The American Autumn: Children of the Lost Decade Revolt (Guest Voice)
The American Autumn: Children of the Lost Decade Revolt
by Tina Dupuy
The movement known as the tea party started in the mainstream media, on a national show. CNBC’s Rick Santelli, fired what cable news would later dub “the shot heard around the world” in 2009, when he lamented paying for the mortgages of the “losers” who couldn’t pay their bills. “President Obama, are you listening?” he bellowed.
Well, it was broadcast on national television.
By the way they snarl about the mainstream media on Fox News, you’d think they were disseminating their programs via ham radio instead of on the number one cable news network in the country. Fox News is as mainstream a media as any. And they’ve puffed up and promoted their pet protest group called the tea party for the last two and half years.
And just like the imaginary death panels in the health care reform act or the fantasy Sharia law threat — the tea party got its legs from Fox News.
So when criticism is lobbed at the tea party as being an astroturf re-branding of the Republican Party, sponsored by interest groups and corporate media, it’s because it is.
To put this into perspective, look at movement Fox News hasn’t endorsed and Karl Rove’s group, American Crossroads, haven’t chartered busses for: meet Occupy Wall Street.
Occupy Wall Street started as a couple thousand protesters marching through lower Manhattan and camping out at the detonator of the economic meltdown.
For the first two weeks, the protest was largely ignored by actual mainstream media. Then NYPD officer Anthony Bologna pepper sprayed a couple of young women peacefully assembling at this public demonstration. The footage landed on YouTube: Then there was attention. A skirmish with police. A Story. Last Saturday, 700 of the protesters were arrested by the NYPD. Another Story. Worthy of a mention even on the venerable Sunday Shows.
Who are these people? Are they the anti-tea party?
No. In fact they are not in any way like the tea party. If they were the tea party, the media would be giving value to all their political peccadilloes. Yes, “What does the tea party think?” has become a staple in American political discourse. And for what? They’re identical to Republicans. They have a public approval rating, according to some polls, of 26 percent. And the tea party-led House suffers a historic low of around 13 percent (more people approve of salmonella).
Yet the tea party is given credence and credibility as a swell of a movement to give rich people and corporations more tax breaks. How is that populist, exactly? It’s a protest movement that just so happens to be suspiciously business-friendly. How, as they say in corporate-speak, synergistic.
This tea party now has a seat at the table of power. Their corporate sponsors must snicker every time they hear about the “tea party’s take” on whatever issue.
I was at an Occupy Wall Street solidarity demonstration over the weekend in Los Angeles. Around 3,000 people were there when I arrived. The first thing apparent is the crowd is young. These are not cantankerous retirees worried about the government getting involved in Medicare. No these are the children of the middle-class’ Lost Decade. These are kids whose American Dream has been eroding while the rich have gotten richer. These are the young people on Facebook and Twitter calling for an “American Autumn” to match the Arab Spring.
And the Arab Spring is a far better comparison for this group.
Like the Egypt and Tunisia uprisings, Occupy Wall Street are youths worried about their futures’ downgrade. It’s about the lack of prospects in the “land of opportunity.” Their battle cry: “We are the 99 percent and we are too big to fail.” They’ve succinctly stated their goal is “economic justice.” Pandering to the wealthy minority is the disease: Occupy Wall Street is a symptom.
What does economic justice mean? Maybe a better question is: How top-heavy can the wealth inequality get before something tumbles?
The hurdle for Occupy Wall Street is that it was not birthed on cable news. Cable news doesn’t own it so it can’t show it off like they have the tea party.
But the Arab Spring revolution wasn’t televised; it was re-tweeted.
© Copyright 2011 TinaDupuy.com, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Tina Dupuy is an award-winning writer and the managing editor of Crooks and Liars. Her column is licensed to run on TMV. Tina can be reached at tinadupuy@yahoo.com.
The copyrighted cartoon by Cardow, The Ottawa Citizen, is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
20 Responses to “The American Autumn: Children of the Lost Decade Revolt (Guest Voice)”
It will be in Europe soon enough… I can’t wait!
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The tea party would have been a flash in the pan without funding from heavyweights and constant support from Fox. The occupy Wall St. people are more genuine grass roots. Of course their detractors will attack them, just as detractors of the Vietnam War protests attacked the protestors. So much easier to go ad hominem than to look any deeper, and we’ve seen that approach both from right and left. Of course these protestors are young, think about the futures they are facing. And their critics seem to be the same, “I’ve got mine, to hell with you” crowd. Nothing like common cause and common futures eh?
