The Tea Party started as a grassroots movement largely composed of folks who were clear that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats were representing the people's interests. They believed that there was no real meaningful difference between the parties, and in fact believed that we really only have one political party which many called the Republicrats.
As far as the grassroots Tea Party was concerned, only the interests of huge corporations were being served by the political parties, and these corporations were buying elections and legislation. Much of this legislation worked against hard working people, particularly the middle class. The Tea Party deemed that the marriage of the American executive, legislative, and judiciary branches of government with corporations resulted in corporate fascism which was threatening to destroy democracy and the republic. This marriage was unconstitutional, and the Tea Party wanted the United States to return to being governed by the laws of the U.S. Constitution and not by the desires of corporate America.
Hence, these folks banned together and called themselves the Tea Party in the spirit of the Boston Tea Party in which tea was dumped into the harbor to protest taxation without representation. So in the 21st century, a Tea Party was born to protest taxation without representation, because the people awere being taxed while only the corporations are being represented.
Then comes the aftermath of the 2008 election, and the Republicans are all but dead and stinking in the water. They were in desperate search of a lifeline. They found one: the Tea Party. By this time the Tea Party knew back then what many of us know or feel now. Obama was not about change; in fact, he was about the status quo. It was evident in his administration where big business, former lobbyist, and the Democrat establishment were over represented. The Tea Party was vocal in their concern and anger about the direction they felt the country was continuing to go. It was just what Republicans needed: some folks that were organized, angry, and distrustful of government, and what good fortune that a democrat was now the head of such government. It was the lifeline the Republicans needed. Very quickly they infiltrated and then co-opted the Tea Party. In the process, it went from an effective non partisan grassroots movement to an extremely conservative wing of the Republican Party.
As a conservative wing of the party it is effective, but as a grassroots movement fighting corporate fascism it has been effectively neutralized. There was some infighting between the grassroots folks and the infiltrating conservatives, but the grassroots folks didn't have the seemingly unlimited financial resources or access to the mainstream right wing media to prevent their takeover. Every now and then you will hear people make reference to" the real Tea Party," but not many people, and certainly not mainstream media ,know what the "real Tea Party" was or what it stood for.
Now fast forward to the Occupy Wall Street Movement. The left wing mainstream media and MoveOn.org, an appendage of the Democratic Party, are desperately trying to co-opt the movement. This, although when the media has repeatedly asked protesters about the movement's political party preference, protesters have overwhelmingly stated that the movement is not political/partisan. Yet when the left wing media spins it, the OWS movement is the left's answer to the Tea Party.
Some democrats are beginning to express jubilation that the masses are out in the streets. These are the same democrats that when they were in the majority did nothing to alleviate the suffering of the same masses they are so thrilled to see in the streets.
Like "the real Tea Party," many in the Occupy Wall Street Movement feel that neither party is doing the work of the people but is instead solely doing the work of the corporations. Sound familiar?
My advice, not only to the Occupy Wall Street Movement but to all of us, is do not believe the hype! Do not continue to allow the political parties and their corporate media ringmasters tell us who we are and what we want so that they can infiltrate our movements. If we are not cognitively vigilant, they will co-opt us and sucker us into the impotent,brain numbing, couch potating left/right paradigm all over again. Whatever you do, STAY AWAKE!
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