As I emerged from the subway to join friends at Occupy Wall Street yesterday, there was a boy, maybe 11-years-old, leaning over the railing with a scrawled sign, which declared, "No Rich. No Poor." He was there with a skinny Justin-Bieber-haired friend, whose small piece of cardboard read, "We are the 99%" written with a scratchy ballpoint pen.
There were surprisingly few tie dyes and no patchouli. Instead, the streets were filled with gray-haired professors, members of the sweetest of all labor organizations (go Musicians Local 802!) and mothers with strollers introducing their children to the possibility of change. They looked, you know, like regular folks.
Opinions were asserted with buttons and placards, with t-shirts and tubas. Ban fracking now. Eat locally-sourced food. We need jobs, not tax cuts. My favorite was a sign that read "I'll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one," a takedown of corporate personhood and the death penalty in one pithy swoop.
But through the noise, one clear message surfaces -- this sucks. The top 1% of the America control 42.7% of the wealth and that ain't right.
Much has been made of the similarities between Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party -- the passion, the messy coalition of ideas, the opposition to the bank bailout. Not surprisingly, the leaders of the Tea Party want nothing to do with the comparison, stating disparagingly "They're just unhappy people that don't know really what they want."
Sure, the nascent OWS movement is a bit of a grab bag, but at least the core ideas make some kind of human sense. Fairness, equality, community. Which is way more coherent than the incongruous and often-cruel ideas the Tea Party have forced onto the American political landscape.
For starters, conservatives seem to be really concerned about our unborn children, but won't help those same children out of poverty. And now Tea Party darling Sandy Rios (whoever she is) lampooned Obama's inclusion of birth control as a free insurance service by saying, "Are we going to do pedicures and manicures as well?"
So, preventing pregnancies is none of the government's business ... but terminating them is? It's an indefensible, visionless position almost as desperate as Michelle Bachman's evidence-free claim that the HPV vaccination causes "mental retardation." A term, by the way, that has long been considered offensive.
These are women waging war against women -- banning free preventive medicine, intervening in deeply personal decisions, and undermining a health initiative that could eradicate cervical cancer, which killed over 250,000 women in 2008. It makes no sense and it's just plain mean.
But there's nothing less coherent than the Tea Party's fuzzy romanticism of the founding fathers. As Bill Maher so deftly asserted, the drafters of the constitution were interesting weirdos, some of whom felt like it was totally cool to own other people. And in spite of that, they cobbled together a brilliant if imperfect set of principles with the hope that they would be improved by future generations.
At Wednesday's march, I saw Occupy Wall Street regulars who helped with crowd control, administered simple first aid, and were generally nice. Eric Cantor is worried about the "mobs" forming around America. That's sweet of him, but our mob was full of quick apologies when you were jostled, seventy-year-olds in sensible shoes, and an ad hoc brass band.
And, above all, it was held together by an idea as simple as the playground. Share your toys. Be nice to the new kid, even if he seems a little weird. And help the little ones who aren't as strong as you.
Yesterday, Amy Kremer, the chairperson of The Tea Party Express, likened the protestors to "a kid having a temper tantrum because their parents won't buy them the whole ice-cream store." Actually guys, I think the kid is just hoping for a single scoop.
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Robert Reich: The Wall Street Occupiers and the Democratic Party
Dan Apfel: From #OccupyWallStreet to #OccupyCampus?
Sen. Bernie Sanders: Wall Street Protests
On the grass roots level of both movements, you have people who see a great disconnect between Washington's policies on the ground and daily life in the U.S. - an erosion of civil liberties, a stagnant economy, a declining middle class and pedantic politicians of both parties who are more concerned with petty point scoring and raising money for re-election than actually doing anything to improve the lives of average Americans.
Certainly there are real and significant policy differences between the two movements. But to ignore the central tenet of both movements - that there is an erosion of our democratic freedoms and economic viability and that our political representative are doing little if anything to make it better - is to celebrate and to ensure the maintenance of the untenable status quo.
If big business and wall street plus the rich are bad now with a "Big"Government what would they be like with a "small"l government.
