VERSUS is the operative word.
The “original” #TeaParty was largely right-of-center people who have HAD IT UP TO HERE with #Democrats, #Liberals, #Socialists, the #Republican Party, the #JusticeDepartment, #MainstreamMedia and the catchall Broken System.
#OccupyWallStreet is largely left-of-center people who have HAD IT UP TO HERE with #Republicans, #Conservatives, Reactionaries, the #Democratic Party, the Justice Department, #MainstreamMedia and the catchall Broken System.
Do I spy common ground, or WHAT?
There surely is SOME infusion of Tea Party passion into iOccupy. As proof…hell, as HOPE…I point to the instant-classic YouTube of a (barely) 20-Something rant against WAR and the FEDERAL RESERVE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCsIqLPjP4A
GOOD. ON. HIM.
But animosity between the camps of Unhappy Campers is pronounced and increasing. Why? They COMPETE for the favor of the Mainstream Media they both claim to distrust, and they line up behind the Parties they both claim to buck.
Though SHEER NUMBERS is Rank & File’s unequivocal strong suit, they compete/fight with EACH OTHER, rather than COLLABORATE to vanquish common adversaries.
The operative word is COMMON.
OF COURSE they don’t like each other. That is why they are on OPPOSITE ENDS of a manmade political construct. It is difficult to imagine ANYONE has reached the ripe old age of, say, THIRTY without hearing that Passion is on a circle, not a line, with LOVE as up-close-and-personal to HATE as a next-door neighbor in a fenceless ‘hood.
In Ordinary Times, ASSUMING FREEDOM AND ABSENT SHIT-DISTURBING, many many many many of America’s #ConscientiousObjectors would not mix ‘n mingle SO WHAT?
Show me a person whose emotions contain not one TRACE of dislike or disapproval, and I’ll show you a FLATLINER. That is a matter of OPINION.
WINSTON CHURCHILL: “You have enemies? Good! That means you’ve STOOD for something in your lifetime.”
This is FACT: What most ails VICTIMIZED OUTRAGED RIGHT and VICTIMIZED OUTRAGED LEFT is not each other. They didn’t get screwed outta homes, livelihoods, present security and future prospects BY EACH OTHER.
The Rich=Powerful people who screwed people over RIGHT, LEFT AND CENTER are BETTER at ruling the world/people than are the newly awakened. Powers That WERE have been AT it for all of human history: DIVIDE & CONQUER.
In arguing that the #TeaParty is long since USURPED by #OldGuardRepublicans, I go back to March 2010 — “a long time ago,” by POLITICAL measure. For the ol’ Permanent Record, Politics is NOT a Necessary Evil. GOVERNMENT is a Necessary Evil. TAXES are a Necessary Evil. POLITICS is self-interested Opportunism…which is to say CAPITALIZING on Necessary Evil.
By measure of PROBABLE LIFE SPAN, I have spent “a long time” roaming around America, trying to make enough sense of INSANITY to squeeze my own craziness in edgewise, trying to memorialize ground conditions without WHITEWASHING, trying to write/say/do/ SOMETHING that contributes to the Effort to restore REASON and INTEGRITY to governance of the United States.
Being in Georgia when I learned of the upcoming ANTI OBAMACARE rally in Washington DC, I resolved to drive there. NOT fly. It jars my senses every time I contrast how much I formerly loved to travel with how afraid I now am of flying. And it is NOT #Terrorists who are scaring the bejeezus outta me.
I could not replicate my entry into the District of Columbia if I tried, but the first non-memorial edifice I came up against was the Department of Agriculture. City BLOCKS of it, seemingly with more OFFICE WINDOWS than America has FARMERS. It is the first and only time I vocalized RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.
It IS futile, in a way. Even if The Aggrieved oust The Icky, OTHER Icky will assert themselves, and they will amass wealth=power, and they will abuse that power. Thousands of years of recorded history attest. Still, must TRY.
It is opinion, not fact…that it is our duty to TRY, right to the buzzer.
It is historical FACT that certain Oppressed People HAVE risen and reclaimed their natural-born freedom from their manmade Oppressors. Oppressors are thirteen to the dozen. Overthrower becoming like or WORSE than Overthrown is a tale as common as it heartbreaking, but that does not mean Oppressed People should forbear OPPRESSION.
Might just as well say NO POINT IN LIVING, SINCE WE’RE GONNA DIE.
On the 20th of March 2010, the #TeaPartiers assembled on the lawn below the balcony wherefrom impervious Congress Members LOOKED DOWN ON THEM were the #TeaPartiers of my online AND in-the-flesh acquaintance. FYI to Keyboard Commandos, you have to actually RISK venturing out and MEETING some “Online Posters” before you can even GUESSTIMATE at who & what is real. Phonies & Propaganda abound . . . just like Liars & False Advertising abound. C-O-N-N-E-C-T-I-V-I-T-Y.
Bullies on high, bullies in schools. Top-down, top-down.
The 3/20/10 #Obamacare protest was “original” Tea Party, people who quoted Founding Fathers and donned “period” costume. DOWN on #Obamacare, they were. (Americans will rue the day they fought for the right to pay for their OWN unaffordable healthcare, but that is another story. A DIFFERENT story of Divide & Conquer.)
