By contrast - OWS may be succeeding

reply to post by dolphinfan

I don't know if you realize it, but you are furthering the illusion of the left vs. right paradigm, a FALSE distortion of reality.
Actually I am T.E.A. Party AND O.W.S. How does that fit your narrative? And, I don't trash out places and leave a big mess. Imagine that? There are clowns in both.
There are some pretty radical people in the T.E.A. Party, ready to use violence if need be. That may not fit your narrative either.

reply to post by SurrealisticPillow


Regardless of whether or not people want to reject the right/left notion, the ideological differences between the Tea Party and OWS are fundamental. Clearly, there are elements of the system that both endeavor to change such as the institutionalized corruption, but beyond that the groups have opposed visions of society, the Tea Party being for lower taxes, less government in all forms and the outcomes of society based on merit. OWS has fundamentally leftist/socialist underpinnings. Outcomes governed by at least a mix of personal and government oversight, "fairness" a desired outcome of the results of economic activity.

Again, were all of the things these groups have in common as things that need to be changed were eliminated from society would they have a common vision on how society should be ordered? No and the philosophical underpinnings of each are decidely left vs. right. You may find those terms too vague and I might agree with you, but they are the terms used globally to define the political differences between those who want less government and those who want more.

As far as the clean-up, there is no doubt that there are many and perhaps a majority of OWS folks who are being respectful to the areas they are engaged in protest. Unfortunately many are not and cities are being hit with clean-up bills in the tens of millions of dollars. As it is pointed out in another thread, when the discretionary budgets of these cities have been chewed up by cleaning up OWS and the extra police/security required and they have no money left to plow roads this winter, who are folks going to point to when they complain. Not the Tea Party.

I mentioned in another thread the most effective thing the OWS movement could have done is to do something extremely specific to show their power. Get people, raise money in small contributions, get serious legal assistance and go after 1 Wall Street crook who was a part of the melt down. Do the research, do the reach out and go after Dick Fuld who blew up Lehman Brothers, netting hundreds of $millions in the process and by breaking the counterparty chain was absolutely instrumental in bringing down the system. Make it an absolute show trial. Get Hollywood involved in media. Anyone who had money in any money market fund was affected (when pensions and mutual funds are accounted for that is tens of millions of people). Anyone who lost their job at a financial firm or a firm that serviced the financial industry was affected. Dick Fuld should be sued in at minimum civil court and every last dime he has taken from him. The matter is ripe for a class action. Now getting him in a class action and ripping tens of millions away from him would send a much louder message than what is currently going on. That would have united both groups who could fight out the rest of the issues at the ballot box. Next up, two dirty politicians, one from each party. A show of force. A message that resonates with 99.9% of the population and something that could make a difference.