Nobody likes paying taxes — after all, the American Revolution was led by farmers sore about a tax on tea. But even the tax-adverse Americans couldn’t operate a government without revenue. This realization led Ben Franklin to famously quip, “Nothing is certain but death and taxes.” However, like with death, people try to avoid the inevitable.

One famous example of defiance occurred in July 1846, when a local tax collector demanded Henry David Thoreau pay six years of delinquent back taxes. Thoreau refused to pay, out of principle — he was opposed to the stances the government had taken on the Mexican-American war and on slavery. For being principled, he was sent to the slammer.

Recently, other figures have been publicly harassed for their “civil disobedience.” These heroic personages include Timothy Geithner, the new Treasury Secretary and, ironically, the new overseer of the Internal Revenue Service, the organization to which he was in arrears; Hilda Solis, the nominee for secretary of labor; Nancy Killefer, the once nominee for chief performance officer; and Tom Daschle, the former nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.

Why didn’t these individuals, soon to be in power over the rest of us, pay their taxes like the rest of us? Even the poor college student must pay his dues: Two summers ago I volunteered to photocopy papers and deliver coffee in a Congressional office — and was taxed on my small stipend! This April 15th, I will have to fork over Uncle Sam’s due share from the fellowship that financed my honors thesis research in England. (I’ve thought about civil disobedience, but fear somebody might cut off my student loans.)

Like Thoreau, did these public figures refuse to pay out of principle? Maybe they did not want to finance a war they did not support or help shore up the modern day slavery that is global capitalism…

Or maybe they are just as greedy as the Wall Street execs who tied our economy into this Gordian knot. For instance, Daschle, the man who they say could have transformed America’s healthcare system from a privilege into the affordable right it should be, was working as a high-paid lobbyist before his nomination, living a life a world away from the logger’s path and humble woods of Walden Pond. Being chauffeured in the fast-lane was too fast for Daschle apparently, because he “forgot” to pay his dues to the federal government — around $150,000 worth.

Geithner’s tax delinquency was a much more modest $35,000, on income he earned while working for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the international organization that oversees the global financial system. Although he is on one hand hailed as a financial genius, Geithner wants us to believe he made a few careless miscalculations while using Turbo-Tax. (This is the guy presently writing the economic stimulus bill. Hopefully somebody checks his math!)

Ironically, it’s the political Right that has the ideological predilection for lower taxation. The position of our nation’s reactionaries is relatively simple: lower taxes mean a smaller government piggy bank, consequently constraining the size of government. This is known as “starving the beast.”

Democrats, on the other hand, generally acknowledge that government can do good things (a la the “Great Society”), as long as public funds are used efficiently. Taxes are part of sharing common burdens. FDR once called taxes “the dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.” The bail-out — both of Wall Street and Main Street — will be paid for through taxation on our generation.

In addition, taxation plays a major role in Obama’s vision for America: On the presidential campaign trail, Obama unveiled an economic plan to roll back the Bush tax cuts and raise taxes on higher income brackets.

Apparently, Obama’s hand-picked choices to lead us in this new society missed the memo. I want to give these people the benefit of the doubt and believe that they really made honest mistakes. But I can’t help but think they are, at best, irresponsible and careless, and, at worst, hypocrites and criminals, guilty of robbing the American people. Is our tax system really so complicated that our nation’s best and brightest can’t figure it out? I don’t think so.

The media are concentrating their criticism on the vetting process. In responding to this criticism, Obama is proving himself to be human — and fallible. On the Daschle nomination, Obama admitted to the media, “I screwed up.” President Bush never once blemished his reign with such an admission.

Inevitably, Obama could not live up to the towering expectations that were set for him at the start of his administration. But the people expected something from his lofty platitudes professing an end to politics as usual. We expected a cabinet of Thoreaus — men and women who are not larger than life, but who are principled and not afraid to stand up to the established order. Instead, these nominees have not stood up to anything; rather, they seem a fixture of the establishment Obama is so intent on changing.

Personally, I question whether the fault lies with Obama and the vetting process, or is part of a larger trend in American politics. Over the past year, the Willie Stark-like rise and fall of progressive politicians — from Governors Elliot Spitzer and Rod Blagojevich, and now to these nominees — has been a disgrace. If Ben Franklin were still alive today, he might modify his statement to, “Nothing is certain, but death, taxes and political sleaze.”

John and Robert Kennedy used to debate each other on what it meant to be a “statesman” versus a “politician.” There is an often slighted difference, centering on things like integrity, a belief in something larger than even Tom Daschle’s limousine, and a commitment to civic duty. And unless you are as expressively principled as Thoreau, I’m pretty sure this requires paying your taxes.