Forum Post: Are there similarities with OWS and Tea Party?
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 24, 2011, 4:20 a.m. EST by anonymouse
(154)
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Occupy Wall Street members want business out of government. Tea Party Members want government out of business.
Why are the two not using these similarities to work together? Or are they?
Yes there are. Both are against Government intrusion in businesses.
One thing folks should realize, the debt debate issue over the summer only happened "Thanks" to them. I say thanks because it really woke the nation up on the issue.
I also say "Thanks" because MOST if not ALL the bailout funds have gone in the hands of the Big Corps over the past years.
Obama's jobs bill will do just the same.
So instead of insulting each other, find your common grounds and fight back together!
1-Fight for personal liberty (think patriot act) 2-Fight against corporate corruption (think all the bailouts).
If we can unite on these 2 points, we will be well on our way to fixing this country.
Once we are on the road to REAL recovery, go back to bickering on ideologies.
Division only works in the Big Corps best interest.
Who seconds that?
I want regulation of business, so you speak for the teabaggers not me. I dont want my beach smeared with oil and my air polluted so that i cant breath. I dont want business to be allowed to pay everyone less than minimum wage or employ child labor. What I want is less business intrusion on the government. I want the government to focus on unemployment not the deficit. It is insane to cut the budget in a depression. You dont speak for me, and we dont want the same things.
The debt ceiling debate was, in my opinion, a huge waste of time. I don't think many of the people who come to OWS put anywhere near the amount of concern on the deficit that you seem to do. While divisions do tend to serve corporate interests, regulating the corporations, not gutting government is the way to beat them back, in my opinion.
No. I don't want any oil on my beach thanks
Yes.
Huge differences. I would submit that a constant theme of the Tea Party is the supremacy of the corporate model over a national progressive society. Who should be President? Why, a businessman of course, because he will be efficient and eliminate things that hold businesses back (taxes and regulation), and he knows how to create jobs. Who should run the schools? Why, a businessman, of course, because he will incentivize results and cut out waste. Who should regulate businesses so that they do no harm? Why, nobody of course. They should regulate themselves. The Tea Party does not want to separate business and government, they want to eliminate government in favor of business.
On the other hand, what I see from many in OWS is the desire to break the links between business and government that allow business to take advantage of the system. I see people who have come to OWS looking for long-term accountability for corporations, for government to become proactive in preventing business from threatening the livelihoods of citizens in pursuit of profit, and for the disparity of wealth that has developed, which government is complicit in, to be seen as an economic injustice that should be addressed by returning to a truly progressive tax system that will allow for the growth of income again for low and middle class people.
So, no, the similarity you point out does not actually exist. Sorry
no. the teabaggers represent the 1%
Exact example of how division leads us to nowhere. We do have common grounds, read the post above
Tea Party members are mainly (not entirely) religious conservatives. They were told by Bill O'Riley to show up at organized events. There was a great deal of excitement and many well meaning folks turned out. It was for some a continuation of the Sara Palin rallies they went to during the 2008 campaign. The coverage was extensive and often positive though admittedly sometimes unfairly derogatory.
As the movement grew the more vocal members were encouraged to confront members of congress at town hall events with the promise of television coverage.
The agenda of these folks however was never really defined by them. There was an initial outcry against TARP and the seeming collusion between government and Wall Street. But this morphed into anger over the stimulus and eventually Obama's health plan. Then, to an extreme anti-tax and anti-regulation mantra.
I believe there may be many who feel the movement was co-opted and are mainly focused to this day on TARP and Wall Street influence over government. For those folks I believe there is much common ground with OWS.
I believe you are the 1% so there is not much common ground.