Tea Party Barbarians vs. Democratic Tax Farmers

In a speech to AFL-CIO union member, Vice President Joe Biden said:

This is a different kind of fight. This is a fight for the heart and soul of the labor movement. This is a fight for the existence of organized labor. You are the only ones who can stop the barbarians at the gate!

Time to teach Joe Biden a history lesson. While the barbarians “sacked” Rome, they did not destroy Rome. The Roman people destroyed Rome. The barbarians just destroyed what was left of the city, which was just one-tenth of what it used to be in terms of population.

In his Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline, Montesquieu writes:

Pursued by tax farmers, the citizens could do nothing but seek refuge among the barbarians or surrender their liberty to the first person who wanted to take it.

So even if we the tea party were barbarians, the Democrats then represent Tiberius Gracchus, Nero, Caligula, Commodus, Septimius Severus, Claudius Gothicus, and Diocletian: the men who slowly but surely destroyed everything that was great about Rome.