You hear the right decry “freedom as long as they are not harming anyone else”. They problem is they are harming others with incredible greed.
What like no one is helping the whole occupy wall street thing? Alliance for Global Justice? Adbusters Media Foundation?MoveOn.org? All the Unions?
Not to come down against the protestors, tho I think they need to work on what message they want to send, but crap partisain puff pieces that don’t give factual information is hardly they way that anyone should try to get ahead.
“If they were the tea party, the media would be giving value to all their political peccadilloes.”
Yup, true enough. Funny how the reponses from the right are almost all the same, and are little more than variations on calling the protestors dirty hippies, which are the same tactics they used on Vietnam War protestors. I love the cartoon btw, and hope it turns out to be prophetic.
Not all of the right is putting down the OWS movement. I also find it funny that no one notices that many Tea Party members are part of the movement.
@JSpencer:”The tea party would have been a flash in the pan without funding from heavyweights and constant support from Fox.”
Fox could be argued, but all those groups are self-funded. Only the tours were funded by outside groups. Your conclusion doesn’t match up with the facts.
Right prof-
Who is funding the OWS movment? It’s not funded Prof because it is a real movment. The Tea Party is a commercial not a movment.
Allen, don’t you know that Michael Moore is the WS Movement’s version of the Koch brothers?
@Allen
I made no claims about the OWS movement. JSpencer, and apparently you, believe that Tea Party groups are being paid to exist by outside providers. I’m a core member (the planning people), and I’ve never known of a group, certainly not ours, that gets any outside funding. Where are your facts? Do the facts even matter to you?
Prof, the Tea Party foundation was laid by money. Why did you decide to arrange your little club house on top of that foundation?
@Absalon
It wasn’t. I was there, you weren’t. Your echo chamber is wrong.
This Occupy Wall Street thing seems pretty silly and chaotic to me.
That’s just my impression of it all, based on what I have heard coming out of the mouths of those in the gathering. Most of what is stated about the purpose of the movement sounds incoherent.
That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t hang out and get stoned with those guys. Looks like a fun party.
“I was there, you weren’t.”
You mean you were in the middle of athrong pretending you know anything about your nation and what it is this to be a citizen. The buzz, the name, the game plan – all laid out by the people that are hurting your country.
I mean I was there when these groups were forming, and you weren’t even in the same country. Telling me that these groups were formed or are funded by people paying us is like telling me that I live 20 feet underwater. My reality doesn’t jive with your story.
You’re repeating a lie, and apparently don’t know it.
“I also find it funny that no one notices that many Tea Party members are part of the movement.”
Haven’t heard that Prof. What I did hear is that some tea party factions have been counter protesting – which sounds more like their cup of tea.
@JSpencer:”Haven’t heard that Prof.”
From From an unlikely source!:
Saying that local tea party organizations made themselves from whole cloth is a bit of a stretch… Especially when every State has a well oiled state level Tea Party Organization / Website to feed information to local groups.
Take the ILLINOIS TEA PARTY as an example.
It’s packed with:
Here’s a few of the
topicsprepackaged talking points covered by the ILLINOIS TEA PARTY site:With all this information provided to smaller groups for free it would be a waste of time to do it all on their own.
And who do you think provides the state tea party site with a the lengthy and detailed propaganda they are handing out?
The Illinois Tea Party organization was nice enough to give a partial list of original planners and directors of the movement in their Policy Links section:
I’m sure that Elwood’s group worked hard to get their group going but to claim that they’ve had no outside assistance, yes Elwood said ‘funding’, but all the information, etc they’ve received didn’t grow on trees… the Koch Bros., et al, bought and paid for it.
Money just gets the word out, it’s up to people to decide if Tea Party ideals resonate with them personally or not.
The only agreement I have with the Tea Party is to end Deficit Spending and reduce National Debt to zero, and make Federal Government a small influence on Sovereign States.
All that other crap is “Right Wing Fluff”, which I may or may not agree with, but it’s superfluous in my opinion.
The financial message is what resonates with me.
Again, the Occupy Wall Street thing is incoherent, and goofy. I’d party with them, but I don’t resonate with them on anything other than a “pass the joint” level.
Politically speaking they seem naive and out of touch with reality.
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