Topic: Occupy Wall Street vs. The Tea Party

[rickl]

If I may dig up one of my all-time favorite Onion articles:

79 Percent Of Americans Missing The Point Entirely
WASHINGTON, DC—According to a Georgetown University study released Tuesday, 79 percent of Americans are missing the point entirely with regard to such wide-ranging topics as politics, consumerism, taxes, entertainment, fashion, and professional wrestling. . . .

I've been trying to organize my thoughts about the coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protests, not to mention the protests themselves, and I keep coming back to that Onion article,[1] because any way I look at it, just about everyone is missing the point.

The problem, and I suppose this was inevitable, is that Occupy Wall Street is being portrayed as some kind of anti-Tea Party. Left vs. right, blue vs. red, rock vs. country, et cetera—it's the only way we know how to draw battle lines anymore. But how are the two movements meaningfully different? I sure as hell can't figure it out. There are plenty of minor differences, mostly concerning priorities and demographics, but the similarities are much more substantial. Both are popular uprisings against powerful-but-nebulous entities believed to be responsible for America's economic struggles. Both are defined not by easily-identified leaders, but by the sum total of countless unique viewpoints, and thus are not capable of articulating their goals with any cohesiveness or specificity (nor should they be expected to). And both movements, to borrow the classification scheme created by Bill O'Reilly, are teeming with both pinheads and patriots.

And yet, over the last week or so each side has generated mountains of commentary saying, essentially, this: You know the one-sidedly [negative/positive] portrayal of the Tea Party we've been pushing for two and a half years now? Well Occupy Wall Street is totally the opposite!

• Paul Krugman describes OWS as "a popular movement that, unlike the Tea Party, is angry at the right people." Meanwhile, Ann Coulter says the OWS protesters are angry at the wrong people (and also have poor hygiene, because why not?).

• Keith Olbermann says OWS is legitimately a grassroots movement that, at least at first, was ignored by the media. Rush Limbaugh says the Tea Party is the "organic" one, while OWS was "manufactured" by the media.

• ThinkProgess claims the OWS protests "better embody the values of the original Boston Tea Party." BigGovernment insists the protesters are "more aligned with Marxism; with Democratic Socialism; with Soviet Era Collectivism; with the very dangerous and elitist Progressive Movement" than with anything even remotely "American".

So it goes. It's hard to be honest and fair. It's easy to cobble together some empty rhetoric and lob it in the direction of those most inclined to assume the best about their friends and the worst about their enemies.[2]

Not that I have any special insight into who's least wrong, but I'm a big fan of the sentiments expressed in this Reason article:

Of course, the type of loudmouth gadflies who show up at all large outdoor political events, whether Tea Party gatherings, GOP coffee klatches, or Democratic National Conventions, can be found in Liberty Plaza. But to dismiss an entire movement—one that is gathering momentum in cities all around the country—based on the inarticulateness of a few teenagers is entirely the wrong response. It's far more useful to try and understand what is going on here, to grok the meaning of these protesters' motivations, before prematurely passing summary judgment.

Exactly. We should pay less attention to the individual lunatics, and more attention to what a movement is really about. Occupy Wall Street, at its core, is a reaction to the increasing power and influence of large corporations. The Tea Party, at its core, is a reaction to the government's constant interference with private enterprise. But wait a minute—aren't those things connected?

Bailouts, subsidies, tax breaks, special rights and privileges, regulations designed to restrict competition—to name a few of the many ways the government protects and stimulates corporate interests, and those things are every bit as anti-free market as, not to mention directly related to, the high taxes and excessive bureaucracy that gets Tea Partiers riled up.[3] In other words, aren't these two groups—Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party—raging against different halves of the same machine? Do I have to draw a Venn diagram here?

Oh, alright, I'll draw a Venn diagram:



Yeah, I'm oversimplifying, but only a little. The greatest threat to our economy is neither corporations nor the government. The greatest threat to our economy is both of them working together. There are currently two sizable coalitions of angry citizens that are almost on the same page about that, and they're too busy insulting each other to notice.

1. The best part is the quote at the end:
"If I want to miss the point, that's my own business," said Ernie Schayr, a Wheeling, WV, auto mechanic. "If I want to complain about having to pay taxes while at the same time demanding extra police protection for my neighborhood, that's my right as an American. Most people in other countries don't ever get the chance to miss the point, and that's tragic. The East Timorese are so busy fleeing for their lives, they never have the chance to go to the supermarket during the busiest time of the week and complain to the cashier about how long the lines are and ask them why they don't do something about it."

2. Here's a refreshing case of common sense and reason transcending partisanship: An open letter and warning from a former tea party movement adherent to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Naturally, the author is anonymous (as far as I can tell).

