Tuesday, November 1, 2011

More Ways to Distinguish the Tea Party from Occupy Wall Street

Enough kindergarten name-calling ("teabaggers"/"fleabaggers"). If you think we need some political change and you're not sure which of the loyal-opposition parties is pursuing the changes you need, here are some clues:

The Tea Party did one big national demonstration just to get things rolling. Then, having acquainted the public with their name and goals, Tea Partiers went home and got on with their lives. Since anybody can join the Tea Party by clicking on a web link, it's hard to be sure, but the majority of Tea Partiers seem to be adults who have lives. Nobody has even tried to hire Tea Party members to hang around idly occupying public places for $300 per week...this tells you something about Tea Partiers' average levels of income and responsibility.

Occupy Wall Street seems to be still loitering in public places, although frosty weather should bring the host cities some relief.

(Personally, having lived near Washington, D.C., through a couple of big demonstrations and their backlashes, I empathize with the ordinary working people who don't like having their cities "occupied." Becoming a nuisance is no way to win people to a cause.)

What do Tea Partiers do? Some people are, of course, using the Tea Party as a platform for their personal wackiness. So far as I can see from here, however, what they're actually doing, even about the wackier ideas, is: sending out e-mails, raising money, composing radio and TV ads, supporting candidates (mostly but not exclusively Republicans), and marketing a few members' products.

Even if I supported everything the current administration did and felt that no change was necessary, I'd have to say that the Tea Party is a nicer protest movement than Occupy Wall Street.

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