Occupy Wall Street, unlike the Tea Parties, is a Real Grassroots Movement

[stevenleser]

On April 10, 2009. I wrote an article giving my take on the first Tea Party protests that were to occur five days hence. See http://www.opednews.com/articles/Tea-Parties--Crackbrained-by-Steven-Leser-090410-987.html

I described a right wing protest that was sold as a grass roots effort but was being promoted by right wing media and organized and paid for by right wing think tanks like Freedomworks and Americans for Prosperity who themselves are well funded by people like the billionaire Koch brothers and led by Republican heavy hitters like Steve Forbes and Dick Armey.

Fox News had me on Your World to debate the Tea Parties with Stuart Varney and on national television, I uttered the quote that has followed me since and I stand by to this day, "These Tax Day Tea Parties ARE A SHAM AND A FRAUD!"

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c66_1239749023

The contrast between a slick, contrived, astroturfed and well-funded operation like the Tea Party and a true grassroots, messy but honest movement like Occupy Wall Street should be obvious to anyone, but let's look at some of the differences:

- The Tea Party had multiple professional websites set up by Freedomworks before the first protests were held. Occupy Wall Street, on the other hand, has http://occupywallst.org which was thrown up as the first protests started and gets the job done, but, to put it nicely, no one would confuse it with sites that had tens of thousands of dollars thrown at them by a corporate funded think tank.

- The Tea Party had weeks of national television coverage promoting it by the most highly watched news network on US cable TV before its first major protest. Occupy Wall Street had been going on for several days before the Mainstream Media was forced to start covering it due to its exploding popularity. Put another way, Occupy Wall Street was spontaneous and did not need its numbers ginned up by tv advertising.

- In contrast with how well the Tea Party was/is funded, Occupy Wall Street is soliciting donations of blankets, clothes and other items for its protesters.

- The Tea Party had a slick set of slogans and goals that were clearly developed by the best political consultants that corporate donors could buy, and they had them developed well in advance of the first protest. More than a week into Occupy Wall Street, its message is still being refined, as one would expect from a spontaneous grassroots movement.

- Despite protestations otherwise, the Tea Party was connected to the Republican Party and those who support it from the very beginning. Occupy Wall Street is connected to neither party. Many who participate support neither the Democrats nor the Republicans.

-The goal of the Tea Party, it turns out, wasn’t so much to effect change, but to get Republican congresspeople elected in 2010, after which folks lost interest in the Tea Party and the Think Tanks who supported it slowly withdrew that support. The goal of Occupy Wall Street is to fundamentally change the gross inequity in the US economic system to benefit the 99% of us who are not in the top 1% in terms of economic wealth.


Yes, those of you looking at coverage of Occupy Wall Street and wondering about it, that is what a real spontaneous grassroots movement in its infancy looks like and it’s quite a contrast from the Tea Party. It's messy and over a week in it is still struggling a bit to be properly organized, but it's the real deal and looks and acts like it.

I don’t know where the Occupy Wall Street protests will lead, but I’ll say this, unlike the Tea Parties, it is worth it, no, it is imperative for ordinary Americans, those of us part of the 99% majority to support and join the movement. It’s the best chance we have had in a long time to take this country back from the wealthy corporate special interest groups.

[stevenleser]

1. kick for the thursday morning crowd

:kick:

[stevenleser]

2. Kick for the Thurs afternoon folks nt

:kick: