For Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street Movements, Some Common Ground

[polichick]

By Marc Fisher, Published: October 22
Washington Post


Wayne Schissler walked the four blocks from his workplace to the small Occupy Allentown protest to show the young demonstrators that a tea party member is not a monster. What he learned after a few hours of talk surprised him.

“They didn’t stink, and they weren’t on drugs,” he said. “I could see me being them, 30 years ago.”

Fifteen hundred miles away in rural Minnesota, Vas Littlecrow, a tea party die-hard since the movement’s early days, let the Internet noise about Occupy Wall Street wash over her, leaving her alternately annoyed and intrigued. She went on Google Plus to debate the Occupiers, “and they started saying things that clicked with me,” she said. “This was deja vu with how I got into the tea party.”


http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/for-tea-party-and-occupy-wall-street-movements-some-common-ground/2011/10/18/gIQAkIg07L_story.html?hpid=z2


For some time now there have been a few here, myself included, pointing out that the two sides do have some common ground that could be used for the people's benefit - this article shows where it is. imo that common ground could make all the difference in the battle for the presidency and in the future of a country that is once again about We, The People instead of We, The Corporations.

[Lindsay]

1. I had an experience like that myself,

talking to a self-proclaimed Tea Party member. He was utterly shocked to find out there were things we agreed on.

It does require that people be able to look beyond received talking points and labels of right and left. And that the people you're talking with not be batshit crazy. :evilgrin:

[polichick]

3. Yes, I'd say Bachmann will stay out of the loop!

[Cirque du So-What]

2. I still don't see rapprochement on the horizon any time soon

After all the teabaggers' douchebaggery, I consider anyone who has stuck with that execrable 'movement' as irredeemable.

[polichick]

4. Depends on how many are wising up to the Fox Propaganda Network...

...and the fake tea party orgs run by the Koch brothers and/or Republican operatives.

[Cirque du So-What]

5. Maybe I'm prejudiced

but I hold out little hope of 'wising up' on the part of those who allowed themselves to be brainwashed by FAUX News. Even if they awaken to the fact that they've been duped, many of them would still cling to their racist and 'small-gubmint' views, and who the hell needs that shit? Let 'em fight their own battles, I say, and they can go pound sand before trying to co-opt our thing!

[polichick]

6. imo it's important to remember who/what the real enemy is - a bought government...

...and those doing the purchasing.

OWS is smart to welcome discussions with tea partiers - at the least, it would be helpful if the tea party wouldn't fight the OWS movement.

[Cirque du So-What]

7. I never ascribed to the notion that 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'

and I'm not willing to embrace those who remain 'useful idiots' for the RW cause. They'll have to go a helluva long way to prove to my satisfaction that they're not still at cross purposes with progressive goals.

[polichick]

8. Pitting Americans against Americans is how corporations have ruled this country...

Hopefully people on both sides are figuring that out.

[Cirque du So-What]

9. Yes, I realize that...t'was ever thus!

Still, I am unwilling to allow OUR movement to be overrun with RW talking points imported along with ship-jumping teabaggers. I'm all about cutting down on divisiveness among everyone in the middle class and working class, but what value is incorporating RW ideology into a progressive movement? The 1% will have defeated us from within! You've reached out, now see if any teabaggers are willing to repudiate their RW ways in return! Get back to me, m'kay, the first time you've got good news on that front. Personally, I'm not holding my breath, as I've got low expectations for any of those hosebags.

[polichick]

10. I'm hoping neither party defeats the OWS movement from within...

imo tea partiers have let themselves become tools of Republican politicians and the corporations they represent and progressives have let themselves become tools of Democratic politicians and the corporations they represent. The President's Goldman Sachs administration has too much in common with Bush's Big Oil administration.

OWS needs to be about 99% of the people (plus those in the 1% who are supportive), not about either party.

[jwirr]

13. I think there is a religious element and the racial element that will

not be changed but I also suspect that most of them are not into these two categories - if they can be made to see the problem with faux news I think they can become a working part of change.

[Douglas Carpenter]

11. very interesting - there is no question that economic frustration fuels both movements

But then again in the 1930's it was economic frustrations and decline in living standards that fueled, the rise of Social Democracy, Fascism and Communism. No doubt many devoted Social Democrats, many devoted Fascist and many devoted Communist had the same basic complaints and viewed government as utterly corrupted by elite moneyed interest. So it does not necessarily follow that because they have many of the same complaints that they really have any functional common ground. Furthermore the Tea Party movement almost from its very beginning has been and is now being financed by the most reactionary elements of the most privileged classes of society. However, if it is possible to communicate with individual Tea Party supporters - I am sure there are some of them who are personally open minded enough to reconsider their view and perhaps come to see that they are being used by the most retrograde elements of the most privileged elites.

