Occupy Wall Street & the Tea Party

As different as Apples and Oranges 

          Both President Obama and Vice President Biden have compared the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests to the Tea Party and when the mainstream pundits aren’t calling the Tea Party names they are attempting to compare the two groups.  In that both are grassroots movements that rose quickly to political significance that case can be made, but just as apples and oranges are both round and fruit the comparison ends at the surface.Adbusters Poster  

          While both are grassroots movements, the Tea Party began as a spontaneous populist reaction to government spending.  While the OWS protests like to portray themselves as spontaneous, Reuters reports that the first protest was part of an “inventive marketing campaign” by the Canadian “anti-capitalist group,” Adbusters.  For a founding impetus, the OWS protests have nothing like Rick Santelli and his angry outburst on national television.

          Recently over 750 OWS protesters were arrested in New York, 130 in Chicago, out west 13 have been arrested in Seattle, and eight in Portland.  I can’t remember anyone arrested at a Tea Party rally.       

          I’ve followed the Tea Party movement from the beginning and can say that every Tea Party rally I’ve been at was self-supporting.  Those who gathered bore the cost of the event.  In contrast, the OWS protests in various cities seek outside money and donations to cover their expenses.

          Tea Party rallies cleaned up after themselves.  As congressman Rand Paul said during a radio interview, “The difference between the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movement is at the end of the Tea Party we would pick up our signs, pick up our trash, go home and take a bath and on Monday we would go to work.”

          Regarding work, I have never spoken to an unemployed Tea Party member.  Many who come to the Tea Party rallies are there because they see the work of a lifetime, homes, pensions, and saving, being destroyed by government spending and waste.  While at the OWS protests it seems many are unemployed and want the government to find them not just a job, but a career and guarantee them a “living wage.”

          Tea Party members want less government.  OWS protesters want a larger more expensive government to solve all their problems. 

          Many Tea Party members carry around pocket copies of the Constitution and refer to it when they talk about what government should be doing.  OWS protesters talk about themselves, their problems, their needs and what government should be doing for them. 

          The Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party movements may have some surface similarities, but they represent opposite philosophies on the role of government.  However, from them we see the two roads that diverge before us.  Will America continue down the easy road of socialism and big government or will we head up the steep road that leads back to the founding ideals of limited government, individualism and liberty?  We are at the crossroads, which direction shall America go?  

Comments

[Cry, Beloved Country]

Well, it's pretty clear which road the mainstream media are rooting for, isn't it?! Wow, what a difference in coverage.