Occupy Wall Street: Some Sympathy for the Protestors, Please

The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) people are part of a larger phenomena; namely, the I'm-mad-as-hell-and-I-won't-take-it-anymore people. There's a long history of such demonstrators. Usually, they know what they're mad about. The Selma March people were protesting against Jim Crow. The Hooverville protestors, largely WW I veterans, were expressing their anger at having fought in a terrible war and then finding themselves made paupers by a failed economy. The Vietnam protesters were largely young people of draft age expressing their anger at a war they were being forced to fight -- a war whose best explanation was a ridiculous domino theory.

Now let's look at the Tea Party. They're people, largely Republicans, who feel that the policies of the Democrats have been ruining the country through bad economics and because of bad social policies. But, more than that -- they feel that the Republican leadership became no better than Democrats. They felt that the Republican leaders had been in cahoots with the Democrats in sending the economy down a path of ruin, and in not fighting harder for such social issues as right-to-life and against gay life style.

The Tea Party continues as a force because they got the argument half right. Past Republican leaders had indeed failed to fight with sufficient vigor against overspending and a tax policy riddled with special favors to big campaign contributors. This argument is winning supporters from both the left and the right.

It's in their social policy issues that give the Tea Party its Archilles heel. These positions are positions held through faith. They can't be proven, and most Americas -- especially independents -- don't support them. Americans, in great numbers feel a woman must be the final arbiter of her own body. By the standards of most Americans, birth begins when the baby is born, not when it's conceived. But what will be the consequences of the Tea Party positions on these issues. Will the Tea Partiers refuse to support a moderate Republican candidate even if it means returning Obama to the White House? That remains to be seen.

The Tea Party has to a large extent played down the social issues and focused on the country's economy and that, as far as I'm concerned, is as it should be.

The OWS people have no discernable policy other than to tax the rich and redistribute the wealth. And, that's not a surprising position to take when a nation's economy goes into a dive. The general attitude is that this-shouldn't-be-happening. And, it shouldn't. But, since it has happened, you've got to seriously analyze how we got here. And, then, and only then, can you plan appropriate corrections. And, that's where the OWS people are failing the county. They are not focusing on how we got here. When, and if, they do, they might find that the Tea Party people and they, the OWS, are actually brothers in arms.