Pro-tax Occupation Protests Held Across U.S. (O.W.S. Thread)

[INDY500]

Let's compare and contrast shall we?

This Is What A Mob Looks Like - Page 1 - Ann Coulter - Townhall Conservative

This Is What A Mob Looks Like

I am not the first to note the vast differences between the Wall Street protesters and the tea partiers. To name three: The tea partiers have jobs, showers and a point.

Tea partiers didn't block traffic, sleep on sidewalks, wear ski masks, fight with the police or urinate in public. They read the Constitution, made serious policy arguments, and petitioned the government against Obama's unconstitutional big government policies, especially the stimulus bill and Obamacare.

Then they picked up their own trash and quietly went home. Apparently, a lot of them had to be at work in the morning.

In the two years following the movement's inception, the Tea Party played a major role in turning Teddy Kennedy's seat over to a Republican, making the sainted Chris Christie governor of New Jersey, and winning a gargantuan, historic Republican landslide in the 2010 elections. They are probably going to succeed in throwing out a president in next year's election.

That's what democracy looks like.

Sorting Out the ‘Extremists’ - Jonah Goldberg - National Review Online

The difference between Wall Street protestors and the Tea Party

Brian Phillips is the head of communications for the NYC General Assembly, the group primarily responsible for occupying Wall Street. “My political goal,” Phillips says, “is to overthrow the government.”

Now, he’s not advocating violence or dictatorship. No, he just wants the government to work on the same non-hierarchical, consensus-based, extremely deliberative form of direct democracy that they’re using down in Liberty Plaza. How that would work for some 300 million Americans remains a bit of a mystery.

The reason I bring this up is that I think this is extreme.


“Extreme” is a funny word these days. It’s often used by mainstream news outlets to describe the tea parties and the tea-party-friendly caucus in the GOP.

For instance, when those hotheads in tricorn hats were trying to get the government to borrow slightly less than 40 cents for every dollar Washington spends, the conventional wisdom among enlightened liberals, the Obama administration, and the other usual suspects was that they were “extremists.”

Meanwhile, the sock-headed spokesman for the protesters wants to “overthrow the government.”

Another criticism of the tea parties has been that they are an “astroturf” organization funded by the nefarious Koch Brothers and other right-wing groups. And there’s some truth to that. Conservative groups — opposed to Wall Street bailouts, mind you — did join the tea-party cause after it was up and running.

We are now seeing the same thing with Big Labor and the progressive wing of the Democratic party. They’re backing the protesters in ever larger numbers. But don’t expect cries of astroturfing any time soon.

The Left’s Pathetic Tea Party - Rich Lowry - National Review Online

The Left’s Pathetic Tea Party

In the Occupy Wall Street movement, the Left thinks it might have found its own tea party.

MoveOn.org and some unions have embraced the protesters. The left-wing Campaign for America’s Future is featuring them at its conference devoted to reinvigorating progressivism. Liberal opinion-makers have celebrated them — Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne welcomes their spirit, and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof compares them, astonishingly enough, to the demonstrators at Egypt’s Tahrir Square.

This is a sign either of desperation to find anyone on the left still energized after three years of Hope and Change, or of a lack of standards, or both.

The Right’s tea party had its signature event at a rally at the Lincoln Memorial where everyone listened politely to patriotic exhortations and picked up their trash and went home. The Left’s tea party closed down a major thoroughfare in New York City — the Brooklyn Bridge — and saw its members arrested in the hundreds.

What was remarkable about the Right’s tea party is that it depended on solid burghers who typically don’t have the time or inclination to protest anything. Occupy Wall Street is a project of people who do little besides protest. It’s all down to a standard operating procedure: the guitars, the drums, the street theater, the age-old chants. If the perpetual rallying cry of demonstrators is to be believed, “the whole world” does little else than “watch” activists stage protests.

The Tea Party had such an impact because it had a better claim on the middle of America than its adversaries. It wrapped itself in our history and patriotic trappings. It plugged in to the political system and changed the course of the country in the 2010 elections. The Left went from denying it, to ridiculing it, to envying it.

