Think about that for a moment. Why is it that the Tea Party does have money and influence? (Hint: Those things were not provided by the people you see at the rallies.)
You don’t know, yet, that OWS will not impact the 2012 election like the Tea Party on 2010’s.
Kinda depends on which Tea Party you mean, the ones in thrall to their corporate masters or the ones wholly owned by same. Remember when the Tea Party Express came out firmly in support of Comcast and Verizon on the whole “net neutrality” issue? Most likely, this reflects the mad enthusiasm of most everyone for their cable provider, everybody loves the living shit out of Comcast.
When you want to talk “grass roots” movements, Dick Armey and the Tea Party Express is who you’ve got to talk about. Lately, of course, they’ve adopted a lower profile, similar to the profile of a road-kill armadillo. Not dead, mind you, resting. Pining for the fjords.
Sure I do. They were a non-factor in the primaries, have no known major candidates in the general election, and again no organization and no money. They don’t even have a coherent agenda. They are impotent as a political force.
For what it’s worth, I don’t like the Tea Party. But there is no disputing the impact they’ve had. If the Occupy people want to be effective, they’ve got to learn how to work within the system. Camping in parks is not going to put asses in the seats that matter. They need structure, cohesiveness, discipline, and money. Until they get those things, they’re pissing into the wind.
Depends how you’d qualify that statement. Ron Paul at least is endorsed by some Tea Party members.
I was pretty obviously, given prior comments in this thread, referring to the Occupy folks.
During the week of April 9-15th, ‘Occupy’ teamed up with many other organizations (approx 70) with the goal of providing “99% Spring Training”, a day of teaching and non-violent direct action protest training, to 100,000 people. I don’t know if they met that goal. Some groups don’t partake in civil disobedience -for example, MoveOn, but others like to, such as ActUp. So even with so many groups officially participating cooperatively, the occupy movement is still quite nebulous and fluid.
They certainly have not congealed or organized like the Tea Party and I’m not sure they have any intention to do so. It seems as if they prefer to not do so.
Recently, they have been disrupting shareholder meetings at large corporations- corporations which are targeted for either perceived unfair treatment of customers or ones that receive unfair tax benefits, or both. In San Francisco about a week ago, I believe there were quite a few arrests (24?) at a Wells Fargo shareholder meeting. There were charges traded back and forth- that Wells Fargo used employees to block the seats during the meeting so occupiers could not get in, and charges from the bank that occupiers took seats belonging to legitimate shareholders, etc. Some occupiers were also shareholders.This event had reports of occupy turnout varying from several hundred occupiers to 1,000. A recent GE shareholder meeting in Detroit attracted occupiers in numbers reported to be 100 to a couple of hundred.
I don’t see much about them in the national news, but they seem to be making headlines locally.
I know they have national events planned for May 1st and May 9th and one website says they have 982 protests in the works throughout the US. I believe they are hoping May will bring renewed larger group activity.
My area group has two or three events planned and I understand there may be plans to get newsworthy with larger things like possibly blocking the Golden Gate Bridge as part of the May Day General Strike plans. This idea is also about and/or related to supporting local transportation workers in a union dispute. I say possibly because I’m not part of their group but I understand many ideas are being bounced around as to what exactly to do there.
So, who knows how they will do?
Sure we do - at this time in 2010, Tea Partiers were heavily involved in the primary process, supporting people like Rand Paul and trying to get candidates elected to Congress that supported their views. That effort was successful to some extent.
So what Occupiers have been challenging in the primaries lately, with realistic chances of getting the nomination and standing in the general? What Occupy Pledge have they been circulating to candidates to try to get them to commit to Occupy principles, whatever they might be?
If the Occupiers are to influence the elections, we’d see them in action now.
I saw those stupid signs on campus…“No work! No shopping! No school! No Housework! No whatever…” :rolleyes:
Look, I generally support the overall goals of the Occupy Movement (hell, I looked it up, and only 1.5% of us have annual incomes of $250,000 or more, and moderatly increasing taxes on those of us who DO would virtually wipe out the annual deficit) but their tactics suck, imo.
Here in Portland, they take to the streets and block the bridges/shut down the trains and have made me late for class 3 times this past year. Look guys, I can assure you the “1%” AIN’T on these trains trying to get to work or class or home from work or class…you are simply making the 99%ers LATE and PISSED OFF!
And how about, instead of organizing an opt out of everything event, you organize an opt IN event; as in opt IN to buying from local, small businesses and opening an account at your local, customer owned credit union and not working for companies whose practices or products you find offensive etc…and do it EVERY DAY.
Think THAT might have more of an effect than shutting down mass transit, tearing up public parks, shutting down the docks so people who work there can’t get paid, costing the city millions in police overtime, and generally pissing off those who are most likely to AGREE with your professed goals? :dubious:
The Occupy Movement is SOOOO over, imo.
Yes, it did some good; it brought the issues of income/wealth/power inequality to the forefront and got people (even our politicians) TALKING about them.
But it needs to move on to POSITIVE action on the INDIVIDUAL level (and sitting on your ass on strike from your life and obligations for a token day is NOT “positive action”, imo.)
Don’t drop out of life…just live it differently and watch how fast your power is felt. JMHO.
They did that actually. It’s the main reason why I respect the movement. But it’s the idiocy like the general strike idea (and the fact that one of the early organizers in my local Occupy group is a damn birther) that make me never take them too seriously.
In my area, the “divest from the banks and join a credit union” drive was sponsored by another group, unafilliated with Occupy (and Occupy never officially joined in or endorsed it, to my knowledge.) Same for the “buy from local small business” event.
The Occupy crowd’s main focus has been occupying public spaces and banks/businesses, blocking the flow of traffic and commerce (shutting down the trains and/or bridges, closing the docks, etc..) and calling for general strikes.
I’m sure the movent is not homogenious (hell, they can’t even seem to agree on anything even in a crowd of a few thousand, given their “consensus” form of decision making/“democracy”:rolleyes:)
Of course the Occupiers are influencing the election; they’re just not being self-destructive about it. Unlike the Tea Party, they’re willing to recognize the value of compromise, rather than primarying out people who don’t quite agree with them enough, just to spite their own face.
Other than that, then, the only way the OWSers could influence this election would be to campaign for Dems and help them take back the House. But I don’t hear any talk about that.
How? Where? Which election? What influence? Let’s see some cites.
There are still a handful of Occupy Cleveland protestors camped out just off Public Square. They seem pretty forlorn these days.
Such as Law Day, which doesn’t get much attention other than from law-talkin’ dudes and dudettes: Law Day (United States) - Wikipedia
Well, we’re only just now getting to the point where one would start hearing such talk. I mean, up to now, how much talk have you heard from anyone about the general election?
We met some OWSers in New York City, and found them to be know-it-all brats.
That day, we were with an old school anti-war/civil rights activist friend,
who could have given them some pointers, had they not been so full of themselves.
When questioned about their goals and objectives,
they responded by telling us to join them.
But what are your goals?
Just join us!
But…
In Detroit, it was somewhere between 1 and 2 thousand I’d say. It was between one and two hundred in the shareholder meeting.
Resistance is futile!