[polichick]

14. Yes, if they begin to see how they've been used there will be a lot of anger...

...that could be helpful to OWS. 'Course progressives need to wake up to how we've been used by this corrupt two-party corporate system too.

[Douglas Carpenter]

20. yes, I totally agree. As long as money dominate politics,, the people do not

[Exultant Democracy]

12. I agree with ths. Yes Tea Baggers are on the right and they are fools (comes together) but

the whole reason they started is because they were pissed about big bank bailouts. Unfortunately for them an us they got tricked into blowing their wad on sinking health care.

[polichick]

15. It's stunning how quickly the powers-that-be took over their movement...

So far it looks like it'll be a lot harder to fool OWS participants, and so far politicians and powerful citizens are being careful about their support - which is good.

[FrenchieCat]

22. Revisionist bullshit.....

Teabaggers weren't fooled into shit. They were looking for a movement that would oppose Barack Obama,
no matter what it was that he stood for. They gladly allowed the "powers-that-be" to fund their movement, and allowed Fox/CNN and whomever else would to promote the hell out of it....and they knew exactly what it was that they were pissed about; as their signs stated so clearly;
Barack Obama in the White House, and not one fucking thing other than that.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2048379

Doh! :crazy:







http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kC5MT2r5U8s/S3Czp45t6MI/AAAAAAAANs0/IDyKEudRATU/s320/racist+tea+party+sign.jpg

[polichick]

25. As I said below, paranoia isn't your friend. You choose the worst signs you can...

...just as the other side chooses the worst signs they can find in the OWS crowds.

Many early tea party participants had no idea they were being manipulated by the Koch brothers and other Republican operatives. It's likely those are the ones who see some common ground with OWS.

[FrenchieCat]

26. Wow! I chose the worse signs I could????

:rofl:

Tea Party participants are victims, hey? Manipulated, you say? That's why we've got a fucking congress full of tea party members now that could care less about this nation and the people in it.
Who do you think voted these assholes in? The fucking tooth fairy?

How about these signs? I don't see anyone around them running away. Do you?

Poor, poor unaware manipulated and used Tea Bagger! Let me shed a tear for them and for the sake of the children! :crazy:




















Give us a fucking break! :mad:

[polichick]

27. Pitting Americans against Americans is how corporations have ruled this country...

...and nothing works like paranoia. The problem isn't just those manipulated by Republicans but also those manipulated by Democrats. Both parties serve corporate America - and that includes your hero.

[FrenchieCat]

28. You've been on this website for the last 2.9 years dogging Obama out about every thing imaginable...

and yet, when it comes to the racist assholes that don't give a shit about you or me,
health care or anything else, you suggest me as paranoid, and them as victims for whom you
have fucking "feelings"?

So....when this President tries to compromise and hear them out, he's the problem.

Bipartisanship is like a shit word here at this site....Your words on another op here....
"far too much "reaching out" to sociopaths".....you said he's done..... :shrug:


Btw...Id I had heros (But I don't since I'm a grown up), tell you what...
I rather choose Obama than those fucking Sociopath nutcases any day of the week.

[polichick]

29. You really don't seem to grasp the op article at all - your responses are...

...all tainted with a fear that your fellow DUers don't like the prez as much as you do.

In fact almost everything you post is couched in that fearfulness.

[Blue_Tires]

33. Took over their movement??

So someone held a gun to their heads and made them go all-out for Sarah Palin and all those batshit congresscritters and governors last November??

And please don't tell me they were misled or fooled -- They knew damn well from the start exactly who and what they were voting for (at least in my state)...

[polichick]

35. You should interview some tea party members (not activists) in your community...

You'll find they don't know about the Koch brothers - many tea party members are extremely uninformed.

[Blue_Tires]

36. Funny thing is hardly anyone claims them anymore

since the novelty fad wore off several months ago...(I know, after their purpose was served last November, there was no further 'use' for them). No matter how uninformed they are, none of them can claim the info wasn't out there about their corporate overlords -- They chose to ignore it.

There probably isn't even enough of them to reach out to (assuming OWS even wanted to do so)...But a cheap, easy way to fight media irrelevance is to attach your name to what's popular at the moment...

If the teabaggers had been out there with us from the start, or even if there was an honest-to-god mea culpa moment (i.e., "I just felt desperate for a political voice last year and in my heart of hearts knew joining forces with racism, veiled assassination threats, anti-government hysteria, etc. was a bad thing...I also freely admit the assclowns I campaigned for and voted in have made the situation a thousand times worse..." I wouldn't be so skeptical of their "common ground"

[polichick]

37. imo OWS doesn't need to actively "reach out" to tea party people...