3. By all means, leave a comment if you think I'm wrong, but it's a myth that big corporations are anti-government, right? They don't want to have to compete in a free market, they want to "compete" in an artificially restricted market.

Link

[RickZ]

The Teat Party vs. The TEA Party.

[IronDioPriest]

The thing that's pissing me off is this narrative that seems to be taking hold that this is a spontaneous uprising of citizens. It is not. It has been a top-down effort by the SEIU and other far-Left organizations.

That is not anything like the Tea Party, which was a spontaneous grassroots uprising.

So when I read a piece like this, even though there is some ring of potential truth to what the author is saying, I don't buy the premise. So right out of the gate, I'm saying, "but wait just a minute...."

[Libertas]

Without financial backing from Soros and inventions by Apple this ilk wouldn't even know what to go do with themselves let alone where to do it!

[RickZ]

The thing that's pissing me off is this narrative that seems to be taking hold that this is a spontaneous uprising of citizens. It is not. It has been a top-down effort by the SEIU and other far-Left organizations.

That is not anything like the Tea Party, which was a spontaneous grassroots uprising.

So when I read a piece like this, even though there is some ring of potential truth to what the author is saying, I don't buy the premise. So right out of the gate, I'm saying, "but wait just a minute...."

As has been said by many others many times before, the proggies/lefties are full of projection.  They simply cannot fathom going somewhere on one's own dime to protest, and without any organizing committee!  ("What do we say?  What do we do?")  That projection is the one thing that sticks with me about proggies, just like them calling Cain an Uncle Tom (or whatever flavor of the day insult their talking points memo dictates be used to disparage conservative American blacks).  We ended up with a community organizer as President because the left organizes with the best of intentions.  And that's all that matters, a pie-in-the-sky totally unconnected from reality good old fashioned organized protest disguised as the spontaneous will of the people (just ignore them crapping on police cars).  Commies lie.  That is the first and only rule.

[jpatrickham]

ACORN: Puppet Master of Occupy Wall Street Tuesday, 11 October 2011 03:47 Matthew Vadum
  

"The Working Families Party, an infamous ACORN front group notorious for corruption, was instrumental in organizing the Occupy Wall Street protests, according to radical journalist Laura Flanders of Free Speech TV.

The protests, which have spread to several other large U.S. cities, are part of what ACORN’s neo-communist founder Wade Rathke calls an “anti-banking jihad.”

Working Families Party (WFP) organizer Nelini Stamp has “been here since day one and she is part of the organizing team and the outreach team that has managed to bridge the distance between that first day and this day and between the grassroots folks here and the labor movement,” Flanders said at the protest in lower Manhattan.

We are “actually trying to change the capitalist system we have today because it’s not working for any of us,” Stamp told Flanders in an interview. Demonstrators are asking “how do we really reform and bring revolutionary changes to the states?”                                                                                                            

The WFP is part and parcel of ACORN. In 1998 the party was officially recognized in New York State. WFP’s headquarters is at the same address as ACORN on Nevins Street in Brooklyn. WFP’s executive director is longtime ACORN operative Dan Cantor.

One of the SEIU-funded party’s co-founders is ACORN’s former national chief organizer, Bertha Lewis. Democratic National Committee executive director Patrick Gaspard also contributed to the creation of the party and sat on its board. Gaspard was a political director in the Obama White House and is a former SEIU executive. Gaspard was also an organizer for the radical New Party in the early 1990s. That party’s membership consisted largely of individuals from the Democratic Socialists of America, SEIU, and ACORN. The party endorsed Barack Obama when he ran for the Illinois State Senate.

WFP takes credit for raising taxes both in the city and state of New York and for pressuring the state’s congressional delegation to oppose Social Security reforms. The party has sister WFP-branded parties in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Oregon, South Carolina, and Vermont.

Working with its radical friends at SEIU, WFP advocates more government spending, higher taxes, universal government-run health care, campaign finance restrictions, free universal higher education, oppressive rent control, same-sex marriage, amnesty for illegal aliens, “greening” the economy by creating heavily subsidized union jobs in the energy sector, and mandatory paid sick leave for all workers."

http://www.rightsidenews.com/2011101114687/us/politics-and-economics/acorn-puppet-master-of-occupy-wall-street.html?


This Act, could very well be the Liberal wing of the Democratic Parties attempt at a "Battle Of The Bulge" like senario. We all know how that turned out?

[rickl]

The thing that's pissing me off is this narrative that seems to be taking hold that this is a spontaneous uprising of citizens. It is not. It has been a top-down effort by the SEIU and other far-Left organizations.

That is not anything like the Tea Party, which was a spontaneous grassroots uprising.

So when I read a piece like this, even though there is some ring of potential truth to what the author is saying, I don't buy the premise. So right out of the gate, I'm saying, "but wait just a minute...."

