The IRS has silenced us, say tea party members on thousands of radio and TV shows

From the June 4, 2013, edition of “Viewpoint.”

John Fugelsang:

I’m John Fuglesang, and I’d like to appeal to all you kind Americans out there and ask you to open your hearts and lend a hand to one of the most persecuted, oppressed and voiceless groups in all of America. Of course, I’m talking about the tea party.

Recently, we learned that during the time when [the IRS] was headed by Douglas Shulman, certain midlevel bureaucrats at the IRS office in Cincinnati targeted tea party groups unfairly. Now, I know this is shocking — the idea that something interesting could ever happen in Cincinnati. But tea partyers had to face the worst thing any decent American ever faced, my friends: increased, inconvenient amounts of paperwork to prove that groups holding signs saying “Impeach Obama” shouldn’t pay taxes because they’re obviously not political.

Now, this kerfuffle caused the tea party to experience the worst human-rights abuses since the Stark family went to that wedding on “Game of Thrones.”

Becky Gerritson, my friends, president of the Wetumpka, Alaska, tea party, said, “This is not an accident. This is a willful act of intimidation intended to discourage a point of view.”

Yes, the tea party was intimidated into complete silence to such an extent that the only place she was allowed to say this was before a committee of congressmen in front of millions of viewers on CSPAN, CNN and Fox News.

Now let me ask: How would you like it if the IRS wanted to know if you’d been cheating on your taxes, when all you did was carry around a big sign that said, “Taxes are a crime against humanity”?

It’s not right, and the tea party needs your help. They need 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status so they can hide the identities of their completely nonpolitical donors. They need ink so they can keep on non-politically drawing Hitler mustaches on posters of Obama. And they need funds to buy vintage military outfits that best express the America they believe in — and they need a lot of money for that because authentic Confederate soldier uniforms can get a little pricey.

But don’t take my word for it. Please listen to Lester Derndack, a tea party member who suffered the oppression of the Obama administration firsthand. Lester?

Frank Conniff as Lester Derndack: I applied for tax-exempt status from the IRS and was subjected to all sorts of abuse. I was given extra paperwork that I was forced to sign and spend the whole better part of an afternoon working on. And look at our Muslim president — he’s allowed to serve in office with only two birth certificates. Have you seen them things? I had a nightmare of copies and triplicates that took up an entire hour. I’m telling you, I do not recognize America anymore. Benghazi!

That is very brave, Lester. You’re proof that real teabaggers don’t choke. And there are millions more — exactly, completely like him.

So won’t you please help? These tea party members have been silenced, and they now have no voice in society, as they’ve said thousands of times on the thousands of radio and cable TV shows they’ve appeared on relentlessly. These loyal patriots who only want to bring down our government and turn the country over to Wall Street oligarchs have been trying to scrimp and scrape by with only a few million-dollar contributions from billionaire, anonymous supporters like the Koch brothers.

Without your help, they might suffer the fate of Emerge America, a liberal group targeted by the IRS for being political, that was actually, really forced to disclose its donors and lose tax-exempt status, which still hasn’t happened to a single one of these tea party groups that shouldn’t pay taxes because they’re so not political.

Are you going to let the IRS get away, my friends, with breaking zero laws and ensuring people pay their taxes?

All of your contributions are tax deductible. And remember: If you care about the tea party, do everything you can to impeach the president who appointed Douglas Shulman to run the IRS.