Tea Party vs. Occupy Wall Street

There have been two sets of widespread protests in the past few years, and both have different aims.  In this post, I don't necessarily care to differentiate the two, and having never experienced an Occupy Wall Street rally in person, I am not in a position to really comment on it.  However, I have seen the media and politician reaction, and that is what I would like to discuss.

Let's focus on my favourite ex-speaker.  Her reaction (the name of the video is hilarious by the way) and her other reaction to the protests that she disagrees with show that she seeks to vilify and demonize those who dissent.  Having been to several tea party rallies, I can say that I have heard nothing remotely violent stated...even from the people who were a little "out there."  The ralliers were generally just people concerned about the direction of the nation, and in my experience, they were some of the more courteous people I'd met.  I'm not saying everyone there fell in to that category; they certainly did not.  However, this crowd was as non-violent as I could have imagined.  Her reaction to the Occupy Wall Street protests is a little different.

She's not the only one, but I am going to use her as the example.  Politicians on both sides engage in this sort of tactic, and I find it sickening.  If thousands non-affiliated people have rally together across the country with something to say, politicians should be listening rather than seeking to support or delegitimize based on whether or not they agree with the demonstrators.  These demonstrations present a golden opportunity to have real discussions in Washington, yet our politicians certainly don't view it that way.  Either the protesters are heroes or pests, but they are never always just Americans.  In no way do I mean this paragraph to support either rally (although if you read the blog, you can probably guess which I closer align with).

Since life shouldn't all be serious, I present to you a cartoon:





-FSG