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Opening Arguments

New model

This is an interesting point of view:

Should the Tea Partiers and the Occupiers get together before we get much older? Sure, why not? I'm all for alliances that undermine the Red Team/Blue Team permanent pissing match, and if protesters can find common ground in the territory where opposition to expanding government meets opposition to Wall Street misbehavior, I'll be delighted.

A year ago I wrote this about the Tea Party movement:

The Tea Party isn't an actual party; it's an extremely decentralized movement with room for several different points of view. It is not libertarian in itself, but it has opened a space for libertarian ideas; it includes good guys like the Campaign for Liberty, and it includes its share of scamsters and authoritarians as well. And it includes a lot of people who are not pure libertarians but are motivated by a libertarian take on one or more pressing issues.

The typical Occupation probably has fewer scamsters and more authoritarians -- right-wing movements attract entrepreneurs selling snake oil, left-wing movements attract sectarians selling Leninist newspapers -- but the basic point is the same. It's an open movement. It has a lot of anti-authoritarian impulses. You can join it, engage the people there, and help make a space for libertarian ideas. To judge from the number of Ron Paul supporters who have been showing up at the marches, many people are already doing just that. At a time when MoveOn and other usual suspects are trying to transform the movement into a rally cum fundraiser for the Democratic Party, you can be one of the countervailing forces.

I suspect the Tea Party movement is too libertarian and the Occupiers not libertarian enough for this great melding to be anything but a wild fantasy. Thought-provoking, though.

Comments

littlejohn
Thu, 10/13/2011 - 4:16pm

The Tea Party was essentially a creation of Fox "News," with prominent spokespersons, some of whom are running for president.
The Occupiers are deliberately avoiding anyone emerge as their leader.
Oh yeah, two other things: The Occupiers feel no need to display firearms on their hips and Tea Partyers don't get pepper sprayed.

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