They were also DOWN on War and the ENTANGLING ALLIANCES. They were DOWN on Government Overreach, Government Waste, Hyper Regulation, Civil Rights Abuse, Police Brutality, Self-Investigation, Entrenched Politicians, Corrupt Officials & the TWO-PARTY STRANGLEHOLD.
They were DOWN DOWN DOWN on #CentralBankers. END THE FED!
They were ALSO comparatively FEW – early, enthusiastic suggestion of 25,000 attendees was ridiculed out of countenance. A FEW thousand? Using Drake Stadium as a reference, not even 10,000. They’re all hell-bent on REPEALING #Obamacare, but the big #TeaParty push against #Obamacare drew fewer people than a Latino assembly for I-don’t-know-what a few blocks away. On a Saturday.
Then I learned that the TEA PARTY EXPRESS would roll into town later in the week . . . in high style and posh coaches, with SARAH PALIN headlining.
Sarah Palin, running mate of JOHN McCAIN and QUITTER of Alaskan Governorship is “suddenly” drawing crowds AND DONORS under the Tea Party banner. Platforms, having weight and bulk, are hard to maintain and harder to peddle. Banners are light and breezy, readily collapsed into “practically nothing” nd inexpensively reproduced with modifications, such as the addition of CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS.
Not only did the TEA PARTY EXPRESS roll into Washington DC AFTER the TeaParty protest of Obamacare on 3/20/10, it rolled into Washington DC AFTER the House PASSED Obamacare on 3/21/10.
TEA PARTY EXPRESS rolled into Dealmaking Central on a WEEK DAY…when those who HAVE jobs don’t DARE not show up for them. TEA PARTY EXPRESS further distinguished itself from the “original” TeaParty, when TeaPartyExpress Brass posed and pontificated on ONE side of the weekend and #SecondAmendment folk assenbked not only on the other side of the WEEKEND, but also the other side of the RIVER, in another state.
Say what you will about Hardcore Libertarian Gun Toters, FEEL about them however you do — some ARE scary — but as the sword is the last argument of kings, so an Armed Citizenry IS the last defense AGAINST Kings and Killers. C’est la vie.
In short (lol), I believe the #TeaParty Moovement has been co-opted AT LEAST since March 2010.
By Old Guard #Republicans, no less. It is all fine and well for #SarahPalin to preach Anti Establishmentarianism NOW — it’s kinda hard to say who broke up with WHOM — but for absolute positive certain, she rode the coattails of none other than the Old Boy Network to her “discovery” as a MEDIA SENSATION. Lady Go Go.
With the Republican Machine, same as with the Democratic Machine, comes ENHANCED SHOT AT VICTORY, also at big-league fundraising and high-flying lifestyles. “Original” Tea Partiers, flush with the “success” of installing infamous #RepublicanFreshman who played HOSTAGE POLITICS over #DebtDeal, don’t wanna do anything that might piss of the mighty “Republican Base.”
Power corrupts? Money=Power, and there you have it. #HardrightRepublicans have swept Funny Hat Tea Partiers off their feet with (at last!) THEIR slice o’ the pie. IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM, JOIN ‘EM. WINNING IS EVERYTHING. THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS.
They who were lately mocked now RIDICULE the Socialists and Marxists among the #OccupyWallStreeters. Pray tell, what if Congress would be known and judged by photos of ANTHONY WEINER.
What if the entire American Legal System would be evaluated by Pennsylvania Judge Mark Ciavarella,WHO LOCKED KIDS UP FOR CASH?
If #LimousineLiberals are TRYING to overtake #OccupyWallStreet to make it pro-Obama or “just” tweak it ANTI GOP, it’s because they CAN.
Michael J. Fox in AMERICAN PRESIDENT: “…in the absence of genuineleadership, they‘ll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone.”
#MainstreamMedia is owned by GIANT CORPORATIONS. Giant Corporations are doing very well. Remember? CORPORATE EARNINGS the bright spot of our poorly performing but well-propped economy. Giant Corporations are not WITH The Resistance. Officials that live like ROYALTY compared to our erstwhile Middle Class are not even SERVANTS to the Public, they are certainly not FRIENDS.
Even IF #OccupyWallStreet were initially the brainchild of Masterminds on “the other side”, it is only and entirely by INFIGHTING AMONG COMMONERS that they could keep AHOLD of so much discontent agitating amid so much suffering and insecurity.
DEMOTIVATORS INC: “Never underestimate the power of large groups of stupid people.”
The election is more than a year away. There is talk of a national Occupy assembly in #Philadelphia, commencing next JULY (love the venue, WEEP at the delay). It is PREPOSTEROUS for theoretical populist groundswells of OUTRAGE & RESOLVE to quickly line up along party lines, behind existing standard-bearers.
It bears repeating, Commoners’ leverage lies in their NUMBERS.
More and more and more and more Resistors WITHHOLDING support from politicians and campaigns, pending redress of grievances, THAT will put pressure on them. A larger and larger mass of people refusing to get sucked into party politics or distracted by Wedge Issues, THAT will scare them. If we have learned nothing else about #Terrorism, we have learned that FEAR is highly motivational.
Starve the Cold, feed the Fevered.
ACCOMPLISHMENT trumps OCCUPATION.
copyright 2011 Implausible Endeavors LLC