Occupy Wall Street is toxic and pathetic, the perfect distillation of an American Left in extremis.

A few articles from the conservative POV to kick off the festivities. Feel free to post articles that either explain or praise the Occupy Wall St protests.

[Canadiens1131]

Indy, why do you hate the 22-year old girl with purple hair who reeks of ganja, but are first to praise the 70-year old lady with a tri-corner hat and wacky slogan t-shirt who reeks of poo?

[Irvine511]

what they have in common was that they both hate the banks.

the old white people got distracted by the rich white people telling them that the black guy was taking their money.

remember, the Tea Party really started with TARP, a late Bush administration policy in response to the near end of the global economy in September 2008.

they do differ on snacks, though. corn syrup vs vegan.

[Canadiens1131]

Entertaining to see the Right resort to some good old hippy-bashing / trampling on the ideals of the young in this day and age. I am just waiting for Indy to tell them to get a buzz cut and to stop emulating that rebel, Joe Nameth

[BVS]

Tea partiers didn't block traffic,

Actually Glenn Beck did in my town.

sleep on sidewalks,

Many were nodding off during the same decades old speeches. Does that count?

wear ski masks,

No but Obama masks would be considered the same by Ann wouldn't they?

fight with the police

No, they just strapped on automatic machine guns.

or urinate in public.

Depends...

[PhilsFan]

One is propped up by big business to support particular politicians. The other is a grassroots movement that wants accountability for the financial crisis.

Hint: the Tea Party Sponsored by Koch Industries is the one propped up by big business.

[Diemen]

This Is What a Mob Looks Like

They read the Constitution, made serious policy arguments

From one gross mischaracterization to another, eh?

[2861U2]

[Diemen]

Notice they're not calling for the abolition of corporations.

[PhilsFan]

Originally Posted by 2861U2

Corporations? Occupy Wall Street is about the financial institutions who allowed the financial crisis to happen and haven't received any punishment.

[2861U2]

Originally Posted by Diemen

Notice they're not calling for the abolition of corporations.

And notice the Tea Party isn't for the abolition of government.

Originally Posted by PhilsFan

Corporations? Occupy Wall Street is about the financial institutions who allowed the financial crisis to happen and haven't received any punishment.

You've been able to deduce a coherent message? Wow. They seem to all be saying a hundred different things, many of them unrelated. And by watching some of the videos (and the fact that people are being paid to be there), it's clear that some people have literally no idea what they're doing down there.

Is it fair to call these rallies nothing more than "bitch-fests," since that's how some in here defined the Tea Party?

[PhilsFan]

The media are the only ones saying there's no coherent message.

This is the Tea Party, only they're blaming the right people (the financial institutions, not the Democratic Party) and they're not backed by corporate interests (like the Tea Party with people like the Koch brothers).

[KhanadaRhodes]

Originally Posted by 2861U2

And notice the Tea Party isn't for the abolition of government.

you're right, it's only for dismantling it piece by piece until it's small enough to drown. totally different things.

[INDY500]

Originally Posted by PhilsFan

One is propped up by big business to support particular politicians. The other is a grassroots movement that wants accountability for the financial crisis.

Hint: the Tea Party Sponsored by Koch Industries is the one propped up by big business.

Then its fair to say Occupy is now propped up by Big Labor.

[INDY500]

Originally Posted by Canadiens1131

Entertaining to see the Right resort to some good old hippy-bashing / trampling on the ideals of the young in this day and age. I am just waiting for Indy to tell them to get a buzz cut and to stop emulating that rebel, Joe Nameth

As it happens I have a Joe Nameth autographed card on my wall. Super Bowl III is the first one I remember watching.

[INDY500]

Was this picture taken at a Tea Party or Occupy Wall St?

[maycocksean]

My protest is better than your protest!

[BVS]

Originally Posted by INDY500

Was this picture taken at a Tea Party or Occupy Wall St?

Trick question?

Looks like anyday in New York...

[deep]

just another Nike advert

[Diemen]

Originally Posted by 2861U2

And notice the Tea Party isn't for the abolition of government.

No, but there sure has been a lot of No Taxes banter tossed around (even Michelle Bachmann got in on that action).