“I’ll Stop Paying Taxes If —— Wins the Election!”

Political mouth-off-shooter Joe Walsh recently somewhat walked back a tweet in which he said he would “grab his musket” if Trump loses the upcoming election:

“I’m not talking about inciting violence. I’m saying, ‘If Trump loses, man, game on, grab your musket. We’re going to protest. We’re going to boycott. We’re going to picket. We’re going to march on Washington. We’re going to stop paying taxes. We’re going to practice civil disobedience.’ Whatever it takes.”

I’ve been seeing a lot of brave social media pledges of tax resistance from both Clinton & Trump supporters, conditioned of course on the defeat of their chosen candidate. Most of it is just people worked up to a lather and saying any old thing that comes into their heads. But it may be planting seeds in some other minds, and I wouldn’t be too surprised if something comes of it.

A bit of a dull data point in my Rebecca Riots collection, but one that may be somewhat revealing about who was backing the forces of law and order. From the 31 October 1845 Cambrian:

Testimonial

We are exceedingly happy in being enabled to record that the noble Lord Lieutenant of this County, the Marquess of Bute, in conjunction with other Magistrates of the Swansea and Llangafelach districts, have evinced their high approbation of the services rendered by their Clerk, our much respected townsman Mr. Thomas Attwood, during the exciting and eventful period of the prevalence of the Rebecca disturbances in this and the adjoining county, by presenting him with an elegant service of plate, consisting of a coffee-pot, tea-pot, sugar-basin, and cream-jug. On each article is engraved the following inscription:—

Presented

by the Lord Lieutenant and other Magistrates of the districts of Swansea and Llangafelach, Glamorganshire, to their Clerk, Mr. Thomas Attwood, as a testimony of their approbation of his general conduct and indefatigable industry, during the Rebecca riots, in 1843.