"n my opinion, however, the remarkable fact is that there were no significant tax protests in the U.S. between the 1790s and the 1970s. In fact, as recently as the 1970s the federal income tax was considered the fairest tax, at a time when the top rate was over 70 percent.

Starting with the election of Ronald Reagan, conservatives have led an effort to vilify the income tax — which is reflected in the polls. However, what is often forgotten is that Reagan raised taxes twice (in 1982 and in 1986 on corporations). The modern Republican tax protest movement really only took off after George Bush Sr. broke his "no new taxes" pledge in 1991 and lost his re-election bid in 1992 (for unrelated reasons). Subsequently it became hard for Republicans to raise taxes even in the face of two unexpected wars and a huge budget deficit.

The current wave of tax protests are a reflection of this post-1992 Republican mentality. They are engineered by political operatives and are far from reflective of general public attitudes toward taxes or toward the government." (NYT)