Newspaper headlines in New York on Sunday, October 16, 2011 report on the Occupy Wall Street protest in Times Square the previous day.
The liberal perspective on the “Occupy” movement is really something spectacular. Before the movement had really even announced a position or set of “demands,” progressives were pushing each other out of the way to embrace it. When they did finally come up with a set of ideals, which mostly involve eliminating their personally accrued debt, President Obama practically made it his new national agenda, branded “We Can’t Wait.”
Now you have Hollywood “celebrities” like mega-millionaires Russell Simmons, Katy Perry and Russell Brand hopping by for a photo-op with the anti-capitalist crowds. Brand said they “colonized the international agenda,” whatever that means. Restauranteurs are delivering them food (but keeping their profits); unions like the AFL-CIO are providing them places to bathe (but inspiring the organizing of their drum circles) and former Obama appointee Elizabeth Warren is crediting herself as the “intellectual foundation“ of the movement.
All of this isn’t because of some shared set of principles or intellectual foundation but because of a shared desire for enthusiasm. The Tea Party swept the nation last year based on a simple set of principles: Less Debt, Less Spending, and Less Government will lead to More Jobs and Economic Growth. The enthusiasm for more government, more taxes and more spending just wasn’t the same.
The Tea Party was a movement that was so peaceful, so respectful of public and private property, so familial and so powerful that leftists had to spend weeks agonizing over unrelated Lyndon LaRouche posters or in some cases, inventing incidents of racism or name-calling to attempt to smear it.
So we know how President Obama and his liberal base hysterically responded to the reality of Tea Party. The question is this: how would they have responded to the following 25 headlines?
Pair Living With Tea Party Protesters Arrested For Selling Heroin
Tea Party Protester Defecates on Police Car
More than 700 Arrested After Tea Party Blocks Traffic on Brooklyn Bridge
Police In Riot Gear Clear Tea Party Protesters in California City
130 Tea Party Arrests in Chicago
Police Investigating Possible Sexual Assault of Teen at Tea Party
Tea Party Discourages Sexual Assault Victims From Contacting Police
Tea Party Protests Go Global; Riots in Rome
Muppet-Wielding Tea Partiers Occupy George Soros’ Speech
Florida Mom Abandons Family for Tea Party
Police Worry as Tea Party Pines for World Series Spotlight
Tea Partiers ‘Defecating on Our Doorsteps,’ NYC Residents Complain
Riot Police Arrest Tea Party Protesters
Tea Party Occupies GE CEO Jeff Immelt’s Connecticut Front Lawn
Tea Party Targets Phil Griffin’s House
Tea Party Takes On NYPD at Times Sq.; Then March to Washington Sq.: 74 Total Arrests
Repairing Tea Party Damage to City Hall Could Cost $400,000
Tea Party Killing Tax-Funded Grass at McPherson Square
Cincinnati Police Arrest More Than 20 Tea Partiers at Piatt Park
Tea Party Speaker: Violence Will Be Necessary to Achieve Our Goals
NYers to Tea Party: Lay Off the Drums
Tea Party Protesters Sing “F*** the USA”
98 Degrees Singer Among Tea Party Arrests
Protesters Accused of Hurting NYC Economy
Tea Party Gets ‘Getting Arrested’ App
And we could go on…
The First Amendment absolutely gives “occupiers” the ability to “peaceably” assemble and protest against capitalism, free enterprise and economic freedom, but it does not entitle them to lawlessness, disrespect for private property or violent anarchy.
President Obama and the Democrat party had control of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives for two years. Liberals controlled Congress for four. It’s hard to have grassroots angst work in your favor when you were largely in control of Washington for such a long and economically devastating period.
So we can understand why liberals want the Occupy movement to work out for them. However with over 2,400 arrests in roughly six weeks, you have to think they’ll soon be having some buyer’s remorse.
**UPDATE**
Shortly after this blog was published on October 25, hundreds of ‘Occupy’ protesters rioted in Oakland, California, throwing bottles, paint and beer at police, injuring two officers, and resulting in more than 100 arrests. The running total is now well over 2,500 arrests in roughly six weeks.
Where's Orson Welles when you need him? ("Martians Attack New York")
d(^_^)b http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
“Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive”
The liberal mayor Bloomberg should be about protecting and supporting the citizens and businesses of NYC by breaking up this horrendous exhibit of disrespect and lawlessness by these left wing psychos. This is unbelievable. Would have never thought these kinds of actions would be committed by Americans! What is happening in my beloved country is foreign to me and many of my Tea Party Patriots. And to think this administration embraces these actions – tells you something about them. And PeLOUSY so taken by their actions that she asks "God Bless Them" (unreal) and calls the Tea Party "astroturf", extremists, radicals and others in this administration call us "terrorists"! This is unbelievable!
Did I miss something? Why is the headline "Tea Partiers" and not "Occupy" everywhere? Very misleading since there have been no arrests at any Tea Party events.
The headline is the joke, what would happen if the headline said 2400 Tea Partiers instead of OWS, this is the point of the article.
The article is in effect saying what would have happened if the Tea Party had done the same thing. You need to read the entire article to get the true meaning.
I said the same thing. Very misleading. I knew right away it was mispoke.
Stop calling these people Tea Partiers. They are not! They are everything opposite of what the Tea Party represents.
