Occupy Vs. Tea Party : A Townhall Meeting

Be gentle, this is my first thread....LOL

A local news station is hosting a townhall style meeting/debate between the local Tea Party and Occupy Movements and will be streaming it live tomorrow night, Wednesday Feb. 29th, at 7:00 p.m. EST. With all the conversation about how alike or not these movements are, I thought people on ATS might be interested. I believe there will also be a Twitter feed, too.

www.wane.com

reply to post by Nietrick

A nice choice for a first thread. I'm really interested to see how this kind of thing will go. I went to your link, but I'm seeing the generic front page of the local news station. I wonder if you might consider changing your link to go directly to the details on this story? The link button above the message area lets you put in a name for the link and then post it in a clickable way...just trying to help

I hope you're not prophetic. If it turns out to be Occupy Vs. Tea Party, we'll have missed a wonderful opportunity. Unified, they would be a strong force for changing government, otherwise we'll just have more wasteful division of our efforts.

I think I'll take a look and see if there is any hope.

[Town Hall Meeting]

Occupy = "It's the Corporations' fault."

Tea Party = " It's the Government's fault"

[/Town Hall meeting]

reply to post by charles1952

Oh I couldn't agree more. My greatest dream from clear back in October was for the average, normal people of Occupy to meet the average, normal people of The Tea Party and see about some coordinated efforts. The normal people aren't THAT different, I'll just bet. People just need to stop yelling at each other long enough to talk and realize that.

Heck with the politicians. They're pushing this infighting between us all and love it. They don't count. Normal people though....That is where I really though things might work. Still COULD I guess...but there is sure a lot of bad water under that bridge at this point.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

My greatest dream from clear back in October was for the average, normal people of Occupy to meet the average, normal people of The Tea Party and see about some coordinated efforts. The normal people aren't THAT different, I'll just bet. People just need to stop yelling at each other long enough to talk and realize that.

Wouldn't that be the best??!! The best!!
I think it's less a debate than a cooperative "what do we do now"....

Originally posted by wildtimes
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

My greatest dream from clear back in October was for the average, normal people of Occupy to meet the average, normal people of The Tea Party and see about some coordinated efforts. The normal people aren't THAT different, I'll just bet. People just need to stop yelling at each other long enough to talk and realize that.

Wouldn't that be the best??!! The best!!
I think it's less a debate than a cooperative "what do we do now"....

edit on 28-2-2012 by wildtimes because: (no reason given)

Yep. This was my hope when OWS first started. But then the Tea Party guys started bashing them. Hopefully they both can wake up and realize they are all pissed off Americans.

OWS/TP FTW!!!

reply to post by PaxVeritas


Yeah both sides of the issues are really arguing about the same thing. Corruption, be it corporate corruption or government corruption. The fact is the average American is getting screwed over. I think a little blame can go to each. Corporations for creating an atmosphere where they control politics and government for allowing corporations to control politics.

I signed up just to reply to this post. I have been tracking meetings between Occupy and Tea Party people. Besides the "beer summit" which I saw posted elsewhere on this site, there were two protests mounted jointly by Tea Party and Occupy activists against the National Defense Authorization Act, (which was signed by President Obama and solidifies the government's ability under the Patriot Act to detain Americans without trial). These two events took place on the same day, and the same day as the beer summit, Feb 13. One was in Worchester, MA and one in Medford, OR. Each was unaware of the other.

I have been keeping a Pinterest page with links to accounts of all meetings of Occupy and Tea Party that I have been able to find: pinterest.com...

So, two thoughts: the potential of this development is tremendous for changing the power relationship between the political/media establishments and the public; and, when they call it Tea Party VS Occupy, they will focus on their differences, while Tea party AND Occupy focus on their similarities.

If you know of other joint events I would be grateful if you let me know, or pin them on the page. Yes, there is hope...thanks.

I would expect to see a giant swastika on the flag in the background on the Tea Party side of the room, with an equally large hammer and sickle behind the side of the room reserved for Occupy.

Given that my own proclivities are more in the direction of Occupy, to them in this case I will say, give peace a chance, Comrades. The other side may potentially become violent themselves, but it's not all bad. On the up side, they'll definitely have alcohol, and great music. They'll also likely be serving meat; and best of all, their women have breasts, long hair, and are more likely to be interested in men.

*ducks*

reply to post by petrus4


Tea Party is not violent. The only violence coming out of Tea Party rallies was imposed by SEIU thugs who beat up a guy, and one or two other issues stemming from Union people invading the rallies. Other than that, it was always the Tea Party who were responsible, peaceable, and picked up after themselves. I would know, I've been to a number of them.

There is no fascism coming out of Tea Party. They are just average normal people who love America and Liberty and the American Way and CAPITALISM, but I guess the Capitalism is the part the Occupiers don't like.

Both groups to me appear to be nothing more than puppets controlled by TPTB...a large number of Libertarians (my self included) tend to avoid both groups

reply to post by Nietrick
S&F!
Should be interesting to follow.

Though I'd like to see a cage match.

2 enter, only 1 leaves.

reply to post by evelyn

Thank you so much for signing up to share that. You're in my favorites list, to be sure. It gives me hope with the two you describe happening without knowing of each other, on the same day. It tells me that the good, well intentioned people of both sides may already be moving that way.

@ Thread in general...

The Tea Party Movement has it's extremist types and they have their redneck white trash. Yes indeed. Those types are there.

Occupy absolutely has it's communists, socialists and anarchists. Anyone who says different is a liar. Period. Go to one yourself to see for yourself. Those types are there.

I believe those two statements are 100% true....but accurately describe only a %.....and well under 50% at that....of the overall NATIONAL group of people that affiliate with either side. The MAJORITY in my experience both in the real world and online are well reasoned and well intentioned people looking for largely the same things as those on the other side.

Now the majority just need to dump the extreme minority of both sides of the spectrum.......write off the politicians AS A WHOLE....and get together to change things. As a combined movement, Washington would have absolutely no choice but to sit up and give notice. No one may like the form that notice takes, but they sure won't be able to ignore it. THEN we have true numbers for change.

Sorry about the lack of a hyperlink everybody.....I'm such a newbie at this sort of thing...LOL. I'll try again. I believe the station still has the meeting available online if anyone is interested in checking this out.

www.wane.com...

I hope I did that right! If not, I'll be back later to give it another try.


I watched it last night and I have to say, I was very pleased and impressed. There was a large amount of agreement from both sides on issues such as NDAA and the Patriot Act, as well as the Federal Reserve. Most of the disagreement came from how to go about taking care of the problems. This should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed both camps for any length of time. I think that's really the only major gulf between the factions. I was VERY proud of my local rabble rousers ( both sides) when it came to their mutual, firm proclamation that they weren't willing to give up ANY freedom for " security ".

The moderator was already my favorite local news anchor and here he really shines. True, the setting and format are a little rough, but I think it's FANTASTIC that they put this on air given some of the topics discussed. You just don't see this on mainstream news. If you do watch, tell others about it so maybe we can get more of this on other local stations.

THIS is how we come together.

reply to post by PaxVeritas


LOL! You're not entirely wrong. There was some of that last night. Thankfully it wasn't all that, so there's hope for us yet.