Why ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Doesn’t Compare
December 5, 2011 at 9:16 pm in News by Jenny Beth 6 Comments
OWS’s core beliefs are alien to the American idea
By Mark Meckler, Jenny Beth Martin
Two groups, one “Day of Action,” vastly different results.
According to the New York Times, more than 240 Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested in New York City on November 17; some for felony assault. As New York Mayor Bloomberg said, “some protesters today have deliberately pursued violence,” resulting in injuries to seven police officers officers. How did the Occupy Wall Street protestors pursue violence? One threw a “star-shaped glass object” at a police officer, cutting his hand so badly it required twenty stitches. Another protester threw a corrosive liquid into the faces of four police officers. And a mob of ‘Occupy’ protesters tormented a group of “little school kids trying to get to class” chanting “follow those kids!”
By contrast, Tea Party Patriots across America visited our local representatives on the same day for what we called a “Deal in the District.” The purpose of our civilized meetings with our local representatives was to remind them that the deadline for the “super committee” to find $1.2-$1.5 trillion in cuts was November 23, and that We the People want real cuts to government overspending, not fake cuts.
In contrast to Occupy Wall Street’s “Day of Action,” the “Deal in the District” involved working through the democratic and representative process.
Which brings us to another point of contrast between the Tea Party movement and Occupy Wall Street protesters: our different core beliefs. We want government to stop overspending. That means we want government to stop overspending on us. We want the government to live within its means—even though it will mean less “free stuff” for us—because we have not forgotten that America was founded on a Declaration of Independence, not dependence.
Occupy Wall Street was founded on a declaration of dependence on government. They want it to forgive their loans, give them free services, guarantee their living wages, and pay for the park they have overtaken—they want to shift the very building blocks of this nation away from what made America great and toward the failed socialist schemes that have brought continental Europe to its knees.
People ask us why the Tea Party has had such resonance and staying power and tremendous electoral results over the past nearly three years, while Occupy Wall Street has descended into madness and violence in just two months. It is because the core principles of the Tea Party Patriots—fiscal responsibility, free markets, and constitutionally limited government—are America’s core principles. The core beliefs of the Occupy Wall Street movement are as alien to the American idea as their violent actions and anarchy are to shocked and horrified American citizens.
We want change. We want more independence from government. And we express our desire for change by doing the hard work of ensuring that our elected officials represent the will of the people. And the will of the people that we expressed to our government is that we want real cuts—not phantom cuts from an unconstitutional “super committee” instituted by a president who has little regard for our Constitution. How can President Obama pretend to do his job, or anyone in Congress for that matter, by abdicating all responsibility? Americans did not vote for absent representatives in government in 2008 and 2010. Is it any wonder why President Obama and Congress’s approval ratings drop by the day?
We want Congress, the full Congress composed of our representatives, to make the necessary and difficult decisions to cut spending today. We’re not looking for phantom cuts over some mythical 10-year period that will never come. The nation’s problems are real, tangible, and present today. And the full Congress must deal them with—today.
The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street are both upset at the same thing: government collusion with private companies that caused the economic crisis. Occupy Wall Street is just slightly misguided. They think the solution is more government to regulate out of control private entities. We know the solution is less government, which gets rid of the exclusivity granted by government to these corporate behemoths and allows the people to choose where their money goes. But from this point on we have to be careful not to support the powers at be with our money.
The reason they are misguided is they are followers. Followers of people like Slavoj Zizek, Move On, Cloward and Piven etc.
We are leaders. We will lead our country back to it’s roots. We will put the federal government and it’s minions in their place. Look what we have accomplished in such a short time.
We have to steer these followers toward the issues we do have in common, be it abolishing the government programs that stifle liberty, the Federal Reserve, bank or corporate bailouts, whatever and help them to understand what country they are in. This is America. Love it or leave it.
We are a republic! Period! We have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
I could find no records of the acts you mentioned in the first paragraph. And they do want the government to forgive their loans, because it was a messed up system that allowed it to get there!
Whether or not the “system” was messed up should not excuse people from paying back their debts. They are (or should be) intelligent human beings who entered into a contract to receive money in exchange to be able to pay that money back at a later date for whatever reasons and they should be upheld to that agreement. You can’t walk into a store, pick up some groceries, walk out and not be stopped for theft and that’s exactly what it is.
People should be responsible human beings – period.
How can we expect our Government to pay it’s debts or act responsibly when we (some of us) are fighting and whining not to have to act the same way?