CJS,
The Article is written as what would have happend if the Tea Party had done this? Those headlines are all headlines from Occupy protest indescretions. a "greatest hits" compliation if you will. The point being that there is a double standard in the media and with the Democrats.
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They got the Headline wrong it was NOT Tea Partiers is was the Flea Partiers. Just wanted the "record" to be accurate! (for once)
You know, the Media can write anything they want but they can't vote for me . I am one of the many who endorse the views and thoughts of the "Tea Party" and you can't change reality. This Government in it's present form is ruining our Country and anyone who says otherwise is in favor of it's destruction. I think everyone should have to visit any European or Asian Country to understand what a blessing it is to live the USA!
No wonder we have who we have in leadership roles! Never an honest word and make-beliefs.
These wannabes can call themselves whatever they want with the support of the falsified media. The tea party portrays peace, strength and dignity! These pigs portray themselves as if they're in a 3rd world! So sad will history show the day America turned selfishly weak and ugly!
The protesters of the 1960's had a defined goal and objective… to stop the Viet Nam war. Today's protesters appear to be protesting a host of issues that is reduced to one plain fact. The "free lunch", to which most protesters believed they were entitled, does not exist. We all have to live in the world as it is and not as we'd like it to be. Welcome to REALITY!
OWS is being controled and financed by leftist, anarchist and unions thugs. Their single goal is to end capitalism, and along with it, our Western way of life. Any wonder why Obama and the Democrat Party support this bunch?
Well, Mayor Blumber of ny is screwing his city up by letting the ows nuts keep destroying private property, stinking up the city, and basically let anarchy run all over that great city the former Mayor Juianie worked hard to clean up. New York people need to wake up and elect a mayor that cares about NY instead of whatever agenda is most important to liberals who hate this great City and country!
I predict that the OWS gang will sue the city for rough treatment, win huge settlements, and join the 1% by investing it in stocks. Irony is such an ironic thing.
Rory Cooper, excellent article but, your description, just like CNN, CBS, NPR and others, of the "Tea Party" confines their concerns to debt, spending, and jobs. For a Heritage writer to make this blunder is disappointing and unworthy. Of course money issues are frequently expressed concerns of Tea Party participants and yes, one or more contingents of the movement make money their focused concern; however, the TP has a core from which other issues grow and that core is liberty or First Principles of which Matthew Spaulding has so eloquently written. You serve the liberal cause when you narrowly confine the TP to money.
The headlines were real, but Tea Party was substituted for Occupy Wall Street. The point was, if the headlines had been like this during the Tea Party rallies, Progressives would have had a field day deriding the movement. Instead, there is no outcry for civility.
I seek a fundamental change in leadership. We as Americans, have allowed the political class to dictate who our candidates will be while developing districts where an ideology wins the day. Our elected officials have become career politicians who come from districts so heavily weighted in their favor they are returned to Washington year after year with virtually no accountability. Until we all start getting involved in the political process and systematically removing these people from power our nation will continue down the path where wealth will continue to purchase influence and power. We did not attain 15 trillion in debt overnight and all who currently reside in Congress, the Senate and the White House are responsible. The hypocrisy of the media and the left is utterly disgusting.
I love this article. It addresses the double standard in the Main Stream Media. CNN, NBC, ABC, and MSNBC would have a hay day if these headlines were about the Tea Party. My only hope is the Tea Party continues to be active during the 2012 Election cycle, we need everyone out there so that we make Obama a one term failure!
How many people really read the entire article? All those who were upset that the titles of the articles read the tea party instead of the occupy movement obviously didn't. If they had , they would have realized that this article shows the biases in the media. If any one of those articles had been about the tea party, the lamestream media would have had such a hay day!!
The reason the headline is 2400 tea partiers arrested is so that when someone googles teaparty and arrests as I did you will get a hit. If they don't read the article they can say, see tea partiers had 2400 people arrested during their protests. If it wasn't for this headline you get nothing on tea partiers and arrests. That is why this was done.
That's 2400 more than have been arrested since the economic collapse of 2007 due to fraud in the commercial banking sector. I guess I left a good legacy.
had me going for a minute
Interesting. No arrests at "Tea Party" events. Could it be because they are bought and paid for by the very corporations at the root of our nation's problems. And Occupy isn't "anti Capitalism) as you imply. In fact the simple notion of the occupy movement is to get money out of politics. Who could possibly be against that? Unless you've got a hidden agenda. And for your information, the "liberal media" is decades old. Now you've got Rupert Murdoch, with Faux News being led like a page from Joseph Goebbels' playbook.
I went to a Tea Party rally in California. There were three speakers, about 1500 people assembled, and none of them were screaming, yelling, kicking, throwing things, breaking things, shitting on things, raping people, stealing stuff, pissing on things, vandalizing things, smashing things, obstructing anything or anyone, etc., etc. All of what happens at an OWS 'event' does not happen at a Tea Party event. And, vice versa. People are respectful, peaceful, friendly, attentive, presentable, courteous. There was no trash left on the ground after. Nothing had to be repaired or replaced, not even a blade of grass. Obviously, no arrests. There was media, and they left before the event ended (probably bored and upset they didn't get the 'breaking story'). "Progressives" could learn a thing or two from Tea Partiers about the effectiveness of respectful assembly. Any claim that a Tea Party event went awry is BS, as is any report that an OWS event was peaceful and arrest-free.