It didn't take long after the attack on an Austin, TX IRS building by a disgruntled Joseph Stack, before both righties and lefties decided to play the blame game. The blogosphere has been ablaze all day with leftists blaming the tea party gang and rightists pointing to Stack's seemingly pro-communist statement.
But just who was Joe mad at?
It would appear: everyone.
His manifesto, written days before he flew his private plane into the IRS offices in Austin, reads like the words of an angry man, a frustrated man, and a man who felt he had nothing left to live for.
But most of his anger is directed at the tax system and it's loopholes. In his “manifesto” he talks of his broken idealism:
“We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy. Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers.”
Joe reveals his pain in finding out that his country wasn't quite what he'd been told. He lost faith in the system that runs our nation and it's easy to see where a statement like the above could be taken to point to the far right or, at the very least, a right-leaning conspiratorial nut:
“I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood. These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse.”
Joe's letter reveals a man upset at the consistent bail-outs given to corporations (he specifically cites the auto bail-outs). But he also points to another fiendish entity:
“Some friends introduced me to a group of people who were having ‘tax code’ readings and discussions. In particular, zeroed in on a section relating to the wonderful “exemptions” that make institutions like the vulgar, corrupt Catholic Church so incredibly wealthy.”
It may be a while before we find out who the “group” was that Joe hooked up with, according to his blog, back in the 1980's. But it's very clear: Joe resents the Catholic church and it's wealth. And Joe believes the Government tax system made the Catholic church wealthy by allowing tax exemptions to churches (501-c3).
Joe isn't happy with any religious groups, though. He feels that religions take advantage of people:
“The intent of this exercise and our efforts was to bring about a much-needed re-evaluation of the laws that allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living.”
Joe believed there was “one for the very rich, and one for the rest of us”, which sounds a lot like the rhetoric one hears from the “left”.
So which one is Joe? An angry tea-party terrorist or a lefty anti-religion whack job?
Joe tells us a great deal about his life's struggles. His fight to gain a profitable education, even when it meant living on Ritz crackers and peanut butter. But he also tells us about an elderly woman who tried to convince him that eating cat food would be healthier for him.
Joe began feeling the sting of compassionate indignation back then.
Ultimately his attempts to better his life were thwarted by changes in the tax code in the 1980's. Joe claims these changes made it impossible for him to increase his lot in life. And they may well have. Part of the 1986 tax code change did amount to the “harassment” of independent “engineers and scientists”. Synergistech's website explains:
“Prior to 1987, any US worker who preferred to be engaged as an independent contractor needed only to request this status from his or her client, conduct him- or herself as an independent, and receive a Form 1099 rather than a Form W2 at year's end to qualify as an independent contractor for tax purposes.”
But things changed. The 1987 tax changes did not give independent contractors the same protections they had before the code changes (for more information, http://www.synergistech.com/ic-taxlaw.shtml ).
Joe relates that he ended up having to put in 100 hour work weeks:
“Then came the L.A. depression of the early 1990s. Our leaders decided that they didn’t need the all of those extra Air Force bases they had in Southern California, so they were closed; just like that. The result was economic devastation in the region that rivaled the widely publicized Texas S&L fiasco. However, because the government caused it, no one gave a shit about all of the young families who lost their homes or street after street of boarded up houses abandoned to the wealthy loan companies who received government funds to 'shore up' their windfall. Again, I lost my retirement.”
Joe's life took a turn for the worse- temporarily- and he ended up in divorce. But his downturn didn't last. It seemed his fortune was picking up- until the dot com bubble hit and 9-11 came (and the subsequent grounding of air traffic for several days) which made it difficult for Joe to get in contact with his customers.
This wasn't bad enough but then the government came to the economic aid of the airlines, offering them bail outs. Yet Joe got no bail out.
I can see where he would be frustrated.
Joe lost almost all of his business and most of his retirement. By this time California wasn't offering anything so Joe decided to move to Texas.
Texas was hit by the dot com bust, but not as hard as California. Larger corporations in Texas managed to survive mainly because Texas, unlike California, never adopted the angst for large corporations that California did. The average person in Dallas was smart enough to figure out that conglomerates and corporations put money back into the economy.
This is where Joe's recounting of his story starts sounding like he doesn't want to take into account his own poor decisions, one of which was deciding to be an independent contractor; the other of which was deciding to move to Austin- apparently without checking to see what the job market was like for independent contract engineers.
“By this time, I’m thinking that it might be good for a change. Bye to California, I’ll try Austin for a while. So I moved, only to find out that this is a place with a highly inflated sense of self-importance and where damn little real engineering work is done. I’ve never experienced such a hard time finding work. The rates are 1/3 of what I was earning before the crash, because pay rates here are fixed by the three or four large companies in the area who are in collusion to drive down prices and wages… and this happens because the justice department is all on the take and doesn’t give a fuck about serving anyone or anything but themselves and their rich buddies.”
He should have tested the waters and reconsider being an independent contractor and perhaps applied with the larger companies. But being an idealist, rather than a realist, was Joe's downfall.
