Lawrence Lessig Invites the Tea Party to join the Occupation Movement at Occupy DC

[FluxRostrum]

Run time: 16:09 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iJwPu5tcGU   Posted on YouTube: October 19, 2011 By YouTube Member: FluxRostrum Views on YouTube: 7   Posted on DU: October 19, 2011 By DU Member: FluxRostrum Views on DU: 2116

 
Lawrence Lessig addresses the Occupy DC encampment at McPhearson Square about the need to invite Tea Partiers into the movement and agree to agree on what we agree without getting bogged down in the details of our disagreements.

mo'fo'
http://mobilebroadcastnews.com/NewsRoom/Tags/Occupy-US
http://globalrevolution.tv

[trumad]

1. Who died and made you the host?

No thanks.

[Katashi_itto]

2. Screw the teabaggers. Vile P.O.S. s

Just what we need a bunch of Quislings trying to co-opt the movement for their agenda.

[Cirque du So-What]

3. Fuck Lawrence Lessig and the 'we' for whom he speaks!

From Wikipedia:

Political activism

Lessig is currently considered a political liberal. As a law clerk, however, he worked for both Judge Richard Posner and Justice Antonin Scalia, two influential conservative judges.

Lessig has emphasized in interviews that his philosophy experience at Cambridge radically changed his values and career path. Previously, he had held strong conservative or libertarian political views, desired a career in business, was a highly active member of Teenage Republicans, serving as the Youth Governor for Pennsylvania through the YMCA Youth and Government program<6> in 1978 and almost pursued a Republican political career.

What was intended to be a year abroad at Cambridge convinced him instead to stay another two years to complete an undergraduate degree in philosophy there and develop his changed political values. During this time, he also traveled in the Eastern Bloc, so acquiring a lifelong interest in Eastern European law and politics.

Lessig refuses to embrace conventional libertarianism. While Lessig remains skeptical of government intervention, he favors regulation by calling himself "a constitutionalist". In his blog, Lessig came out in favor of then-Democratic primary candidate Barack Obama, citing the transformative nature of Obama's campaign as one of his chief reasons. On one occasion, Lessig also commended the John McCain campaign for discussing fair use rights in a letter to YouTube where it took issue with YouTube for indulging overreaching copyright claims leading to the removal of various campaign videos.<7>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Lessig

It appears this screwball has made a career out of trying to co-opt progressives into conservative schemes. Fuck him AND his agenda!

[madrchsod]

4. one good thing about america....

one has the freedom to publicly make an ass out of one`s self.

[Cirque du So-What]

5. And it looks like this guy is trying to set a new record

Good thing he's got a complicit, compliant corporate media to give him a soapbox and a megaphone, huh?

[civilisation]

6. Very good talk.., nay sayers explain yourselves?

The talk as about his impressions of the OWS movement, and his notes and suggestions to the movement.

He gives a good critique of money corruption in the political system,. money votes people don't. Seem right on point to me,. .

One suggestion he makes is that the first Teabaggers where angry about many of the same things as OWS,. and SOME of these can be shown that the Occupy movement is inclusive and all opinions matter,. that they can have a respectful voice here,. this grows the movement by connecting more of the 99%. Sounds like good tactical advice to me,. he is not claiming to be captain of the movement,. he talks about 'your movement' throughout the video.

[FluxRostrum]

8. congratulations

you might be the only person who has commented so far that actually watched the video.

most of these comments are as reactionary as you might expect a tea bagger to be.

[FarLeftFist]

9. The first teabaggers were angry about the Govt giving mortgage relief to citizens.

Kinda different from what OWS advocates for: Bailout the people.

[civilisation]

10. that is a bit of an over simplification,.

the teabaggers I saw where angry over the bank bail out, and other spending,. some even calling out war spending,. there is not some cut and dry issue with them either,. the teaparty was quickly steered into the less-government-is-the-answer mantra of the corporatists., but still many of us would agree that less badly managed and dangerously corrupted government IS better,. there are real overlaps in concerns about corruption, and monetary reform.

[FarLeftFist]

12. No really, the TP started b/c Rick Santelli stood on the floor of the Chicago Exchange and

Proposed everyone have a Tea Party in objection to the Govt offering citizens mortgage relief.

CNBC's Rick Santelli is widely credited with launching the grassroots movement. While standing on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on February 19, 2009, he unleashed what can only be called a rant against the Obama Administration's proposal to help homeowners facing foreclosure refinance their mortgages.

"Do we really want to subsidize the losers' mortgages?" he asked. "This is America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor's mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can't pay their bills?" He went on to suggest that he would organize a Chicago Tea Party in July, where capitalists would dump "some derivative securities into Lake Michigan."



Read more: History of the Tea Party Movement — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/us/government/tea-party-history.html#ixzz1bFOwHycs

[FluxRostrum]

13. yes, but

the "rank & file" of the tea party probably have a lot in common with OWS sentiments. All that is implied here is that Individuals formerly caught up in the tea party frenzy may be now realizing the mistake... just like alot of liberals are realizing the mistake of counting on Obama... we have some common interests. why not unite on these common interests and win something instead of remaining divided by details and lose everything.

I think this is Lawrence's point.

[FarLeftFist]

7. BOOOOOO!

[walerosco]

11. I laugh everytime I see these comments on this video

I bet some people here would rather fight the tea baggers than form any sort of temporrary alliance with the other side. Remember folks, the enemy is not your fellow 99%er, it is the 1%. Never forget that, wasting your energy on the confused 99% er because they are not fully on board with the Obama administration agenda gets us no where.

[MisterP]

15. changing one's viewpoint--conscientization, is probably better than

simple (even factual) argument: if they see themselves as part of a 99% rather than a "donor" 54%, that's a bigger step than simply telling them we have a greater wealth disparity than Brazil--under their old viewpoint, Nigerian-level inequality is a sign that the US isn't wallowing in Communist poverty like the other 220 nations on the planet: get them to stop believing that framework and you can do a lot more
though of course we should keep telling everyone the US's GINI!
just like the yutzy upper-class Orange Countyan in the dental chair next to me--if you beleive America's the best country in every way, that we're the land of opportunity, our problems are no problems at all: unemployment is caused only by laziness, government needs to get off our productive backs, and employees aren't profitable

[ellenfl]

14. interesting that no one is repeating his words. what happened to the

human microphone?

ellen fl

[vanbean]

16. Why does anyone object to what he said?

[FluxRostrum]

17. no clue

they're probably not watching it and just reacting to the title, /i tried ti change the title but it was too late

[Poll_Blind]

18. LOL, acutally reading or watching an article or story is not most DUers' strong point, apparently.

Not only is Lessig right but he's teaching politics 101 that every politician in Washington practices: Use anyone you possibly can to advance your cause. Democrats in the House and Senate do this aisle-reaching every single day in Washington. Of course it's anathema to most DUers, though it shouldn't be.

It's a key concept of what President Obama campaigned (and won!) on: "We are not as divided as our politics would suggest"

PB