Tea Party? Rich People’s Movements: Isaac William Martin, a sociologist at the University of California, San Diego, has written an eloquent and powerful new book that demonstrates exactly the kind of history our benighted public debate so desperately needs. Rich People’s Movements: Grassroots Campaigns to Untax the One Percent examines the historical predecessors of the contemporary Tea Party movement. But there’s more. According to Martin, Arnold was most successful in the South—where the Tea Party is also most powerful today. In the early 1900s, local planter elites were concerned that increased government spending might “endanger the willingness of the black poor to work for low wages,” thereby threatening their livelihoods. These powerful individuals were receptive to Arnold’s message. Mississippi, Martin reminds us, had been an early ratifier of the 16th Amendment —the state was so poor that fewer than 300 residents owed any federal income tax. Soon after, Arnold’s organizing paid off and, in a complete reversal, the state voted to repeal it. By Eric Alterman : Excerpt
Posted on: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 19:05:59 +0000
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