Diary of Thirst: a blog about progressive art, politics, & culture

The Revolution is not a Tea Party:

In Dark Matter: Art and Politics in the Age of Enterprise culture I wrote about a group of artists known as the Aaron Burr Society (Brooklyn, NY) who have defiantly re-tooled “the conservative Tea Party imaginary for left-libertarianism, while distilling illegal, untaxed whiskey as a protest against the economic crash.” This “spirited” approach to artistic political dissent is the vision of Burr Society founder (and REPOhistory alumni) Jim Costnzo. Rather than invoking middle-class colonist’s resistance against the East India Trading Company’s monopoly on trade imports (aka the Boston Tea Party of 1773), Costanzo invokes a different moment of dissent known as the Whisky Rebellion that took place several decades after the Revolution in 1790. It was in fact one of five mini-revolutions against bond speculation in the early years of the United States. The Whiskey Rebels said that they were protecting the Revolution’s democratic inheritance, which they described as the government’s unjust and oppressive redistribution of wealth from ordinary citizens to the affluent. They also denounced the “evil” of creating a single Bank of the United States thus turning over financial authority to a handful wealthy, private men. **

Costanzo named his new group after Burr, a man known to many Americans as a national traitor. In fact the former New York Senator championed by Gore Vidal staunchly opposed big banks and financial speculators. Along with brewing illegal, untaxed spirits Aaron Burr Society has performed “exorcisms” against Wall Street vampires and distributed hundreds of “free dollars,” I am pleased to kick-off thus blog I call Diary of a Thirst – an occasional series of interviews, observations, and debates aimed at satisfying the craving for progressive discourse about contemporary art, politics, and culture– with Aaron Burr Society founder Jim Costanzo who comments on the topic du jour: The Tea Party, The Debt Ceiling, and Tax Revolts.

Here is what Costanzo/Aaron Burr Society had to say:

Most people think the politics of the Debt Limit is political theater but its not. It’s a Christian morality pay with the bankers and their corporate cronies as demigods. Everyone seems to be bowing to the Ayn Rand fiction of the aristocratic “job creator” as savior when, in fact, corporate America and their politicians have legalized bribery and fraud while usurping what little democratic life was left in the Republic. What we need is a crass Punch & Judy style anarchist theater showing the king has no clothes.

The 2008 international economic meltdown was a bank robbery by bankers.* Our debt, both national and in most personal cases, was caused by their fraudulent speculation. Government deregulation and corporate fraud crashed the economy, again! This should not be a surprise since it happened many times before and many progressive economists were warning about economic “bubbles” before the 2008 crash. The roots of the problem go deep. They begin in the years leading up to the Revolution and continue on up to the founding of the nation with the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution.

During the Revolutionary War soldiers, farmer, and merchants were paid with War Bonds. By the end of Revolution, these bonds were worth pennies on the dollar. Soldiers would sell all of their bonds to buy one set of new clothes to replace the torn rags that passed as uniforms. Small farmers and merchants were also forced to sell because money was scarce and they were desperate. The speculators who bought the bonds used their wealth and political influence to pressure the government to buy back the bonds at face value resulting in outrageous profits. Worse yet, money raised to pay for the bonds came primarily from taxes paid by the soldiers and farmers who were original cheated.

Individual states issued paper money and set up agencies to give loans to help farmers and the “middling classes” pay their taxes and other expenses. But creditors complained that this cheapened the value of their bonds. The Constitution was written, in part, to help creditors and establish a minority rule of elites that disenfranchised many soldiers who were not property owner and thus unable to vote. Of course woman and people of color were also denied the rights of citizenship. In addition, the first Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton instituted a two-tiered economic and tax system. His other polices included opening the first National Bank, the equivalent to our Federal Reserve Bank [the Fed] and the Federal Government’s assumption of the state’s debt, which made war bond speculators millionaires, or billionaires if you count inflation. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson protested, stating that Hamilton’s polices created a new aristocracy of speculators and later resigned his position. Together with New York Senator Aaron Burr, Jefferson fought against Hamilton’s policies and as a result of their efforts opposing Hamilton, they became president and vice president in the election of 1800.

