Kairos

The most obvious sense of time exhibited by the poster is the scheduled date of the protests: April 15, 2019. It is common knowledge—especially among working, home-owning adults in the United States—that April 15 is the annual due date for filing federal, state, and local taxes. In advertising for Tax Day protests, the Tea Party leaders intend for the demonstrations to have symbolic meaning as a form or resistance against the IRS and government at large. On the day that citizens are supposed to “submit” to the government by giving up a part of their assets and earnings, the Tea Party leaders wish to counter such a notion by having governments across the nation (hence “Nationwide”) to submit to their demands for fiscal conservatism—of which lower taxes is certainly a core component. Someone unfamiliar with the planned protests may pay special attention to the significance of the date and perhaps take them more seriously.

Also noteworthy about the date is the fact that it falls nearly 100 days into the presidency of Barack Obama. Throughout the 2008 campaign, Obama had repeatedly called for higher income and business taxes to fund various expanded government programs and, like all candidates, promised to achieve such goals during his “First 100 Days” period popularized by President Roosevelt in 1933. Holding demonstrations near the 100-day mark of the presidency conveys to fiscal conservatives across the nation that Obama—by virtue of the traditional “First 100 Days” promise—has already begun to expand the government through various executive orders and his majority in Congress…and will continue to do so without a redress of grievances. Moreover, numerous conservatives remained politically charged so soon after Obama’s election and inauguration; the author’s advertising for April 15 is indubitably an attempt to elicit emotional response from those with high animosity for the new administration.

 

Rhetorical Devices

The primary feature of the poster is the central rhetorical question, “What Would the Founding Fathers Do?” accompanied by pictures of Ben Franklin, John Adams, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson. Being in the politically divisive environment of 2009, the authors know that they will be able to win over self-described conservatives and libertarians only; id est, changing minds of Obama-supporting liberals is deemed impossible. In doing so, the authors attempt to appeal to conservatives’ common attachment to and appreciation for the nation’s founding. Each of the men pictured (especially Franklin and Jefferson) is widely described to have been wary of “big government,” interpreted by the modern conservative audience as epitomizing increased spending and higher taxes. In posing the question, the authors have the intention of instilling a sense of fear that the Founders (to whom conservatives pledge strong allegiance) would be dissatisfied at the current size of the federal government, extending the scope of grievances from a single taxpayer’s pocketbook to the core principles of the nation itself.

The extent of the logos employed in the poster is in the three monetary figures at the top. The authors include such numbers with no indication of what specific figures to which they refer. Such a lack of information proves that the intention lies less in informing hoi polloi where taxpayers’ money is going and more in reminding them that it is going somewhere. The cryptic nature of the figures serves to elicit the sentiment that citizens’ money is funding nothing useful and merely being wasted. The play on the famous revolutionary cry, “[No] Taxation Without Representation,” not only reinforces the numbers but asserts that the modern federal government has gone the way of the 18th-century British Empire in imposing quasi-useless taxes, thus warranting a response not unlike the 1773 Boston Tea Party. The tagline “Revolution is brewing” comprises a pun that relates the 2009 Tax Day Protests—and the Tea Party Movement itself—to the respective historical event that many conservatives look back upon with a strong sense of patriotism, a sense bolstered through the poster’s red, white, and blue color scheme.

Even though one may be inspired to take action from the poster’s elicitation of historical pride and modern disdain, he or she may question the legitimacy of the organization behind the demonstrations. For this, the authors incorporate the common ethical appeal of including a reference—a website, in this case—that readers may consult for their own interest.