Leveling The Playing Field: OWS and the Tea Party

With all of the back and forth lately on ATS concerning OWS and the claims that "radical lefties" have taken over the movement, I thought it would be best to combat those who make such claims by allowing them a chance to hold the Tea Party to the same standards that OWS is being held to by the Right.

Most who defend the Right and the TP have made statements that the TP is a true grass-roots movement that is not co-opted by ideologically extreme, partisan interests that use their wealth to direct the TP movement in the direction they deem politically expedient. But that is the exact claim made against OWS.

So to level the playing field between OWS and the TP, I would like to point out the very powerful political and big-money interests behind this so-called grass roots movement and the corruption behind it.

One claim against OWS is that George Soros, a globalist and wealthy supporter of liberal causes, has injected massive amounts of money into the movement through secondary sources such as the Tides Foundation and moveon.org. While these groups have stated their support for OWS, it remains to be seen if any actual funding has been dispersed in any way to the OWS movement.

The Right's "equivalent" to Soros would be none other than the Kock Brothers. The Kock Brothers are wealthy entrepreneurs that inherited their fathers oil business and expanded into many other areas. The key to their political aspirations leads back to their father, Fred. Fred was a serving member of the John Birch society, an extremist right-wing group that, among other things, campaigned against the civil rights movement in the 1960's.

Now the Kock brothers carried on their father's legacy, not only in business, but also in their social activism as well. The Kock brother have a huge amount of influence over the TP considering that David Kock's American's for prosperity foundation has funded and sponsored TP events.

Couple that with the fact the Dick Army's Freedomworks has funded, sponsored and promoted TP events with money donated by the Kock brothers to the tune of $12 million, and it's only logical to conclude that the TP has been co-opted by big money extremists with the goal to push their agenda....as their father before them.

It also must be pointed out that Kock Industries also has ties to bribery and sales of items to Iran. Considering the current atmosphere of politics of the Right, this would be easily considered treason.

Another aspect of the TP is the direct ties to Rupert Murdoch and FoxNews. FoxNews has funded, sponsored and promoted many TP events. Partisan talking heads such as Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, staunch supporters and figure heads of the TP, are directly tied to FoxNews and Murdoch since they are on their payroll.

FoxNews and the Kock Brothers have also been part of busing people in from other areas to attend TP rallies to bolster the appearance of large numbers. But if we really want to talk about the TP and it's corruption, we have a clear example from Pittsburgh.

The Pittsburgh Tribune Review is a friend to the TP movement and has published many articles espousing the positive aspects of the TP. Underneath the surface we can see why. The Tribune Review is owned by Richard Mellon Scaife. Scaife controls the Sarah Scaife foundation and uses the foundation to fund "public policy" causes and events. This foundation also gave money to FreedomWorks to the tune of over $470,000. It is no wonder this media outlet is such a supporter of the TP!

So what we have seen in this thread up till now is that there are ideologically extreme, big-money interests in play within the TP, financial support from various groups in cahoots with these very people and backing from like-minded individuals who use their media outlet to promote the TP.

Is it safe to say that the TP is corrupt? I think so! If we are to take the same criteria used against OWS and apply it to the TP, then there is an obvious correlation between the extreme Neoconservative wealthy interests, biased media outlets and the TP movement itself.

That being said, how can anyone within the TP, or supporters of the TP, make any claims against OWS when the evidence shows that their movement HAS been co-opted and directed by forces with ties to partisan political debauchery. Are supporters of the TP simply Right-wing extremists that are to have their feet held to the fire as the OWS supporters have? Is their message less effective because of their ties to big-money partisans? I leave you to answer that.

It remains to be seen whether or not OWS will follow the lead of the TP, but we must be willing to hold both movements to the same standards if we are to remain intellectually honest and true to the values we claim to hold sacred.

Thanks for reading ATS!

NY Times
Political Junkies
Pitts Tribune Review
Bloomberg
John Birch Society
SourceWatch
KOS
Sarah Scaife Foundation

Here is a link that talks about how Americans For Prosperity bused people in for a Florida TP event.

Link

Another link:

Newshound

Thanks. Let me star and flag that for you.

The Tea Party was willing to be bought up and sold out in the dimwitted belief that they were making a positive change. Their particular delusion must have made it pretty easy for the Koch brothers et al. to deceive them into believing they were being taken seriously. Unfortunately their narrow and misguided idea of the root of the problem was even worse than the Occupy movement's.

In the end, assuming that they can go the distance, I at least believe the OWS movement will have some minimal positive effect. But someday we're all going to have to face the real root cause....

reply to post by Ex_CT2


Yes, we will all have to deal with the root cause eventually. OWS is just one way to do just that.

I find it funny that all of these people on ATS ridicule OWS and hold the TP high on a pedestal, yet the facts show that they were co-opted in the same way they they assume OWS has been take over.

It's not working though. OWS has changed the medias way of discussing OWS and we have even seen concessions from one bank.

It's working!

