Here is my latest piece on TownHall.com, discussing the inability to compare the Tea Party and OWS. One movement – the Tea Party – has a vision and values. One movement – OWS – has no vision, no values and is not a movement at all.
Tea Party and OWS — No Comparison
Steve Annear has an article on Metro.US about the new safety team circulating the Tent City Square, a.k.a. Occupy Boston, a satellite of the original Occupy Wall Street. According to Annear, a team of eight people – armed with neon vests and walkie-talkies – patrol the make-shift town to keep the “residents” safe.
Why is this necessary? According to the article:
On the heels of an incident last Sunday night, when a heroin addict allegedly pulled a knife on protesters and urinated on a tent….One guard donning a neon vest, who declined to give his name, said they are trying to keep the peace by “rounding up junkies and trying to kick them out,” adding that the so-called junkies have continually been a problem.
I have organized, hosted and spoken at Tea Party events around the country, and we never – ever! – have had to organize a safety team. Tea Party participants, who’ve gathered in cities and towns all across the country, have never had to worry about their safety from within the movement – - only from without. (see: SEIU) Never once has there been a report of a “heroin addict” urinating on tents….then again, there have been no tents! After each event, Tea Partiers return to their families, work/job search, school, etc. Heroin addicts don’t seem to be attracted to the Tea Party. And we make sure to have our rallies near public restrooms (usually associated with the properly-permitted spaces) or provide port-o-potties.
There is a difference in the participants, because there is a difference in the cause. The Tea Party is based on what I call “The Four Basics” – - The Constitution, Capitalism, Fiscal Responsibility and Smaller Government. In a broader sense, it is based on shared ideals for the country. The Tea Party advocates smaller, leaner, more pragmatic government; equality of opportunity. We do, all of us in the Tea Party, “…hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
People are made equal. What they do with their lives is up to them! The Occupiers are promoting anti-Semitism, the return of the guillotine (while “maybe” a joke at first, many think it is a good idea, and that I should be under it!), a hodge-podge of hate, vitriol and false truths.
The people of OWS don’t look to the future, to a better America, to a free and prosperous people unencumbered by government overreach to pursue their dreams, wants and desires. OWS is long removed from its proposed (legitimate?) objective – exposing and objecting to the federal government picking winners and losers on Wall Street and the too-close relationship often engaged between – and is now focused on, well, nothing. They are promoting Communism, a failed system of failed people predicated on a impossible, inchoate proposition that all people can be forced into equality.
The Tea Party promotes a better future, based on the prodigy of our Founding Fathers. OWS promotes lies, based on the abject failure of the Marxist thesis. Their once (potentially?) worthwhile message has been, unfortunately, hijacked by proud socialists and Marxists, the Democratic party, the unions, and a smattering of Hollywood – the latter three all hoping that OWS can be the Left’s version of the Tea Party, thus giving them something positive to look to in this upcoming election season.
The article continued, with one of the “guards” explaining the situation:
“People wander in here high and drunk and try and get in tents…You’re always going to have drunk a—holes, wherever you go,” he said. “The safety team is pretty efficient. It’s not like this is a junkie haven.”
The reality is, you don’t have drunk “a—holes” wherever you go. It actually depends on where you go. The Tea Party went towards a more prosperous America, rooted in the Constitution that allows people to live to the moment of their happiness. OWS went towards “eat the rich,” urinating on tents, threatening reporters, blaming the Jews and sexual harassment.
There is no comparison.
