Tea, Occupancy, and A Seat at the Table

Been watching the whole political morass with great interest.  Also been tempted a hundred times to say my peace here, but I'd probably be repeating myself.  Things are heating up, though, so thought I'd throw down and see if it stuck.

I've been watching with some interest the coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York and elsewhere.  I've also noticed a very basic similarity to the Tea Party movement, of which I consider myself a part.  You have to look past the peripheral things, though.  That includes most of the coverage.  Media from both sides of the political spectrum paint the OWS people as left-wing Socialists; Fox News and Rush Limbaugh to djinn up fear, and NPR to rally their own.  The same groups were painting all the Teabaggers as right-wingers, because they called for smaller government, lower taxes, and the Koch brothers were paying Sarah Palin big bucks to go talk to them.

But I think both movements go much deeper than this.  I think the core was revealed on Fox News the other night when they were panning the OWS crowd.  There were signs saying all kinds of different things, but the thing that caught my eye was a modified American flag, with corporate logos in place of the stars.  To me, that said it all, and that flag could just as easily have been waved at a Tea Party rally.

From the right, the Democrats seem to bend the knee mostly to labor unions and minorities.  From the left, the Republicans do the same to big business.  And to a great extent, both views are correct.  Not that there's anything wrong with labor unions, minorities, or big businesses.  Most of us work for somebody else; labor unions made it possible for the average person to do that work for a fair wage; and advocacy for minorities has gone a long way toward leveling the playing field in the most diverse culture in history.  These are all good things, and I don't think the average Democrat or Republican would disagree.

I can't help but think about how much things have changed in my own lifetime.  I can remember state Governors standing in front of their constituents promising, "Segregation now, segregation forever!"  I can also remember every three years or so the entire automobile industry being closed down by strikes, as well as airlines, etc. etc. etc.  Unemployment was always 10% and was always going to be.  Both sides won so many victories that all those things have changed.

So the Democrats present themselves as the party of minorities and the working man, but honestly, do their programs really mean progress for those groups?  When the same things have stopped having results decades ago?  Now, it's not about getting the worker a fair wage and benefits, it's about increasing Union membership.  And the Union workers make far more than anybody else, and the industries that are heavily unionized are priced out of any hope of being able to compete.  And as far as minorities go, the main argument seems to be whether or not illegal immigration is actually illegal or not.  If you think it is, then you're a racist?

It seems that anyone who gets power gets right to work abusing it.  Big business has re-written the Golden Rule to read; "He who has the gold makes the rules."  Unions have themselves become big businesses.  And if you're not a member of a minority, you're not supposed to have any rights at all.  They prop up the government from both sides and hog all the seats at the table where the decisions are made.

That is the commonality between the Tea Party and those who Occupy Wall Street; they, WE, want a seat at the table.  We want REAL solutions to all those problems, not just solutions that pad the advantages that a few already have.  We don't want to fear and hate the other side, we want to help them.  We want the Conservative Republicans to explain to the African-American and Hispanic communities how supply-side economics are advantageous to them, too.  And the Liberal Democrats should explain to the CEOs how fairness and honesty would benefit their bottom line.  It's actually true, you know.

It's not the government that needs to compromise as much as it is the Tea Partiers and the Wall Street Occupiers.  We should all get together and recognize the common ground we share.  Then, maybe, just maybe, we could get the politicians AND the media to shut the hell up and listen to US for a change.