Aljazeera: Tea Partiers: The self-hating 99 per cent

[pampango]

There may be surface similarities between the two uprisings (the tea party and OWS), but they actually represent two opposing populist worldviews, whose only philosophical resemblance to one another is their belief that they speak for "the people" against the elites. While both movements are mainly concerned with economic issues, their beliefs about the causes and solutions they propose couldn't be more different.

Support for capitalism - and antipathy toward government interference in it - is the very essence of Tea Party populism....It was never about corporate greed, but was about the usual right wing resentment at the government spending their tax money on people they don't think have earned it. These are not billionaire bankers - they are the people on the lower rungs of the ladder. Unsurprisingly, this attitude turned out to be useful to corporate interests looking to allay any real populist impulses among the citizenry, and they soon moved in through various means to help the "movement" organise itself.

Occupy Wall Street, on the other hand, while being endlessly harrangued by wags and pundits about its alleged lack of goals and lists of grievances, is actually focused pretty clearly on the same thing as the populists of the Gilded Age - those whom Teddy Roosevelt called the "malefactors of great wealth".

There was a time when left populism was powerful and vibrant, driven by a workplace-centered labour movement that appealed across many of the usual political fault lines and resulted in the enactment of the New Deal, out of the ashes of the Great Depression. The egalitarian ideas that underpinned that great achievement stood for many decades as the middle class, buoyed by its success, grew to be broad and deep. And that, perversely, led to the opening for the cultural and racial resentment that characterises right wing populism.

Once the left moved to broaden its economic gains to include traditionally marginalised members of society, the right reacted. Strongly. It not only blamed those minorities, but held "pointy-headed liberals" who championed their cause in deep disregard.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/10/2011101883450141716.html

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Excellent article. Too bad we have no MSM journalists left that can come up with a piece like this.

[Frustratedlady]

4. Isn't it amazing that al Jazeera hits the nail on the head better than our own media?

This is a very clear article.

[surrealAmerican]

5. Sometimes it takes an outsider to see what's going on.

[SpiralHawk]

2. "No fun being billionaire suckerpuppets. Sigh) - TeaBaggers (R)

"But we TeaSuckers have learned, via Fox and Rush, to be obedient and happy Suckers as the Billionaires jerk our strings, we meekly dance to their tune and vote against our own self-interest. Sheesh."

- TeaBaggers (R - SuckerPuppets)

[hifiguy]

3. A most excellent article!

This should be widely circulated. Thanks for the link. K&R

N.B. This is from the US blog Hullabaloo and is written by Digby herself.

[uponit7771]

6. wow, AJ as to right this article cause most of US news agencies are fuckin stupid