Time to get a little more serious and write a really bipartisan blog. It is tough work, but somebody has to do it and our leaders seem to have gone on permanent vacation!
I have finally come to the conclusion that Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party are really two sides of the same coin.
We all know that America is in a mess. That, at least, is indisputable. In fact, it is even worse than Washington wants us to believe. Unemployment is not 9% - the real number is closer to 30% according to most household surveys. And that black hole debt is now approaching 15 trillion - but that is just what's on the federal government's credit card. Even the OWS protesters are now urging us to stop spending. Yet, just today, Romney was still promising to spend even more money to keep us in the World Super Cop business - not a plan that will thrill either Tea Partiers or OWS activists. Why keep on trying to rule the world when we are being forced to abandon many of our social and environmental contracts? Whose agenda is this? Would most Americans really vote for a stronger military paid for by ransacking entitlements and destroying the planet? Not likely! Romney is just the last of a dying breed - a mouthpiece for the Corporate States of America (aka: the military-industrial complex for us Baby Boomers).
On both sides the question is not whether the system is broke, but rather which road is the best path forward. The Tea Party would have us cozy up to the Corporate States of America - while Occupy Wall Street would dismantle this fickle union and form some vague new social contract. At least the Left has finally found some focus for the first time since we got out of Vietnam - the last time they got into a meaningful street fight. Their principal point is clearly that the relationship between this corporate state and the majority of its people is not working. What is good for big business is no longer the same as what is good for the 99% - if it ever was.
The Right is clearly worried by this new development. Herman Cain and Rush Limbaugh are already running around with their heads cut off, claiming this is all an Obama conspiracy - perhaps funded by Hungarian billionaire, George Soros. This idea has several huge flaws. First, it assumes that Obama is really smart enough to go this BIG, then it assumes that he is dumb enough to start such an unfocused anti-government protest. Eric Cantor is also already sweating about 'mobs' in the street. Ever been near a really loud Sarah Palin rally, Eric?
What really worries the Rad Right is the threat of class warfare and the presence of the unions has done nothing to ease that fear. Remember Hoffa's comments on Labor Day about 'taking these son of a bitches out'? The Tea Party hasn't forgotten! It is a frightening idea for those who are honestly embracing this new corporate state and depending on this relationship to save America's bacon.
Over the past two years, the Tea Party has been the most polarizing influence in America - but do they really want to go there? The numbers say no. If it comes down to the crunch, there are a lot more pissed off poor people than millionaires and big corporations. The polls on Obama's 'tax the rich' proposal show that about 65% have little sympathy for the wealthy. I even believe that many soft Tea Party supporters are actually more anti-big government than pro-corporation. They just haven't quite figured out who is the villain. The Tea Party have picked up most of their support in the fight against the debt and high personal taxes - now Occupy Wall Street is a taking up this same theme and offering a different solution. They want the big corporations to pay for the monstrous mess they have created. An attractive idea?
The other analogy for both The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street is the Arab spring. All across the world, people are going into the streets to throw off oppression - but who is America's oppressor? OWS would seem to argue that the big corporations have clearly turned their backs on the American people and made the search for profit their single focus. As a result, the US has become the world's unpaid Super Cop, jobs have been exported, we are drowning in debt, and forced to abandon many of our social and environmental goals in a last ditch attempt to stay afloat. The Tea Party would instead argue that big government is the issue and that only by allowing unchecked free enterprise to flourish, will we ever find our way back to glory. The truth is that separating big-government and big business is impossible. Free enterprise and small business are the backbone of American - the large corporations are much less friendly. The Tea Party too often blurs this critical point - Exxon and your corner grocer are not the same animal. The big corporation is only pro-profit and has no special love for the American people, while small business is all about freedom and liberty. Do we really want to embrace this Corporate States of America? Still, the pro-corporation Tea Party position at least offers the promise of a new minimum wage economic revival. Can Occupy Wall Street offer us any anything more than bigger government and growing poverty? Maybe time will provide a new consensus, but it seems unlikely that any workable solution can ignore either side of the equation.
Only one thing is really clear at this moment in time - the American people are really pissed off and want a new deal. That is what Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party have in common - where they differ is whether or not we should friend the rising Corporate States of America.
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