The Tea Party also has no true leader and no true solutions.

reply to post by theovermensch


If we are to take the same standard applied to OWS, the TP had a true leader in the Kock Brothers, FoxNews and it's figure heads. Just as they apply Soros and the socialist commies to OWS.

As far as the message: It was up to FreedomWorks and FoxNews to define that message and they just followed along.

as an original member of the tea party- YES- IT WAS hijacked. I went to the gathering in my area, full of hope that maybe we could bring our country back to its senses. Instead, a few weeks later all of the professional liars- ooops i mean polititians, jumped on board.

So yes,the Tea Party was hi-jacked.
Just like OWS has been hi-jacked

The OWS crowd wants bigger government.
sites.google.com...

They want universal healthcare.

They want student loan forgiveness.

They want the government to guarantee jobs.

They want to rewrite the Constitution.

They want government oversite of all businesses.

Pretty self-explanatory to me.

reply to post by sheepslayer247


A great post. Thank you for doing the research. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread to see the lively debate that is sure to ensue. However, I'm guessing it's going to be the same nonsense speculation that I see everywhere else.

P.S. Your avatar is so win.

reply to post by beezzer


This is completely off topic. Care to respond to the OP?

reply to post by desertdweller1


OWS has not been hijacked...not quite yet. It has the potential to be co-opted, but so far has been able to deflect a union/leftist takeover despite what others may say.

Time will tell.

reply to post by beezzer

Ok, Beezer. I'll bite.

Now can you show me that this is the consensus with all OWS participants?

I can show you how the ideals of the Kock Brothers and FoxNews is exactly in-line with what the TP became. Not all the people, but what it became.

reply to post by sheepslayer247
Tea Party wants smaller government, personal responsibility.

Sounds pretty simple to me.

The op is leaving out someone who is doing business with Iran and made their Ceo Job Czar and that is GE.

But hey this is about the evil Koch brothers leveling the playing feild?

How does he figure that when he is leaving out the reuters artcile about Soros and the whose who of using and "co opting " OWS and that is ACORN, and SEIU who just so happened was behind the "milliionaire" march in NYC that bused people in.

Oh and bused people in to the homes of those other rich evil 1% a few months ago the op was just as slanted as any MSM source.

reply to post by beezzer


How does that address the facts that I gave in the OP that the TP has become an arm of big-money partisans, exactly what you claim OWS to be?

reply to post by neo96

Ok, Neo. Now please tell me how the TP is an better when they can be tied to the same tactics?

Stay on topic and address the issue. Don't deflect!

Pivoting off the Occupy Wall Street movement, unions are planning coordinated protests Thursday for a financial transactions tax. Organizers estimate more than 1,500 union members from more than 20 labor groups, including the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of County, State and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the Communications Workers of America (CWA), will be outside the Treasury Department Thursday to call for what has become known as the “Robin Hood Tax.”

patdollard.com...

The AFL-CIO, whose president Richard Trumpka speaks to the White House everyday, is working hard to keep the Wisconsin protests going. The New York AFL-CIO unions have been busing in reinforcements to Madison. Unfortunately, not all of the reinforcements brought shoes.

www.thegatewaypundit.com...

Yeah let's talk about people busing in protesters.

Originally posted by sheepslayer247
reply to post by beezzer

 

How does that address the facts that I gave in the OP that the TP has become an arm of big-money partisans, exactly what you claim OWS to be?

Tea Party proponents. Some are rich, some aren't. The message is what is important.

WHAT does each "side" want?

Tea Party? Smaller government.

OWS? Larger government.

Again, sounds pretty simple.

reply to post by sheepslayer247


Nothing has been deflected the op and the thread said "level playing field" and GE is a part of that op since they are in bed with the White House and also do business with Iran.

Or is this thread just about allowing one side to be told here and paint the TPM and those evil Koch Brothers oh who employ over 50,000 union members.

They must be behind OWS too!

reply to post by neo96


And you bypass the issue, thanks Neo!

This thread is about applying the same criteria. Are you able to do that?



reply to post by beezzer

Some are rich, some aren't. The message is what is important.

Exactly! Thanks to you as well!

You have proven my point that small parts of any group can take the issue in any direction they want, but it will always remain with the people unless they allow it to be co-opted. OWS has not sold out yet....I said yet. The TP sold out quickly!

Originally posted by sheepslayer247
Exactly! Thanks to you as well!

You have proven my point that small parts of any group can take the issue in any direction they want, but it will always remain with the people unless they allow it to be co-opted. OWS has not sold out yet....I said yet. The TP sold out quickly!

I have never been swayed or have tried to obfuscate the message. OWS has. Because their message is for bigger government.

Soros backing OWS.
Koch backing Tea Party.

Who cares?

What they stand for is the key point between the two.

OWS thinks that larger government will solve the problem.

Tea Party thinks smaller government will solve the problem.

Back to the same ol' conservative vs. progressive debte actually. Only OWS is dishonest in who they actually are. The 99%? *snort*
More like a DNC/Union/progressive movement.

But hey. It's still a free country. So protest away!