Throughout its history America has been home to a series of little-known tax rebellions. These rebellions have played major roles in the presidencies of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and many of their successors. They have helped bring about the Civil war, the birth of the Ku Klux Klan, and, ironically, the birth of the Internal Revenue Service. When the old Internal Revenue Bureau was strengthened to control moonshiner tax rebels in the Appalachias, it started a “Second Whiskey Rebellion” that continues even today. Country singer George Jones’ popular ballad recalls:
G-Men, T-Men, Revenuers too, looking for the place where my pappy made his brew.
Today, as calls for abolishing or overhauling the IRS are being heard in the halls of Congress, Those Dirty Rotten Taxes posits that we are continuing a long and vitally important American tradition. We have overthrown the tyranny of British taxes, Federalists’ taxes, the Tariff, and the Revenuers’ system. Has the tyranny of the Income Tax finally had its day?