Do you really want an uncontrollabe.Wall St.plus Big Business to do whatever they please regardless what would happen to the average American
What do you think America would be like if big Business took over the complete control of America
If you took the power off the Government who could stop them Remember they think greed is good
America would be controlled by a Business Dictatorship. Good Luck to you and your children
Maybe the American Motto would be God Bless Big Corporations.America would be dead Democracy wuold have been killed by Capitalism. Slavery will be back.
This is what OWS is protesting - the fact that a the "bailout" should not have happened as this would have hastened the redistribution of wealth they all seek.
I don't know about a constitutional amendment, but when I was down on Wall St last week, I made a sign that read, "Reinstate Glass-Steagall" on one side, and "Repeal Citizens United" on the other.
ya know, pretty much just what forricherforpoorer is talking about (who, btw, is right on the money about lobbyists, PACS, and deregulation).
While both the TP and OWS spring from dissatifaction with the status quo, I see a substantial difference between the two as the TP being faith based and the OWS as evidence based. Very few intellectuals riding for the TP brand.
This was nearly 100 years in coming, and I suspect it will take 50 or more years to sort out. Unfortunately I won't be around to witness the happy synthesis. It is good that young people are spearheading the movement, since it is their future at stake. Hopefully they can create the world they would like to live in.
My advice: Maintain solidarity and don't give up the fight.
This shows the difference between liberals and conservatives at the most basic level. Conservatives only want the opportunity to succeed, while liberals believe that if they cry loud enough, their wants and needs will be handed to them like a bottle to a baby.
So what is cruel about wanting people to stand on their own two feet? Our citizens continue to become more dependent and "soft" (according to Mr. Obama). My job as a parent is to teach my kids to be self sufficient and able to take care of themselves (and family). At times it has been a tough process, but all have taken the next step. Most of the time it appears that the government encourages our citizens to be "soft" and dependent. That helps no one.
So as a Tea Party member, I support free markets, freedom and MUCH less government. You can give a man a fish, or teach him to fish. I've taught my kids to fish, and they've done it their way.
Oh and we weren't paid, didn't receive free food/beverages, we supplied our own transportation and if necessary, lodging.
NEVER paying income taxes again. My reasoning is by not paying taxes I will not
have to worry about my money funding ILLEGALS anymore. WE DO HAVE POWER!!! it's
called our pocket books. If the Crackheads in our Govt. can't or refuse to spend
OUR money responsibly as it was intended then they shall not get mine to spend.
Maybe then they can pay for what they want from their own pockets or the
illegals pockets. I'm sick of the Govt. abusing OUR money by using it for their
own personal agendas or by giving it to people who are invading MY country.
WHO IS WITH ME? CAN I GET AN AMEN?
I would prefer use the TP and WSO movements to change the tax codes to a flat tax and consumption tax. I believe it would make our tax system fair, make it easier to comply with, make everyone pay, and eliminate the loopholes/subsidies/deductions that enable corporations like GE to avoid taxes (legally).
Thus I support Mr. Cain for President and certainly some version of his 9/9/9 plan.
In the meantime, I'll give you another Amen!
--Sen Christensen (R-NB) wrote bill to legitimize murder of an abortion provider by classifying it as 'justifiable homicide'. Ditto for South Dakota.
--In Georgia, poverty and hunger skyrockets, so the state imposed a food tax in order to fund a brand new corporate tax cut
--Sen Cunningham (Missouri) proposal to eliminate child labor laws and allow businesses to employ children 13 years and younger, with no restrictions on the required number of hours to be worked
--In Tennessee a bill called Material Support makes it a class A felony to discuss incidences of terrorism at gathering of a religious group, specifically Muslim.
--In Kentucky law just passed to create a 'sanctuary state' for coal, where it is safe from environmental law
--In Iowa, new state law allows businesses to legally refuse goods, housing, or services to gays
These are just a few of the hundreds of laws being rushed through at the behest of the extreme right wing tea party.
Yes, I see these as cruel, as heartless, paranoid and mean-spirited regarding the citizenry; and irresponsible regarding the environment we all have to share.
The EPA is like the IRS, out of control and the EPA is doing things that were not approved by legislation. I've seen the blackmail and strong arm tactics by "the environmental" agencies. They need to be stopped.
There is nothing paranoid about the government working towards controlling everything.