Well, protests and causes are usually known by their leadership. Many of the most vocal members of the Tea Party have spearheaded a lot of hate-filled initiatives, but I'm sure there are many people who support the root issues without any of the homophobic, xenophobic or racist sentiments from some of the most visible members. Either way, I still don't support the Tea Party.
Those on Wall Street do have a point, but they also have their crazies. Ultimately this nation is part of a global marketplace and we're also losing the relevance we once had. I'm not sure how much of that can be remedied, but there must be a meeting of both corporate and worker interest. Neither side will ever be happy. I don't follow either tribe. It's just important that we all see the clash that is happening. We don't have to pick one side. We only have to be aware of the many rather complex issues and act thoughtfully when some choices hit us later on.
The Tea Party probably had some meaning once. They probably were a quiet grassroots movement that was anti-Bush pro-old school conservative/libertarian that wanted to get its party back from the spoiled moron son that's used to getting everything he wants. I agree with their anger about the bailout the same as the OWS. But then they started talking smack and making stuff up about the Health Care stuff we've been saying we wanted for years than suddenly changed our minds when it happened... then it just merged with the "We wanna secede from the Union cuz a Demmycrat's in power" looneys and became the "Obama is teh Hitler!!!!!!" movement.
I mean, that alone ticked me off for 2 reasons.
1)Oh yeah! Health Care Reform is EXACTLY like the mass murder of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, mentally disabled...etc etc.
2) It really shows the intelligence and maturity of the movement. Hitler is such an easy reference. Not Stalin, not Napoleon... no0t someone a little more fitting. It's like Lush Limbaugh's Obama is TEH Joker bit. Yeah... that just happened to be a hit summer movie. Way to earn the millions off another P&M book by stealing an easy reference.
As for OWS... If it stops or goes on, it makes no difference. Nothing's going to change. We have a wimp left wing that's controlled by the big corporations and a venomous right that's even MORE controlled by corporations. Lobbyists write the tax code. All the left can do is make weak "oh well, at least it's something" regulations that said corporations would use twice as much money it takes to comply with those regulations and buy the opposing team to repeal them. All I can think of is Bender's Big Score... the Scammers are Wall Street. We need to ALL band together... but we're not going to, because apparently if you don't like bail outs, loop holes, massive deregulation, and worst of all, baring the burden of the taxes, you're a filthy horrible traitorous communist. That's like saying you're a prude if you don't like rape. This isn't "corporate greed" it's high class gluttony. They REFUSE to create jobs until the government throws more money at them.
wasn't that why EVERYONE hated the bailout?
I've no doubt that there is some unsavory activity going down... but that's a small fringe. Saying that it's become a sex and drug den is basically Fox News pro-Sociocorporate propaganda. And they're ...gasp... a CORPORATION with funding FROM corporations. Why does anyone listen to that anymore?