html.

²
Sophia Elena, a video blogger: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXo-13UQKcw.

³
“. . . it had received a bomb threat”: Teddy Davis, “There's a ‘Big Ol T.E.A. Party' Coming to Washington,” September 11, 2009, http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/09/theres-a-big-ol-tea-party-coming-to-washington-.html.

⁴
“Everyone was in great spirits . . .”: E-mail submitted to FreedomWorks “Why I Marched” initiative.

⁵
“I loved seeing people of all ages marching . . .”: E-mail submitted to FreedomWorks “Why I Marched” initiative.

⁶
250,000 strong: http://www.lib.lsu.edu/hum/mlk/srs216.html.

⁷
“FreedomWorks held a Capitol Hill demonstration yesterday . . .”: “Democratic Memo: 9/12 Project Might Draw Two Million People to D.C. Tomorrow,” September 11, 2009, http://hotair.com/archives/2009/09/11/democratic-memo-912-project-might-draw-two-million-people-to-dc-tomorrow.

⁸
“I was stunned by the number of people . . .”: E-mail submitted to FreedomWorks “Why I Marched” initiative.

⁹
“as many as one million people . . .”: David Gardner, “A Million March to U.S. Capitol to Protest Against ‘Obama the Socialist,' ”
London Daily Mail,
September 14, 2009, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1213056/Up-million-march-US-Capitol-protest-Obamas-spending-tea-party-demonstration.html.

¹⁰
“. . . their dc demonstration attracted 30,000 people”: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/09/freedomworks-cuts-estimate-for-crowd-at-its-912-rally-by-one-half.php.

¹¹
“Authorities in the District . . .”: Emma Brown, James Hohmann, and Perry Bacon Jr., “Lashing Out at the Capitol,”
Washington Post,
September 13, 2009.

¹²
“probably well more than 850,000 in the crowd”: Charlie Martin, “March on Washington: How Big
Was
the Crowd?”
Pajamas Media,
September 14, 2009.