Difference Between Tea Party Movement And Occupy Wall Street
The Tea Party movement began on Feb. 19, 2009, when Rick Santelli, the CNBC financial journalist who reports from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, ranted against the government bailing out homeowners who couldn’t pay their mortgages.
The Occupy Wall Street protest got going two and a half years later, when editors at the anti-corporate Canadian magazine Adbusters were inspired by events in the Middle East to call for a mass demonstration against the financial industry on Sept. 19, 2011.
The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street are two very different movements—with seemingly opposite views on almost every issue. Predictably, their views on education—and the government’s role in making it available to all—are quite different. Those origins tell you a lot about how the two …show more content…
movements differ. The Tea Party has remained a purely American affair, while Occupy Wall Street strikes a global posture.
The Tea Party began spontaneously, when a guy on TV got mad about freeloaders. Occupy Wall Street was planned over email by experienced organizers. The Tea Party is a revolt of the haves; Occupy Wall Street a revolt of the have-nots. Yet there are points of commonality between them. Both are angry about what they see as economic unfairness—the Tea Party over deviations from free-market principle, the Occupiers over excessive adherence to it. Both are hostile toward society’s elite, and frustrated with the American political system.
The Tea Party is all about smaller government and lower taxes, and their demands regarding education reflect that agenda. Major political candidates associated with the Tea Party have all been open about their desire to eliminate the federal Department of Education—and some go so far as to suggest getting rid of the public school system entirely. Publicly speaking Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul was one of the first Tea Party candidates calling for elimination of the Department of Education. Other politicians who have made that suggestion include Nevada’s Sharron Angle and most of the republican Presidential candidates, including Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, and our own Texas Governor Rick Perry.
In November of 2011, approximately 200 students, parents, and education professionals marched in an Occupy Wall Street protest outside the US Department of Education. Their beliefs of Standardized testing, charter schools, and budget cuts—as well as strong mayoral control of schools in New York City spoke volumes.
Some teachers were calling for elimination of standardized testing requirements that have a strong effect on school budgets and performance assessment. Other demands from the Tea Party include a reduction of control by the federal government (candidate Herman Cain has called this “unbundling”); less standardized testing in schools, and an elimination or reduction of federal student .2loan programs.
Under a Tea Party government, students would be on their own in paying for college and in getting lower-level education. But, theoretically at least, they would have more money to do it with—because their taxes would be lower.
Back in 2008, The Tea Party continually stayed on the path of making world news with… Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin… Sarah became the darlings of the movement; however the Wealthy conservatives like the Koch Brothers simply bankrolled the Tea Party while Republican politicians tumbled over each other to glom on; some of which was the most talked about in the media…
Time and time again, highly reported by FOX News, the Critics of the Tea Party have been quick to point out their views regarding the movement per elections… Fox News used its megaphone to hype and encourage the Tax Day protests that were the Tea Party’s first big outing.
The energy generated by the Tea Party helped produce the big Republican swing in the 2010 election. But the influence of the Tea Party within the GOP also led to the nomination of unelectable candidates who arguably cost Republicans the Senate. Probably the Tea Party’s greatest achievement to date is keeping House Speaker John Boehner from agreeing to a debt-ceiling deal with President Obama that would have included a modest tax increase.
At this point, it is pretty clear what the Tea Party view of the world is: smaller government, lower taxes, less spending, and less regulation.
In general, Occupy Wall Street’s views have been less unified than those of the Tea Party movement.
However, it’s possible to piece together a general view based on current events and statements by Occupy Wall Street participants.
Overall, the movement has made the Republican Party more rigidly right-wing without producing any substantive accomplishments. Its influence may now be on the wane. The GOP seems poised to nominate a candidate the Tea Party doesn’t like.
Occupy Wall Street is probably at an earlier stage of its lifecycle, but already pointed toward a similar role: energizing the liberal base and pulling the Democratic Party to the left, without making anything in particular happen.
In many cases, it’s hard to see a parallel to Occupy Wall Street, which has no major media champion or institutional support. However; Occupy Wall Street, which raises a wide variety of complaints states Bankers should be punished; they should be paid less; and excessive pay to CEOS should cease, government should regulate them more aggressively; because society is becoming more unequal; people are out of work; money should have no sway in politics; and capitalism isn’t working;
etc.
Researching the comparison the Tea Party is anarchic in principle and conservative in style, Occupy Wall Street is anarchic in style and liberal in principle. Tea Party rallies are dominated by middle-class, middle-aged white men who pack up their coolers and go home at the end of the day. The Occupy Wall Street encampment is more like something that never ends.
As stated above, The Tea Party, was launched by a guy in a suit on the floor of a financial exchange; it’s the backward-looking movement of people worried about losing their place in society; and Occupy Wall Street was spawned by a poster of a ballerina perched atop Wall Street’s bronze bull. It is the image-conscious, forward-looking movement of people worried that they may never live in the kind of country they want.
Occupy Wall Street looks cooler. The Tea Party has evolved toward a hierarchical decision-making structure; OWS insists on a horizontal, consensus-driven one. Both movements are nonviolent, with deviations; However Tea Partiers created an ugly scene at the Capitol last year and were accused of using racial epithets and spitting at members of Congress; and Occupy Wall Street protestors have come into conflict with the police, and been criticized for creating squalor and nuisance in Lower Manhattan.
Their tactics include civil disobedience, confrontation with authority, and a willingness to get arrested—something Tea Partiers isn’t interested in doing. There is not much that the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street agree about other than that they are not like each other. However both draw attention and sympathy to their movements; with huge cultural and ideological differences, and as spontaneous and unpredictable; nevertheless both groups object to the comparison. Lastly with the political landscape, they seem to have more in common than meets the eye. The parallels are much stronger than either prefers to admit.
