A Golden Oldie from the Soviet Years

Today is starting to look a lot like yesterday (H/T Instapundit):

Hundreds of students and state railway workers were ordered to attend demonstrations in Russia calling for Vladimir Putin to stand for an illegal third term as president, according to documents seen by the Guardian.

Regional government officials demanded that schools in Tver region and railway departments in Novosibirsk provided pupils and employees to cheer for the president at Soviet-style rallies in recent weeks.

Prosecutors are examining official telegrams laying out requirements for attendance at the rallies. The papers were uncovered by opposition politicians and appear to be a blatant breach of electoral law.

Aren't you glad that people wouldn't stoop so far as to use students and state employees for abjectly political purposes here in the states? Oh...wait a minute:

Students and education leaders from around the state rallied in Lawyers Mall this afternoon in support of Gov. Martin O'Malley's revenue proposals.

University System of Maryland Chancellor William E. Kirwan said O'Malley's plan, which includes restructuring taxes and is contingent upon the legislature approving slot machine gambling, would create the "first dedicated source of money for higher education in the state's history."

"This is a bold vision for our future," Kirwan said to the crowd of placard-waving students clad in their college sweatshirts. "They don't just want to pay the bills and balance the budget; they want to invest in our future, in health care and in higher education."

I'm so glad that all of these state employees came to Annapolis during working hours to attend these rallies. And I sure am glad as a taxpayer that public colleges and universities were open today to not educate these students who skipped out to beg for their parents to pay higher taxes.

Like the lack of support for Putin's third term, does any taxpayer in the state who is not:

1. A Democratic Party apparatchik;
2. A state employee who reports to a Democratic Party apparatchik;
3. A Union leader;
4. A student "encouraged" to participate in a rally; or,
   
5. A Baltimore Sun editorial board writer,
   

support these massive tax hikes? Is that why these educators and students had to be goaded into participating in a rally, much like union members were goaded into rallying Monday?

I ask this seriously: is there any truly germane popular support for these tax increases outside of the Democratic ivory tower in Annapolis?