Education

Uma Thurman’s father, nutty Columbia professor, calls anti-tax Republicans ‘seditious,’ ‘treasonous’

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A professor of Indo-Tibetan studies at Columbia University in New York City, Robert A. Thurman, is hopping mad that Republicans are refusing to raise taxes. Last Tuesday, he decided to make a video about it.

He’s also actress Uma Thurman’s father.

In the conspiracy-minded video, Mr. Thurman equates Grover Norquist’s no-tax pledge with the oath of office. He then charges that members of Congress who have promised not to support tax increases have a conflict of interest that prevents them from serving as elected officials.

The oath of office that all members of Congress take, he notes, states that officeholders will do their jobs “without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.”

Thurman suggests that Republicans in the House and Senate “have mental reservations” as well as “purpose of evasion” because they swear allegiance both to a no-tax pledge and to the country.

The Columbia professor and Hollywood progenitor calls the no-tax pledge “a seditious oath, a treasonous oath.” He flatly states that libertarians and tax cutters “cannot actually serve in the government with good conscience.” They are “not sincere about deficit reduction.” The “real role” of any Republican who has promised not to raise taxes is “to act as a mole to destroy the government.”

In the current Congress all but 13 Republican members have signed the Norquists’s pledge, notes Campus Reform. Many Democrats call the pledge an impediment to deficit reduction.

Thurman calls Norquist’s anti-tax organization, Americans for Tax Reform, “a non-governmental organization. It is not elected by anyone. It is supported by big-money people who are making money by not having to pay taxes.”

Republicans who have signed the anti-tax pledge, he says, should be required to retake their oaths of office after publicly renouncing prior pledges not to raise taxes.

He calls for people all over the United States to “rise up through the Internet” and impeach members of Congress who will not recant their beliefs that lower taxes are beneficial.

Thurman also manages to bring religion into his screed. He notes that people who support lower taxes often use the expression “starving the beast” to convey the idea of limits on government spending. The professor alleges that such talk appeals primarily to people who accept the Christian prophecy found in the Book of Revelation.

The beast, he professes, “refers to Satan, to the beast, the 666, the demon.”

Mr. Thurman’s goal in putting the video on YouTube, he said, is to create a meme that will spread far and wide. He ends the video with a promise to make more in the future.

No word on whether he’s getting help from his famous daughter.

This story was updated after publication.

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