Liberal reactions to the “occupy Wall Street” movement, when compared with liberal reactions to the tea party movement, expose what is best described as a glaringly obvious double standard used by the left. For this article, Nancy Pelosi’s analysis of the “occupy” movement will be compared with her analysis of the tea party movement. Ms. Pelosi’s thoughts accurately represent the core leftist thinking that has infested the Democrat party, which is why, when the Democrats had control of the House, she was proudly selected as the speaker—anyone to the right of a San Francisco liberal just wouldn’t do apparently.
First, let’s analyze what Ms. Pelosi said about the tea party movement as well as what she said about the “occupy” movement. Then, we can compare the two movements and see if Nancy Pelosi’s analysis is justified. Speaking of the tea party movement, Ms. Pelosi said, “I have concerns about some of the language that is being used,” describing such language as “frightening” and comparing it to rhetoric she experienced in the “late 1970’s in San Francisco” where “violence took place.” Thus, we should “curb our enthusiasm.” She pretended to get all choked up while saying this too but I don’t remember her ever shedding a fake tear over leftist hate speech which is and has been much more prevalent and vitriolic. When leftist protesters burned the American flag and called for President Bush to be killed, Ms. Pelosi and her crocodile tears were also mysteriously missing in action.
Ms. Pelosi, however, had very different words about the “occupy” protesters: “God bless them.” She also had other words of praise for the movement: “it’s young, it’s spontaneous, it’s focused, and its going to be effective.” Now, the “occupy” movement has (as predicted by many pundits on the right) become violent, radical, and downright dangerous. Within the first few weeks of the protests, thousands of protesters had already been arrested in various cities all around the United States. Almost every day it seems as if we see articles about dozens or hundreds of the “occupy” protesters being arrested. At protests, American flags are desecrated, feces are smeared on police cars, property is vandalized, illegal drug usage is rampant, sexual assaults occur, anti-Jewish slurs are shouted, police officers are often physically attacked when they try to intervene, and violence in general is an inevitable part of the movement.
Unlike protesters in a typical movement, the “occupy” protesters don’t just stand around and hold signs and/or chant for a few hours before returning home to live their lives. Rather, a key feature of the movement is that they actually set up tents and live in the area wherein they are protesting from. This has resulted in some seriously unsanitary conditions and has encouraged sexual assault and illegal drug usage, because they have established their own little lawless (many of them are leftist anarchists after all) communities where just about anything goes. It is also an admission on the part of the protesters that they really don’t have much of a life.
Most Americans have jobs, attend college, take care of family, or have some type of responsibility that would prohibit them from spending all day smoking weed, banging on drums, holding signs expressing an incoherent message, hurting local small businesses, or any of the other sordid activities that the “occupy” protesters proudly do.
The “occupy” movement is nothing but a bunch of far-left agitators, many of whom are just young punks that are unwitting pawns of the far-left’s big players—unions, George Soros etc.—and probably don’t even vote. They have no coherent message or respectable strategy for long-term success with whatever it is they want to do. A large component of the movement consists of radical leftists that want to scrap the American system (constitution included) altogether. The movement is global as well so it is not focused on protecting and preserving the American way of life for future generations—by and large, the leftists involved don’t like many aspects of the American way of life.
The tea party, on the other hand, has virtually none of the less-than-stellar characteristics discussed. Unlike in the “occupy” movement, where getting arrested is just a normal part of being involved, there have been very few, if any, arrests of tea party protesters in the years the movement has been active. Tea party rallies usually last only a few hours—a whole day at most—and then the protesters go home and live their lives for a while before attending another rally. They are, overall, older and wiser than the “occupy” protesters. Most of them have children and/or grandchildren, and that motivates them to speak out against the liberal economic policies that are destroying the economy and amassing unprecedented government debt. The tea party seeks to work within the system we have now to bring about the desired reforms. Tea partiers love America and want to preserve it for their posterity against what they see as destructive policies of the left.
Physical violence, anti-Jewish sentiment, vandalism, rape, illegal drug usage, and other such illicit activities have no place at peaceful tea party rallies. Tea partiers are known to leave a place cleaner than when they found it; “occupy” encampments, like most leftists protest gatherings, leave a complete mess.
Unlike the “occupy” movement, the tea party has actually been politically proactive in implementing a political agenda; their major influence on the 2010 elections is an example of how they are actually using our great system to implement political change. Thanks largely to the tea party, we can all rest assured that the excess spending and regulation that was being passed when the Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress will come to an end; bad legislation is now dead on arrival.
All of the tea party’s amazing accomplishments happened despite liberals and the liberal mainstream media constantly slandering the movement and portraying it in a negative light. The “occupy” movement, which has the full support and enthusiasm of the country’s hardcore liberals and the liberal media, will never achieve anything close to this—not as long as they keep their current modus operandi.
Bill Hanrahan is a fourth-year student majoring in political science and philosophy. He can be reached at WH750431@wcupa.edu.