Thoughts on Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party

Over the past few weeks I have heard quite a bit from pundits and politicians comparing and contrasting the Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party movements.  Those of you who are familiar with my political leanings probably assume that I have much more sympathy for the Occupy Wall Street movement than the Tea Party movement.  You would be correct in that assumption.  But in contrast to the partisan representatives and media figures who so often penetrate the public discourse with their petty political posturing, I am not writing this post to vilify the Tea Party, or even to overtly endorse Occupy Wall Street.  I am writing to say that, from my perspective, both movements represent a positive change in the American political landscape.

My thoughts on the matter were sparked by this political cartoon, posted on a staunchly republican friend's facebook wall:

This political cartoon, and the generalizations it draws with both protest movements and the media's perception of them, represents a large portion of what is wrong with modern political discourse.  Painting the men and women participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement as marxist, unpatriotic, freeloading hippies is obviously outrageous.  Painting Tea Partiers as ignorant, rich, racist reactionaries is equally ridiculous.  The fact of the matter is, the majority of people participating in both movements are concerned American citizens who have gleaned that there is something fundamentally wrong with both the current state of American society.  The difference is the lens through which these people see the problem.  I don't intend to underplay the fundamental differences in ideology and the extremely different impacts these ideologies can have, I am simply saying that both movements have an acute understanding that something is amiss in the United States today, though they may have very different thoughts on who to blame.

Regardless of how brainwashed the followers of Glenn Beck might seem, how obviously corporate-funded the Tea Party movement is (see the Koch brothers or Newscorp), or how directionless the Occupy Wall Street movement is, we must not lose perspective of the roles each of these groups are playing in the ongoing development of America's political culture.  What both movements have managed to do is generate interest in the modern social, political, and economic realities.  Both movements have initiated a heated discourse throughout the country about the proper direction for the United States.  The fact that I do not see smaller or larger government as the solution to the problems at hand in our country (I prefer to think of myself as an advocate for different governance) is a topic for another time.  What is more relevant here is the big picture.  People are getting involved and educating themselves about the world around them, and I see that as a positive trend for the functioning of our democracy.  Yes, dogmatism without rational thought is a problem, but I remain optimistic, because at the end of the day I can sit down with my right-wing family members and talk with them about politics.  We rarely agree on anything, but there's always at least one or two topics on which we can find common ground.  At the very least we will have been forced to confront differing opinions and constantly evaluate why we believe what we do about the way things ought to be.

Although this is the most cliché Thomas Jefferson quote of all time, I think it is relevant to this post: "Every generation needs a new revolution."  I am not hear to say that I agree with the Tea Party, or even that "I am the 99%."  I'm just happy people are out there challenging the system, themselves, and each other.

I'll get back to blogging about Ecuador shortly, I just had to get that out of my system.