Tea Party and Occupy movements birds of a feather

     Sometimes the irony is so strong you can taste it.
     I’m talking about the Occupy Wall Street movement versus the Tea Party, two groups that essentially want the same things, all the while disparaging each other’s causes.

Gene Sears

      Both long for freedom from tyranny, pretty much from the same people; Washington and Wall Street, indistinguishable from each other as the government hands our tax dollars over to bail out the brokers, bankers and buffoons who got us into this mess in the first place.
      Neither side is appreciably rich, either in dollars or common sense.
      Neither side has any idea how to get what they want, beyond bloviating, posturing and holding up signs.
      Neither side can spell, though Occupy seems to have a slight advantage with four-letter words.
      Neither side has much in the way of leadership, with the implosion of Rick ‘Oops’ Perry and Herman ‘Hand Check’ Cain on the right, and pretty much no one on the left.
     Somehow, this all translates into dual protest movements, kind of like Jekyll and Hyde, or more fittingly, an angry Laurel and Hardy. Angry and active.
     Personally, I hold the right to peaceably assemble as dear as the right to bear arms. It’s when we do them, or threaten to do them, at the same time that makes me nervous. That’s not protest, that’s revolution, even if ammo is on sale at Wal-Mart.
     The biggest difference I can see is that the Tea Partiers still have jobs and want to keep them and their hard-won savings at all costs. Hence the support for the big business types like Perry and Cain, immigration reform, and the quashing of social programs they might end up needing if they wind up living in the park with the Occupy folks.
     The Occupy folks don’t seem to support anyone, since the target of their ire is the nebulous 1 percent of robber barons holding their collective feet to the fire. Pretty hard to find a politician who isn’t exactly that, and even Warren Buffet and Michael Moore, darlings of the disenfranchised, are pretty damn rich themselves.
      If they were smart, the Tea Partiers would enlist the Occupy folks to carry the torch during the week when work takes precedence over protest – perhaps for a hot meal, or some wood for the bonfires. The Occupiers don’t seem to have anywhere to go any time soon. Without jobs, tent versus rent seems pretty attractive, or it least it did during the summer months.
     Now that the snow is flying, a cup of tea might just hit the spot.