If you look at the comment section of the article I linked, you'll see that I got into a discussion about that with another commenter, who was adamant that the Tea Party was organized from the top down.  There are certainly a lot of people on the left who espouse that view.  (Koch Brothers!!!!11!!)  I don't know how many of them actually believe it or are just reciting talking points.

[Pandora]

The thing that's pissing me off is this narrative that seems to be taking hold that this is a spontaneous uprising of citizens. It is not. It has been a top-down effort by the SEIU and other far-Left organizations.

That is not anything like the Tea Party, which was a spontaneous grassroots uprising.

So when I read a piece like this, even though there is some ring of potential truth to what the author is saying, I don't buy the premise. So right out of the gate, I'm saying, "but wait just a minute...."

If you look at the comment section of the article I linked, you'll see that I got into a discussion about that with another commenter, who was adamant that the Tea Party was organized from the top down.  There are certainly a lot of people on the left who espouse that view.  (Koch Brothers!!!!11!!)  I don't know how many of them actually believe it or are just reciting talking points.

Seeing the same, rickl, as well as a harping on Dick Armey's org. and Americans For Prosperity.  It's as though the lefties can't wrap their minds around the notion that a good idea will attract organizational support as opposed to their commie groups paying for participants.

[AlanS]

The only thing I have in common with those leaches is I'm angry. But I'm angry because the government wants what I've EARNED! Fvck 'em.

[michelleo]

Love the venn diagram.    I'd say the key difference is the cure sought.  Both sides want to end the collusion of big business with big government and crony capitalism.  The OWS fleabaggers (the bug variety) want to institute massive redistribution of wealth and to adopt communism in some form.  They don't see how this would affect anyone's freedom.  You can still have "sex with animals" afterall.  But the tea party people want to limit the power of government, and therefore their ability to be bought.  They think the cure is more economic freedom for individuals and business owners to transact in a free market where everyone is treated equally under the law.  No bailouts, no tax loopholes, no federal loans based on favoritism, no onerous regulations on small businesses that cause them to be pushed out of the market, etc. 

[John Florida]

Love the venn diagram.    I'd say the key difference is the cure sought.  Both sides want to end the collusion of big business with big government and crony capitalism.  The OWS fleabaggers (the bug variety) want to institute massive redistribution of wealth and to adopt communism in some form.  They don't see how this would affect anyone's freedom.  You can still have "sex with animals" afterall.  But the tea party people want to limit the power of government, and therefore their ability to be bought.  They think the cure is more economic freedom for individuals and business owners to transact in a free market where everyone is treated equally under the law.  No bailouts, no tax loopholes, no federal loans based on favoritism, no onerous regulations on small businesses that cause them to be pushed out of the market, etc. 

 I hope it keeps going long enough for the population to see who the leaders are and put the blame on the right head.

[Pandora]

Love the venn diagram.    I'd say the key difference is the cure sought.  Both sides want to end the collusion of big business with big government and crony capitalism.  The OWS fleabaggers (the bug variety) want to institute massive redistribution of wealth and to adopt communism in some form.  They don't see how this would affect anyone's freedom.  You can still have "sex with animals" afterall.  But the tea party people want to limit the power of government, and therefore their ability to be bought.  They think the cure is more economic freedom for individuals and business owners to transact in a free market where everyone is treated equally under the law.  No bailouts, no tax loopholes, no federal loans based on favoritism, no onerous regulations on small businesses that cause them to be pushed out of the market, etc. 

Egg-ZACK-ly!

[Libertas]

Hey, a michelleo sighting, and a dang good post to boot!

 

I'm all for the decoupling of all dependencies!

 

[jpatrickham]

Tea Party vs. Occupy Wall Street, LITTERALLY!

The Tea Party Takes on Occupy Wall St./DC

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"Let Freedom Ring and Young America’s Foundation
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“Occupy Wall Street” Political Agenda Revealed... Global Tax!
 
Zuccotti Park – What you should and need to know
Posted on October 11, 2011 by Asst Natl Dir Mellie
Zuccotti Park. At this point the name brings to mind “smelly hippies”, communist infiltrators and other riff-raff. It has become the “home” of the Occupy Wall Street Protesters. Wikipedia describes the park thusly:"

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"Stand With The Tea Party Against The Left’s Hostile Attacks
The Left has unveiled its strategy for 2012 — demonize and destroy the Tea Party through a series of open
attacks against the movement. The latest wave of anti–Tea Party attacks began when the Left characterized
the Tea Party as "terrorists" who were holding the nation "hostage" during the Dirty Debt Deal. The attacks
have escalated when Jimmy Hoffa said it's time to "take these [Tea Party] SOBs out" and a new video launched
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Citizens Say, "Stop The Attacks!
If the Left is allowed to demonize the Tea Party, they will discredit the movement's "liberty and limited government"