The Occupy Wall Street protest got going two and a half years later, when editors at the anti-corporate Canadian magazine Adbusters were inspired by events in the Middle East to call for a mass demonstration against the financial industry on Sept. 19, 2011.
The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street are two very different movements—with seemingly opposite views on almost every issue. Predictably, their views on education—and the government’s role in making it available to all—are quite different. Those origins tell you a lot about how the two …show more content…
movements differ. The Tea Party has remained a purely American affair, while Occupy Wall Street strikes a global posture.
The Tea Party began spontaneously, when a guy on TV got mad about freeloaders. Occupy Wall Street was planned over email by experienced organizers. The Tea Party is a revolt of the haves; Occupy Wall Street a revolt of the have-nots. Yet there are points of commonality between them. Both are angry about what they see as economic unfairness—the Tea Party over deviations from free-market principle, the Occupiers over excessive adherence to it. Both are hostile toward society’s elite, and frustrated with the American political system.
The Tea Party is all about smaller government and lower taxes, and their demands regarding education reflect that agenda. Major political candidates associated with the Tea Party have all been open about their desire to eliminate the federal Department of Education—and some go so far as to suggest getting rid of the public school system entirely. Publicly speaking Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul was one of the first Tea Party candidates calling for elimination of the Department of Education. Other politicians who have made that suggestion include Nevada’s Sharron Angle and most of the republican Presidential candidates, including Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, and our own Texas Governor Rick Perry.
In November of 2011, approximately 200 students, parents, and education professionals marched in an Occupy Wall Street protest outside the US Department of Education. Their beliefs of Standardized testing, charter schools, and budget cuts—as well as strong mayoral control of schools in New York City spoke volumes.
Some teachers were calling for elimination of standardized testing requirements that have a strong effect on school budgets and performance assessment. Other demands from the Tea Party include a reduction of control by the federal government (candidate Herman Cain has called this “unbundling”); less standardized testing in schools, and an elimination or reduction of federal student .2loan programs.
Under a Tea Party government, students would be on their own in paying for college and in getting lower-level education. But, theoretically at least, they would have more money to do it with—because their taxes would be lower.
Back in 2008, The Tea Party continually stayed on the path of making world news with… Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin… Sarah became the darlings of the movement; however the Wealthy conservatives like the Koch Brothers simply bankrolled the Tea Party while Republican politicians tumbled over each other to glom on; some of which was the most talked about in the media…
Time and time again, highly reported by FOX News, the Critics of the Tea Party have been quick to point out their views regarding the movement per elections… Fox News used its megaphone to hype and encourage the Tax Day protests that were the Tea Party’s first big outing.
The energy generated by the Tea Party helped produce the big Republican swing in the 2010 election. But the influence of the Tea Party within the GOP also led to the nomination of unelectable candidates who arguably cost Republicans the Senate. Probably the Tea Party’s greatest achievement to date is keeping House Speaker John Boehner from agreeing to a debt-ceiling deal with President Obama that would have included a modest tax increase.
At this point, it is pretty clear what the Tea Party view of the world is: smaller government, lower taxes, less spending, and less regulation.
In general, Occupy Wall Street’s views have been less unified than those of the Tea Party movement.
However, it’s possible to piece together a general view based on current events and statements by Occupy Wall Street participants.
Overall, the movement has made the Republican Party more rigidly right-wing without producing any substantive accomplishments. Its influence may now be on the wane. The GOP seems poised to nominate a candidate the Tea Party doesn’t like.
Occupy Wall Street is probably at an earlier stage of its lifecycle, but already pointed toward a similar role: energizing the liberal base and pulling the Democratic Party to the left, without making anything in particular happen.
In many cases, it’s hard to see a parallel to Occupy Wall Street, which has no major media champion or institutional support. However; Occupy Wall Street, which raises a wide variety of complaints states Bankers should be punished; they should be paid less; and excessive pay to CEOS should cease, government should regulate them more aggressively; because society is becoming more unequal; people are out of work; money should have no sway in politics; and capitalism isn’t working;
etc.
Researching the comparison the Tea Party is anarchic in principle and conservative in style, Occupy Wall Street is anarchic in style and liberal in principle. Tea Party rallies are dominated by middle-class, middle-aged white men who pack up their coolers and go home at the end of the day. The Occupy Wall Street encampment is more like something that never ends.
As stated above, The Tea Party, was launched by a guy in a suit on the floor of a financial exchange; it’s the backward-looking movement of people worried about losing their place in society; and Occupy Wall Street was spawned by a poster of a ballerina perched atop Wall Street’s bronze bull. It is the image-conscious, forward-looking movement of people worried that they may never live in the kind of country they want.
Occupy Wall Street looks cooler. The Tea Party has evolved toward a hierarchical decision-making structure; OWS insists on a horizontal, consensus-driven one. Both movements are nonviolent, with deviations; However Tea Partiers created an ugly scene at the Capitol last year and were accused of using racial epithets and spitting at members of Congress; and Occupy Wall Street protestors have come into conflict with the police, and been criticized for creating squalor and nuisance in Lower Manhattan.
Their tactics include civil disobedience, confrontation with authority, and a willingness to get arrested—something Tea Partiers isn’t interested in doing. There is not much that the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street agree about other than that they are not like each other. However both draw attention and sympathy to their movements; with huge cultural and ideological differences, and as spontaneous and unpredictable; nevertheless both groups object to the comparison. Lastly with the political landscape, they seem to have more in common than meets the eye. The parallels are much stronger than either prefers to admit.