Tea Party: Occupy Wall Street like Malcolm X

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When I first heard someone mention that the Tea Party, the Hard Right fringe of the already Hard Right Republican Party, was in sympathy with Occupy Wall Street (OWS), I didn’t believe it.

The fact is I didn’t want to believe it. I admire and sympathize with what the good folk of OWS are doing, and have no such thoughts about the Bible banging, gun loving, homophobic nuts that populate the Tea Party. When I read this story I experienced a great relief:

The Tea Party has a message for you: It is nothing like Occupy Wall Street, even though there have been many inevitable comparisons between the two movements. Such comparisons are “almost laughable,” however, a chief strategist for the Tea Party Express tells Politico. A FreedomWorks campaigns director explains that the Tea Party utilizes MLK-like tactics and that its numbers are made up of “kind of cheerful, happy warriors,” whereas the Occupiers are “really, truly, very unhappy, angry” and more like Malcolm X.

In order to drive this point home, several Tea Party groups are encouraging their members to dig up dirt on the Occupiers. The Tea Party has blasted everything from labor union ties to reports of littering and drug use (one demonstrator allegedly even defecated on a police car), and is posting its findings online—a tactic similar to the ones liberals used to denounce Tea Partiers when they first came on the scene—but organizers are frustrated the bad behavior they’re digging up isn’t getting more mainstream media coverage. “If this stuff was happening at tea parties,” the FreedomWorks rep says, “it would be the leading story on all the networks.”

Tell me, am I being too hard on the Tea Party?

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Professor Mike

Professor Mike is a left-leaning, dog loving, political junkie. He has written dozens of articles for Substack, Medium, Simily, and Tribel. Professor Mike has been published at Smerconish.com, among others. He is a strong proponent of the environment, and a passionate protector of animals. In addition he is a fierce anti-Trumper. Take a moment and share his work.

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