The Totalitarian Mailing List?

Ross Douthat has an op-ed in the NY Times The Taxman vs. the Tea Party which is unexceptional as the sort of thing you would find written by one of the “conservatives” on the Times payroll. It seems that even some who write for the Times thinks that using the IRS to harass your political enemies is a little over the line. Keep in mind Richard Nixon’s articles of impeachment included the accusation that he used the IRS to go after his opponents. There is some doubt that the IRS under Nixon actually followed through. They seem to have been more accommodating under to Obama.

What’s most revealing about the Douthat article is not the article but the comments that follow from NY Times readers. This comment, from reader sdavidc9 Cornwall Bridge, Connecticut is quite typical:

Our present brown scare is thoroughly justified by the behavior of the browns, who tend to fervently believe things that are wrong. For example, a convinced birther could well decide that Second Amendment remedies were in order, and work on planning an assassination. We have a long tradition of presidential assassinations, so it is something that must be worried about.

Texan with a heart Texas received 77 thumbs up for:

Go IRS go! Those Tea Party groups are trying to game the system. Make sure they are entitled to the tax status they are seeking. And make sure sure the Kochs and Roves are paying the taxes they owe and not parking money in the Caymans or Switzerland

Pkbrando Mankato received 132 thumbs up

Or maybe the IRS was just doing its job: looking closely at organizations that have a high probability of filing inaccurate returns. It's called efficient management.

Karen Garcia New Paltz, NY received 159 thumbs up

As reprehensible as the singling out of Tea Party groups for audits is, the rationale behind it is understandable, given the right wing's strident aversion to paying any taxes at all. I would much rather the IRS team up with the lackadaisical Dept. of Justice for some joint investigations into the personal finances of the astroturf honchos themselves. Hmmm.... how about Ginny & Clarence Thomas, the Kochs, Glen "Gold Bug" Beck, followed quickly by probes of Wall Street bankers, carried-interest bonus CEOs and all the members of Congress who just cravenly reneged on their own insider-trading law.

tom mcmahon millis ma received only 82 thumbs up

Elephant tears are streaming from my eyes. As someone who was self employed for 25 years as a manufactures representitive I was called in on more than two occasions to explain myself, my returns, deductions to the IRS. Even if the IRS targeted Tea Party members, one must recognize from the view of the IRS they are the enemy, for they wish nothing more or less than than a decrease in revenue. Oh, I'm so surprised. IRS is there to maintain revenue, period. Assess, apply and collect what is owed, and if you don't owe it, you don't pay it.

The IRS has been a political weapon since its inception, Nixon loved using it.

So now the shoe is on the other foot, and crybabies scream Wah wah..

I won’t bore you with any more as more NY Times subscribers chime in. Click on Douthat’s article and check the comments for yourself. What’s disturbing about this is that it seems that the overwhelming majority of the readers the NY Times appear to see nothing really wrong with using the IRS to harass their political enemies.   I'm fairly confident that they would have the same reaction to the use of other government agencies, read FBI, CIA or any of the regulatory agencies, to silence their critics. 

 

Which leads me to wonder: if I wanted to create a group willing to subvert the rights of the American people in the interests of a Left wing Fascist state, would it be reasonable to start with the subscriber list of the NY Times?