During this period, there were at least five armed rebellions against war bond speculators. The Whiskey Rebellion of 1791 to 1794 was the most significant action taken against minority rule and speculation, which transferred wealth from the small farmer, merchants and workers. “From start to finish, the Whiskey Rebels had said that they were protecting the Revolution’s democratic inheritance. They had complained about the government’s unjust and oppressive ‘Redistribution of Wealth’ from ordinary citizens to the affluent. They had condemned the “insulting” provisions to enrich war debt speculators by taxing the ‘laborious and poor class,’ whose only form of money was the whiskey they distilled. They had denounced the ‘evil’ of creating the Bank of the United States and turning over financial authority to a few wealthy private men. All these policies, they said, would ‘bring immediate distress and ruin’ to a countryside populated with indebted farmers suffering from the scarcity of a circulating medium [money].’ Moreover, they said the excise (tax on whiskey) and all these policies undermined democracy and liberty by further concentrating wealth and power.”**

Today’s debt crisis, though different, is based on the same economic principles that caused the Whiskey Rebellion. Debt is about power, not just money. Especially since the Supreme Court’s Citizen United ruling that gives corporations the same rights as citizens, which of course means that citizens have no rights because they have little to no access to their elected representatives. Some believe that the Court’s appointment of George W. Bush as president in 2000, 9/11, the financial meltdown and the Citizen United ruling were all part of a Right Wing conspiracy. That’s for others to debate. What is clear is that the economic meltdown was planed and that the Citizen United ruling echoes the anti-democratic political positions that Alexander Hamilton promoted. These polices included appointing George Washington emperor for life, lifetime appointments to the Senate [similar to the British House of Lords] and a planned economy with government subsidies and tax relief given to the elite members of the establishment. Hamilton did not believe in democratic processes, free markets or free trade; he wanted to control the government and the economy.***

To counteract Hamilton’s polices, Burr created the Manhattan Company in 1799. The company brought clean water to New York City as well giving loans to the working classes. Burr was a radical in the French Jacobin tradition, but without the Jeffersonian hypocrisy toward slavery and the working classes. In addition to a clean environment, micro financing and social enterprise, Burr allowed the working classes to own shares in the Manhattan Company, giving them input into how the company conducted business. This broke Alexander Hamilton’s banking monopoly in New York and also threatened the National Bank, the heart of Corporate Capitalism. And if that weren’t enough, Burr was a proto-socialist. He created land co-ops so that more people could become property owners and thus vote. This was a direct threat to Madison’s Constitution, which created minority rule. The Aaron Burr Society believes that the lessons of the Manhattan Company are relevant today.

Therefore we in the Aaron Burr Society (founded 2008) propose:

1. Debt remission incurred from fraudulent financial transactions. This includes both the National Debt and personal debt. We also demand the prosecution of those who committed the crimes.

2. We propose the nationalization of the Federal Reserve Bank [Fed]. Ron Paul and Conservative Libertarians want to close the Fed. Progressive Libertarians want to nationalize the Fed and give direct, low interest loans to the People.

3. A Constitutional Amendment that clearly states that Corporations DO NOT have the Rights of Citizens.

4. Repeal NAFTA and all Free Trade treaties and replace them with Fair Trade and an International Living Wage. We will never have a clean, sustainable environment without international social and economic justice.

5. Change the color of the American Flag to Red, White, Blue and Green with Green signifying the environment and economic justice.                                                                  Jim Costanzo/ABS August 1, 2011

Notes and references;

*The Best Way To Rob A Bank Is To Own One: How Corporate Executives And Politicians Looted the S&L Industry by William K. Black [http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/blabes.html]

** Revolutionary Founders Rebels, Radicals, and Reformers in the making of the Nation, edited by Alfrd F. Young, Gary B. Nash, and Ray Raphael [http://us-intellectual-history.blogspot.com/2011/06/sehat-on-young-nash-and-raphael-eds.html]

***Something That Will Surprise The World: the Essential Writings of the Founding Fathers, edited by Susan Dunn, forward by Joseph J. Ellis [http://www.curledup.com/somesurp.htm]