Some Tea to Occupy my time

Welcome back. #occupymyweek day 4

Today I would like to discuss the idea I hear bounced around occasionally about the Tea Party and Occupy being almost the same. Dude, we should totally join forces. O rly?

On the surface you can see the resemblance of leaderless groups upset at government excess, but underneath that shiny veneer... well, everything starts to crumble. Let's talk about this shall we?

I have been sitting here in front of my computer now for a couple of hours pouring over the Tea Partys main websites, the Constitution, and news articles galore. Informing and enraging. I read an article under the "News" heading at teapartypatriots.org titled "Tea party is nothing like ‘Occupy’ movement" (we know that don't we?) in which they describe the chaos outside of a Tea Party event in D.C. caused by over 500 Occupy protesters who "were attempting to break into the building and were aggressive". It goes on to mention some people who were able to escape the buildings even though protesters were blocking all the exits with small children, and that the protesters would beat them, and that some protesters knocked down and surrounded an elderly woman. Hmmm. Interesting this didn't make the news, as the media loves this type of sensationalist story. Why someone would make up and disseminate this type of falsehood is completely beyond me. Making out non violent protesters to be blood thirsty wild animals. I guess some people will believe anything though. So after reading this and several other articles I realized that the Tea Party considers those aligned with Occupy to be a bunch of anarchist deadbeat socialists. It's all over their websites, total disdain for Occupy. Once more the chatter about how we just want a handout. We want the government to forgive all of our debts, that we overspent and now we're angry about it. I also was perplexed by their repeated animosity towards unions, which are apparently socialist bullies. So, they really don't like us, but they did seem to like the next guy.

I recognized in several articles their deep adoration for Ronald Reagan. Why? Because he embodied everything their party is about! Cut government spending, check. Reduce Income and capital gains taxes, check. Reduce government regulation, check (they seem to love making references to the free market). The public debt rose from $712 billion in 1980 to $2,052 billion in 1988, a roughly three-fold increase. So failure on point 1, right? And the inflation rate, 13.5% in 1980, fell to 4.1% in 1988, which was achieved by applying high interest rates by the Federal Reserve. Oh my, colluding with the enemy? Apparently the Tea Party kids don't remember or maybe know about that one. Also deregulation was a contributing factor in the downfall of the banks which ended in a government bailout (meaning Obama is a damn socialist!). By the way the claim about deregulation, that's not my opinion it's the governments, if you've been following this week you would have read that part already. So really all we have left is those awesome tax cuts, mostly aimed at the wealthy. Let me break it down for ya fellas: the share of total income going to the 5% highest-income households grew from 16.5% in 1980 to 18.3% in 1988 and the share of the highest fifth increased from 44.1% to 46.3% in same years. In contrast, the share of total income of the lowest fifth fell from 4.2% in 1980 to 3.8% in 1988 and the second poorest fifth from 10.2% to 9.6%. This is when the rich started getting richer and the poor started getting poorer. We like to call it "Reaganomics", or "trickle down" economics. This is one of their heroes.

After reading their rants about the Constitution, I took the time to read through a good deal of it. I didn't get what their complaints were about though. Although, I wonder how much most of them actually know about the founding of this country. Michelle Bachman can't seem to get her facts right. She mentioned that the authors of our countries founding documents fought tirelessly to end slavery, and singled out John Quincy Adams as one of the greatest heroes of this cause. He did campaign against slavery, she got that right. He was 9 however, when the Constitution was signed (therefore probably not an author), and died in 1948. The 13th amendment, which ended slavery, was not ratified until 1865. She also mentioned the shot heard round the world (referencing the start of the American Revolution) happening in Concord New Hampshire, not Massachusetts. Sarah Palin's quote about Paul Revere; "He who warned uh, the British that they weren't gonna be takin' away our arms, uh by ringing those bells, and um, makin' sure as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be sure and we were going to be free, and we were going to be armed." Paul Revere, first leader of the NRA. I find myself amused at the lack of a grip on history that some of their party seem to have, since they are supposedly all about getting back to what America was founded on.

So in closing I will state that I feel the Tea Party is mostly comprised of ill informed and misunderstanding people, mostly from the upper middle class, who want to hold on to their money by not paying taxes. They want big business to be allowed to run amok, unfettered by any protection of worker rights, or laws to control excess. They have no empathy, for the people who got fucked by the banking collapse that they didn't create. If we are unemployed or broke, it's our own fault. We need to just go get jobs and stop whining. Have a work ethic, you know.

This merely brushes the surface, but it's late and it's been a long day. Occupy and the Tea Party share almost no goals in common. There is no uniting the two, so let it go.