Tea Party vs Occupy: Which One Are You?

I was listening to the radio, and I heard some Conservative blowhard talking about how those in the movement, Occupy Wallstreet, are an angry mob. Yet, gun-toting Tea Partiers are just exercising their rights? GMAFB!

In case you have no fucking idea what's going on . . .

Tea Party:

"Our mission is based on the U.S. Constitution's original principles and not on any political party platform. We must return the United States to the States and the people as spelled out in the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Constitution was written by our founders to limit the powers of the federal government, instead, giving the power to the people and the States."

"As a committed group of ordinary Americans, we will achieve this by introducing candidates who commit to the original founding principles of the U.S. Constitution of limited federal government, states' rights, balanced budgets, individual liberty, freedom and personal responsibility."

"We will also expose the candidates who do not adhere to these basic Constitutional principles. We will support and promote the new 'Contract From America,' asking each Senator and Congress member to sign annually to show their commitment. For those who refuse to sign the new 'Contract From America,' we will expose those candidates or current politicians who will not commit to these basic principles of freedom and accountability and, instead, believe it is Government who 'knows best.'"

"We believe most Americans do not want out-of-control spending in Washington, bailouts, government controls of private businesses, socializing of Americans' health care and other non-essential government-run services."

"We will support candidates from any party who commit to these principles and expose those who do not, and let the people decide on Election Day. In a nutshell, we need American patriots' help by joining the Tea Party movement, donating if you are able to and passing along the information about the Tea Party movement to your family, friends and neighbors."

"Here are some of the tools our website resource center offers to help the movement achieve its goals:

· Start a Tea Party
· Find local Tea Party groups in your area
· Receive a daily newsletter listing events
· Register to vote
· Communicate with others in the Tea Party movement

If we all grow together and do this, we WILL save the Freedoms that are so
precious to all of us and are the core of our founding principles. Thank you for
your support and may God Bless America!"

Occupy Wallstreet

"We want freedom for all, without regards for identity, because we are all people, and because no other reason should be needed. However, this freedom has been largely taken from the people, and slowly made to trickle down, whenever we get angry."

"Money, it has been said, has taken over politics. In truth, we say, money has always been part of the capitalist political system. A system based on the existence of have and have nots, where inequality is inherent to the system, will inevitably lead to a situation where the haves find a way to rule, whether by the sword or by the dollar."

"We agree that we need to see election reform. However, the election reform proposed ignores the causes which allowed such a system to happen. Some will readily blame the federal reserve, but the political system has been beholden to political machinations of the wealthy well before its founding."

"We need to address the core facts: these corporations, even if they were unable to compete in the electoral arena, would still remain control of society. They would retain economic control, which would allow them to retain political control. Term limits would, again, not solve this, as many in the political class already leave politics to find themselves as part of the corporate elites."

"We need to retake the freedom that has been stolen from the people, altogether.

1. If you agree that freedom is the right to communicate, to live, to be, to go, to love, to do what you will without the impositions of others, then you might be one of us.

2. If you agree that a person is entitled to the sweat of their brows, that being talented at management should not entitle others to act like overseers and overlords, that all workers should have the right to engage in decisions, democratically, then you mightbe one of us.

3. If you agree that freedom for some is not the same as freedom for all, and that freedom for all is the only true freedom, then you might be one of us.

4. If you agree that power is not right, that life trumps property, then you might be one of us.

5. If you agree that state and corporation are merely two sides of
the same oppressive power structure, if you realize how media distorts things
to preserve it, how it pits the people against the people to remain in power, then you might be one of us."

"And so we call on people to act:

1. We call for protests to remain active in the cities. Those already there, to grow, to organize, to raise consciousnesses, for those cities where there are no protests, for protests to organize and disrupt the system.

2. We call for workers to not only strike, but seize their workplaces collectively, and to organize them democratically. We call for students and teachers to act together, to teach democracy, not merely the teachers to the students, but the students to the teachers. To seize the classrooms and free minds together.

3. We call for the unemployed to volunteer, to learn, to teach, to use what skills they have to support themselves as part of the revolting people as a community.

4. We call for the organization of people's assemblies in every city, every public square, every township.

5. We call for the seizure and use of abandoned buildings, of abandoned land, of every property seized and abandoned by speculators, for the people, for every group that will organize them."

"We call for a revolution of the mind as well as the body politic."