Why the “Occupy Wall Street” Movement is not the “Tea Party”

It’s so hilarious to listen to the pundits stressing out over the fact that there is not one single set of demands from the Occupy Wall Street movement.  Well, I remember the Tea Party, and I have kept the photos of those marches displayed in online reporting on the Tea Party gatherings. 

While the pundits remember the Tea Party after it was fully established, the Tea Party wasn’t exactly on-message from the beginning.  It took a while for them to sort out what to focus on, a problem solved after being given millions of dollars from the Koch Brothers, Americans for Prosperity, and the Freedom Express corporate empires. Eventually, the Tea Party had its signs printed for the people marching in protest by the corporations sponsoring the march.  The corporate media did not enjoy being embarrassed by protesters carrying signs that said, “Get the government out of my Medicare”.

But at the beginning, the Tea Party frequently carried hand-made signs that declared:  that Obama was Hitler, that Obama should be impeached, that Obama was a Marxist (never mind that Hitler and Marx were at opposite ends of the political spectrum), that a Browning gun could solve the problems that could not be solved politically, that Obama, the “Muslim Marxist” should be impeached, that questioned, “Who is John Galt?”, that demanded, “No taxation without Representation”, that warned that Obama was coming for their 1st and 2nd amendment rights, that demanded “Term Limits and Tort Reform”, and that declared, “Liars, Commies, and Czars, Oh My!”. Finally, Erick Erickson, of Red State fame, wrote about the impact of the Tea Party. Notably missing was any demand except for his typical violent anti-Obama message:

“Today, thousands will pour into Washington to tell Nancy Pelosi and Congress to send Obama to a Death Panel“.

Occupy Wall Street is an organic movement.  These people are calling themselves the 99%’ers.  All that you have to do to automatically qualify as a member of their group is to earn less than 1 million dollars per year, and if you earn more than $1 million per year, you can still support and participate in the group activities of the other 99%. Occupy Wall Street excludes no one.

The Tea Party, on the other hand, was not organically grown and was heavily promoted by corporate media, especially Fox News and Glenn Beck.  Remember this?

People who belong to the Tea Party are for lower taxes for the wealthy even though these people are members of the middle and lower class themselves and taxes are the lowest they have been since 1958.  The Tea Party wants a smaller government, while members rely on Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Unemployment benefits, and Social Security themselves.  They do not want anyone that needs a helping hand to get that help (other than themselves). The Tea Party views the country as a zero-sum game. Whatever is given in aid to another person is money that is somehow taken from them.

Contrast that to the Occupy Wall Street declaration:

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies. As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members. That our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors. That a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people, and the Earth, and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power.

We come to you at a time when corporations — which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality — run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here as is our right to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in workplaces based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have profited off the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.

They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.

They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is, itself, a human right.

They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut worker’s health care and pay.

They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams, but look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.

They have sold our privacy as a commodity.

They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products, endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

They determine economic policy despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.

They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives, or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

They purposefully kept people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners, even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.

They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.

They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.

They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.

To the people of the world, We, the New York City general assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble, occupy public space, create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard.

No, this is not the “Tea Party”.  The Occupy Wall Street people are principled, intelligent, and committed.  They care about their fellow men and women, as opposed to the Tea Party which could be rightfully called the “To Hell with You” party.  Racism and hatred of any one political or ethnic group cannot be found at the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.  The Occupy Wall Street movement has sought to be completely inclusive and they welcome all of us 99%’ers to join them.

The Tea Party should be joining the Occupy Wall Street movement, but that would involve behaving as Americans first, and Tea Party members second.  And that’s never going to happen.

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Here are a few of the images that I described above from members of the Tea Party: