I attribute the success of Occupy Wall Street to where it has drawn a line. (A very special LoZo.)

[LoZoccolo]

I'll contrast it with the Tea Party to illustrate this point. What I see as the Tea Party's goals were to largely invigorate people who already held the same ideology, and to push the Republican Party further to the right. Perhaps they saw the latter as aiding the former, even though I would disagree. I think they were motivated by the sense that the majority of the country was no longer completely with them as evidenced by the election of Barack Obama, and sought a confrontative on unified posture to fight what had essentially become the majority of voters. In doing so, they have drawn a line where it already existed, have not really expanded beyond their initial base, and are seen dwindling two and a half years later.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is much more clever to draw a line between the group of the 1% wealthiest citizens and the remaning 99%, and thus have not really taken an obviously confrontative posture against the people who they support, but who do not yet support them. I think that it is generally seen by this movement that many people will eventually see that they have more in common with the 99% than with the 1%, as long as the facts are allowed to continue to disseminate from the focal point of the protests.

This underscores the idea that the more-successful political battles are ones that you set up inside the mind of your opposition, rather than outside. We've seen confrontations between Tea Party members and liberal counterprotesters, and they are generally the same shouting matches that have always been with us, which have done little to change anything, and which end as the parties go home. But if you can set up enough cognitive dissonance within your opponent, between what they now believe and what is evidenced in the current political and economic situation, you will be fighting them long after the shouting match.

And if you do so honestly, taking care not to be tempted to engage in mendacity or manipulation, the battle will continue even as they try to fight the facts that you have given them, as these facts will not let up, and will stand their ground without your assistance. The Tea Party has failed in this in that much of their argument is grossly speculative, and the far right not-infrequently employs tenuous conspiracy theories; once the conspiracy theories are debunked, they actually work against their proponents.

My strategic posts generally sink without much comment, so I will add a controversial remark on purpose to keep it kicked: this is why the sparsely-proposed civil disobedience of blocking traffic in downtown areas will not be an effective strategy within this movement (though I will remark that I don't see widespread support for this form of civil disobedience within the Occupy Wall Street movement anyways; I think the people at the protests largely know that they are winning with their current strategy, and do not want to risk what they have worked so hard for up to this point).

[leveymg]

1. This is a sound analysis. KNR. Only part I would challenge is the assertion the TP hasn't worked

because its ideology is logically inconsistent and not fact-based. I think that's actually its main attraction for most on the lunatic fringe Rightwing. It's definition of reality is so inclusive that it attracts and retains the outliers, who continue to be mobilized.

We often disagree, but I'll rec you on this.

[LoZoccolo]

8. I'll agree with that.

There seems to be a hard-core of stalwarts who strongly adhere to the conspiracy-theory culture for long periods, perhaps indefinately. When the Tea Party started up, I thought of it as having as it's base the same people we saw in the mid-nineties who supported militias and what-not, though they seemed to have a wider appeal. I think where they fail with their conspiracy theories are maybe the people who make up their own more-moderate periphery, who are naive to their conspiracy theories at first, get drawn in for a while, and then get disillusioned. Those are people who stand a chance of getting very disillusioned and going permanently sour on them, and for the Tea Party, they risk that disillusionment every time they try to expand beyond the core right-wing conspiracy-theory culture.

[hwmnbn]

2. K&R

great analysis.

[Firebrand Gary]

3. K&R With a small note.

He speaks? I gotta admit, I might be a little impressed.

[Enrique]

4. very interesting

that makes a lot of sense and therefore the RW's 53% response makes sense too. The key to countering their response is getting people to see that it's a lie. Erick Erickson is not really in their boat. The people talking to them on the radio are not in their boat.

I ignored the flame-bait portion of your post. I hate flamebait.

[FarLeftFist]

5. That WAS very special.

[greytdemocrat]

6. Nice job!

You're hilarious.

[sufrommich]

7. Well said. Rec. nt

[annabanana]

9. The ONLY advantage to the street blocking, adjunct marching

destinations etc is to refocus the media lens, which will otherwise lose interest and look away.

[LoZoccolo]

13. I probably should have elaborated on that.

I think people also generally see an occasional march as part of the protest tradition in this country, as a way of disseminating a message and showing numbers of support, and not as antagonistic toward the general population; I think those sorts of marches do help. There is a fringe which support certain actions as a deliberately disruptive and antagonistic posture; I was largely arguing against their strategy.

[annabanana]

14. got it..

I agree with your main points..

[lamp_shade]

10. Great analysis. K&R

[tinkerbell41]

11. From my research

The Tea Party was originally founded by Karl Denninger. And the premise was to stop the looting and start prosecuting. You can go to his blog Market Ticker and read the timeline thru his posts. He claims to be Libertarian but voted for Obama and his "rants" if you will closely align with the ideology of the current protests of OWS. Somehow, somewhere the Tea Party movement was hijacked and turned into something unrecognizable to the original. Was it by design? To turn off the liberals? These are where my thoughts have been leading for the last few days. Just as "they" are furiously trying to paint OWS as dope smoking, hippie, commies to keep away the conservatives. Problem is it doesn't seem to be working but maybe THAT isn't a problem only to the 1%.

[mmonk]

12. With the numbers, they don't have to block traffic.

That said, their steadfastness in not leaving and risking arrest should also be commended. Let any violence be that which is used against them. Be peaceful and be strong. That will win the day.