“To survive, I was forced to cannibalize my savings and retirement, the last of which was a small IRA. This came in a year with mammoth expenses and not a single dollar of income. I filed no return that year thinking that because I didn’t have any income there was no need. The sleazy government decided that they disagreed. But they didn’t notify me in time for me to launch a legal objection so when I attempted to get a protest filed with the court I was told I was no longer entitled to due process because the time to file ran out. Bend over for another $10,000 helping of justice.”
Where to begin? Did he not call the IRS offices to find out if he should- or shouldn't- file a return? Did he bother calling H&R Block or even looking things up on the IRS website? Did he think to call a friend or family member for advice even?
Apparently not. Instead, in his obvious frustration, he decided he didn't have to file a tax return.
Almost everyone has to file a tax return.
Even the unemployed, unless they're a dependent deduction.
What's odd about Joe's story is he relates that he had “CPA” experience which ultimately led him to the conclusion that he would never step into a CPA office again.
Another choice he made. Joe had an epiphany:
“But here I am with a new marriage and a boatload of undocumented income, not to mention an expensive new business asset, a piano, which I had no idea how to handle. After considerable thought I decided that it would be irresponsible NOT to get professional help; a very big mistake.”
Joe claims that he was messed over by a person he trusted with his economic issues. This professional he names as one Bill Ross. Apparently Ross did a shoddy job of dealing with Joe's economic issues, which Joe interpreted as being self-serving:
“To make matters worse, Ross knew all along (paperwork) was missing and I didn’t have a clue until he pointed it out in the middle of the audit. By that time it had become brutally evident that he was representing himself and not me.”
Perhaps the better choice for professional help would have been a psychiatrist. Joe certainly seemed to have been slipping away, emotionally anyway.
Years ago I dealt with a woman who presented on the psychiatric unit with what her psychologist believed was Multiple Personality Disorder (aka Dissociative Identity Disorder). The paperwork claimed that she was “thirty five years old, displaying the identity of a young child...”
She was also faking. Upon interview, the woman said she had tried to get help. She reached out for help. Nobody listened. Finally, after reading the book SYBIL, she decided the best way to get her point across was to fake multiple personalities. She was right. It got her attention and eventually the help she truly needed.
But Joe's inspiration didn't lead him to the appropriate help. Instead, it led him to suicide:
“I remember reading about the stock market crash before the “great” depression and how there were wealthy bankers and businessmen jumping out of windows when they realized they screwed up and lost everything. Isn’t it ironic how far we’ve come in 60 years in this country that they now know how to fix that little economic problem; they just steal from the middle class (who doesn’t have any say in it, elections are a joke) to cover their asses and it’s “business-as-usual”. Now when the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes… isn’t that a clever, tidy solution.”
But was it just a case of a despondent man who made bad choices and suffered failures on account of the “system”?
Throughout the document, it becomes apparent that Joe suffers from the ill-effects of a liberal mind-set that says the government owes you. There's a mindset which flows easily to class envy. And there's an angst towards religion in general.
Perhaps the one thing that could have helped Joe would have been faith, offering hope and perhaps some good emotional support at a local church as well.
But Joe eschewed that option, just as surely as he blamed the “haves” for his own “have not.”
Joe takes a swipe at the Federal Aviation Administration, referring to it as the “tombstone agency”, and he refers to Bush as a puppet, presumably of the FAA. Why he does this is unclear. But there's a clue as to Joe's plan: he flies a plane and hates the government entity which regulates his flying a plane.
As one reads the closing statements of Joe's “manifesto” one can see the cries for help. But one also sees where he has developed a strained mindset:
“I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand. It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants. I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after. But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change. I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.”
Joe sees himself as a martyr. One of many. One among all the poor martyrs, in particular the minorities of America, whom he sees as victims of a hostile system.
And he's had enough:
“...but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.”
Joe almost sounds like a rightie tea party person, except that he doesn't mention Obama- only the Reagan and Bush years. He doesn't mention Clinton.
In case you think I'm straining a gnat by pointing out that Joe was a liberal in his mindset, I defer to his closing statements:
“I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.
The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”
Joe hated the IRS and the government long before Obama came into office. And perhaps Obama's inability is partially to blame for Joe's eventual psychological break. After all, Obama did spread the concept for people like Joe to hold on to for hope:
"It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance for success too," Obama responded. "My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody ... I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."
Obama didn't come through for Joe, but that didn't matter because Joe's problems began under Reagan.
I finish with the last statement made by Joe:
“The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.”
This is hardly a tea party summation of capitalism. It's hardly the kind of thing one would hear Rush Limbaugh say.
It is, however, something one hears from liberals (in various forms) on a consistent basis.
Which makes me wonder if liberalism doesn't feed mental illness in an already unstable person.
I know there's people who say I am politicizing a tragedy. I admit I am turning this to the political issue. And I admit both sides have their whack jobs. But I wonder if this class envy attitude that gave Obama a ride into office isn't coming back to haunt us now.
I hope and pray this is the only incident.
My prayers are with the friends and families of Joe and his victims.
