--Sad, the Occupy movement actually had a passing moment where their best ideas could have been blended with those of the Tea Party.
--Tea Party wouldn't tolerate their rioting.
Wouldn't the Tea Party have to climb off their hover-round (paid for with government money) first?
One is a fake invention of some political operatives and a TV network the other is truly that kind of grass roots
Those two groups were never within 100 parsecs of each other.
At the most basic level the intellectual foundation of the Tea Party is found in one of my favorite Tea Party rally signs (well aside from the classic "keep government out of my Medicare" which is uniquely clueless) is: No New, Fix Old. At heart and in vision the Tea Party, like most of the extreme right wants to go back to the 1950s when everything was (at least for them) swell.
On the other hand, the people of occupy think much more along the lines of that famous Street Artist/Rapper/TV Cop Ice-T, who in his blended treste using a rap style over a hardcore punk music looked at the the reality of life in inner city America vs. the images of everyday life on TV in shows like Leave It To Beaver and said: ->-bleeped-<- ain't like that, it's real ->-bleeped-<-ed up.
One group sees a few problems, that with some application of classical political solutions would lead us back to the glory days of the Shinning City on the Hill were the now happy Tea Party could live out the rest of their lives frolicking in their own version of the Elysian Fields (which has no blacks, no Mexicans, No gays and where women know their place). The other sees problems that are systemic, intractable, and rapidly becoming terminal.
And anyone who thinks - even remotely - that somewhere between No new, fix old, and ->-bleeped-<- ain't like that, it's real ->-bleeped-<-ed up there was a passing moment where there could have been a magical agreement between the two, well that person couldn't be more wrong.
At any rate, it's not about 'will it stick' but 'will it spread.' The way I see it, for several years now many people were predicting the economic instability we were facing would lead to protests, and ultimately riots and civil unrest if it continued. Now we are seeing that. It may not be bad yet, but I think it will inevitably will get worse because the economic situation isn't improving.
I spend a couple of nights down at the Santa Rosa occupy, and a few at the SF occupy. Not being a big TV watcher, and like all big-time newpaper readers I have this thing about seeing it for myself.
If that's all it is, and all it amount to then enjoy your protests, kids, because it's not happening. You're gonna meet the new boss same as the old boss. We've seen this movie before. 1968. 1977. 1999. Its always the same damn thing, a bunch of idealists and fringers thinks they're going to change things, and in the end does absolfarkinglutely nothing but rile a few feathers and get their names in self-congratulatory wiki pages or books. Meanwhile power continues to concentrate, people continue to be marginalized, and eventually you find a way to sort of survive on your own ... til the next bubble or the next upheaval you had no hand in causing yet are being the victim of.
But, what the right finds scary about all this is not the Occupy stuff, but the notion that we currently have a number of groups that could join in on something/anything that at root encapsulates their live at this moment at SALT,IRFU who could find common cause, who have common problems, and who have (and this is the scary part) nothing really left to lose anymore. They had the chance already to drink the Kool-Aid of 'gee, wasn't it better before and should we not go back there' and rejected it.
Not about the validity of any of the claims, but about the reality that there are a lot of people out there who feel they have been wronged.
- Homeowners underwater and those who have lost pretty much all the money they ever had in real estate over the past 10 or so years.
- students with huge loans outstanding and no job at the level of their training and ability, and no real outlook of one either.
Add in the following groups that more than likely overlay some of the above.
- people who want to see a repeal of 'corporate person-hood.'
- people who want to see the domestic police state rolled back, particularly in the areas of the Patriot Act and drug laws.
- Peace groups/anti-imperial groups - END THE ->-bleeped-<-ING WARS, BRING THE TROOPS HOME, KEEP THE TROOPS HOME.
- Environmental groups
And, (this is critical), they have to get the support of the Trade Union Movement who are the one group of people who actually have the power to pretty much Shut Down Everything.
Real revolution has not started, and from the looks of it as well as from American history, probably won't. I did say probably. But that is still highly unlikely because most Americans remain pretty much incapable of electing anything but another criminal, or in holding accountable any actual responsible party. Or even in agreeing who those responsible parties are.