But it's heartening to me that some tea partiers are finding common ground with OWS - the more the better when it comes to getting corporations and cash out of government, and the less the better when it comes to people fighting OWS.

[Honeycombe8]

16. There is SOME common ground, but not much. Warning, Will Robinson: TBers are trying...

the Tea Baggers are trying to "get some." That is, they are trying to get some of the attention & approval that the 99% crowd is getting, that the Tea Baggers have never gotten to this day.

Be aware. Be wary. Once they infiltrate, they will OWN it.

[polichick]

17. I don't think tea party members like the ones described in this article...

...are trying to "get some" - seems more like they're starting to see that OWS participants aren't what Fox says they are, and that's a good thing.

[JoePhilly]

18. yup ... most are Christ-o-facists .... most support Citizen's United ...

They are not primarily concerned that Government and Business interests are too closely merged ... they want the Government to go out of existence.

[FrenchieCat]

19. What common ground is that?

That both the TeaParty, and those on the extreme Left that have posted here
day in day out anti-Obama sentiments want to see Obama lose? I really don't
think there is any other common ground. But good try!

You'd actually encourage the Teaparty to slide right on in there and walk hand in hand
with the OWS in the hopes that they'd influence enough in the ranks solely for the
for the common purpose of ridding ourselves of Obama?
If you try hard enough, it could be done..... but the question would remain,
who would be left in charge after all was said and done....that would be the rub.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again....
those who want to believe that the TeaParty's problem was with the bail-outs are fools. Period.
That's fabricated revisionist history and it is unfortunate that folks
don't seem to want remember what actually happened, and what the Tea Party did to to fuck us
all up.

I'll try it again.....has it appears that I'll have to shout over the propagandist to
make sure folks actually recall.... http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2048379

[polichick]

21. It's apparent you didn't read the article - just posted your latest rant.

[FrenchieCat]

23. They can dress it up as they want,

and some of those who truly didn't have a clue as to what the Tea Party was about should do what they want to now....

But I find you to be quite the apologist for the Tea Party in General, and I'm not sure why, although I have an inkling. The movement wasn't co-opted...they just need to say it was, now that much of the country have a negative view of them.

[polichick]

24. Paranoia isn't your friend.

[totodeinhere]

34. Obama: Occupy Wall Street 'Not That Different' From Tea Party Protests

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/18/obama-occupy-wall-street-tea-party_n_1017962.html

[FrenchieCat]

43. Beyond the fact that they are both movements,

that's where the similarity stops.

I stated so previously....
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x5030416#5030432

[Douglas Carpenter]

30. I saw this one:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2173699

I would still say that given that may of the frustrations that drive both movements are the same -there must be and no doubt there are individual supporters of the Tea Party who are not beyond redemption. On the personal level there is no reason why one shouldn't talk to anyone who has an open mind.

[polichick]

31. I've seen that one too. imo the people won't take the gov't back from corporations...

...until we stop going after each other - so I'm happy to read that some tea party members can relate to OWS.

[Blue_Tires]

32. Oh, please...

The teabaggers were hoping OWS would fail from the start, and now that it has momentum (and media attention) all of a sudden they have "seen the light" and want to hop on the bandwagon...:puke:

[polichick]

38. I'll take as many voters "seeing the light" as possible!

[Zorra]

39. So, why will they continue to vote GOP, the party of Wall St, the

party that legislates against everything OWS stands for?

[polichick]

40. Maybe the ones who wake up won't continue to vote GOP...

But our problem re money/corporations in government is not just about the GOP - just look at the corporate tools in this administration. The Democratic Party needs to make some big changes to be in line with OWS.

[Wait Wut]

41. Great.

When will the Koch Bros. be providing OWS busses and those nifty, mass-produced signs?

[Pirate Smile]

42. This is a really bad idea - like joining forces with Grover Norquist.

[woo me with science]

44. K&R They have distracted us by setting us against each other for decades now.

while stealing from us both.

I thought this call for unity made some very good points: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2167260

We are the 99 percent.

[polichick]

45. This part is especially applicable to this thread:

"The goal is to get people talking about the issues again without having predetermined party lines or agendas. Once those soundbytes are heard and once those party lines are drawn, almost everyone stops listening. They stop using their critical thinking skills and just go on doing the same thing they have always done and adhering to the same party line they have always adhered to. The truth of the matter is that this is how we got into the mess we are in."


Thanks for the link!