Occupy Wall Street is no tea party
By: Mark Meckler
October 18, 2011 09:23 PM EDT

The media chorus is singing a new song this week in its anti-tea party echo chamber. It goes something like this: The law-breaking anarchists who want to tear America down are somehow just like law-abiding tea partiers - who are working tirelessly to build America back up.

What has now become an oft-repeated political euphemism. In 1988, during a vice presidential debate, Democratic candidate Sen. Lloyd Bentsen said to his Republican opponent, Sen. Dan Quayle, "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy; Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."

So despite the risk of sounding cliché here, I say to the small band of misfits and anarchists now occupying Wall Street: I was one of tens of thousands of patriotic Americans who were there at the beginning of the tea party movement. I stood shoulder to shoulder with tea partiers all across this country. And you, who are occupying Wall Street and trying to tear America down, are no tea partiers.

The tea party movement started spontaneously from the rant of CNBC's Rick Santelli on Feb. 19, 2009. His words resonated with millions across the country, and his spontaneous call for a "tea party" spurred tens of thousands to action.

Within a week, in close to 50 locations across the country, almost 40,000 people turned out to protest the U.S. government's fiscal irresponsibility. By Tax Day in April 2009, the movement had grown to millions - and there were more than 850 peaceful, lawful protests across the nation attended by more than a million people.

The movement was organic, fast moving and had a cogent message: It's time for fiscal responsibility in government.

Tea party rallies have always felt like "parties" - and safe and clean ones at that. Unlike protesters in New York, I can find no reports of tea partiers being arrested, individually or en masse, at the thousands of tea parties across the country with millions of attendees that have taken place for years now.

We are not lawbreakers, we don't hate the police, we don't even litter. A quick glance at the TV reveals the sharp contrast to the Wall Street occupiers.

In recent days, I've been repeatedly asked by reporters, "Does the comparison now being made in the media between the tea party and the Wall Street protesters bother you?"

My answer is an unequivocal: "Hell yes, it bothers me."
It bothers me because it groups millions of patriotic tea partiers, who want to build America back up, together with a bunch of criminals who want to tear America down.

For two years now, tea partiers have stood firmly on principle and helped shape the political debate. They believe in time-honored American values, principles and systems - including the freedom to innovate and employ people to implement and distribute your ideas to the public.

Consider the career of the late Steve Jobs. The freedom from government allowed him to try new things, see what worked and discard what didn't. Tea partiers agree, not believing corporations like Apple are inherently evil or that bankers should be beheaded. They do not believe this country should be divided by class but united in a return to the principles that undergird success.

In fact - we want more of what made America great. More constitutional restraint on government, so the people have more freedom to achieve the good things the country offers.

In contrast, those occupying Wall Street want less of what made America great - and more of what is damaging America. They want a bigger, more powerful government to come in and take care of them, redistributing the wealth of those who innovate and create something, so they don't have to work like the rest of us who pay their bills.

When tea partiers first took to the streets, we were ignored and then mocked by the media and those threatened by our principles. Then we were attacked with labels like "AstroTurf," "racists," "fringe," "radical," "terrorists," "jihadis," "hostage takers" and "Nazis."

In just the past few weeks, we have been told by Democratic elected officials to "go to Hell," called "the real enemy" and accused of wanting to see fellow citizens "hanging from trees."

Meanwhile, some of the media continues to cheer for a group of law-breaking miscreants who occupied a park in New York, blocked the Brooklyn Bridge, were arrested by the hundreds and treated law enforcement with disrespect and disdain - all while trying to tear down the foundations of the greatest nation on earth.

We expect that kind of idiocy from the media. But when you compare these people with tea partiers, now you've got a problem with We the People.

Mark Meckler is a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, the nation's largest tea party organization, with more than 3,500 affiliated local groups.

© 2011 POLITICO LLC

Exclusive pictures obtained by Mail Online show one demonstrator relieving himself on a police car.

Elsewhere we found piles of stinking refuse clogging Zucotti Park, despite the best efforts of many of the protesters to keep the area clean.

The shocking images demonstrate the extent to which conditions have deteriorated as demonstrations in downtown Manhattan enter their fourth week. Further pictures seen by Mail Online have been censored, as we deemed them too graphic to show.

According to eye witnesses, when people ran to tell nearby police about the man defecating on the squad car they were ignored…

Brookfield Office Properties, which owns Zuccotti Park, the site of the New York demonstration, have already railed against protesters, who they claim are creating sanitation problems.

‘Sanitation is a growing concern,’ Brookfield said in a statement.

‘Normally the park is cleaned and inspected every week night. . . because the protesters refuse to cooperate. . .the park has not been cleaned since Friday, September 16th and as a result, sanitary conditions have reached unacceptable levels,’ CBS News reported.

Occupy Wall Street Is Certainly No Tea Party

The ”Occupy Wall Street” movement desperately wants to be compared to the Tea Party, because such a comparison would give the fledgling, misguided movement unearned legitimacy. But there are three key characteristics that separate OWS from the Tea Party: First, the Occupy protesters pride themselves on provocative resistance to law enforcement and in some cases violence. Second, they disrespect public and private property. Third, and most important, the Occupy movement lacks a coherent guiding philosophy.

The Sept. 12, 2009 Tea Party demonstration in Washington, D.C., is a perfect example of the way Tea Partiers do business. Organizers planned for 100,000 Tea Party activists to show up on the National Mall, but more than one million turned out. In spite of the huge group of people, there was never an ”angry mob” mentality. Protestors said ”excuse me” and ”thank you.” No one was arrested and no property was damaged.  No one told us to, but we picked up every bit of trash, even if it was not ours.  In only a month of much smaller Occupy-related protests, hundreds of people have been arrested from New York City to San Diego and abroad, and in some cases protesters have resorted to physical violence.  The property damage has been significant.

When the Tea Party demonstrates, we get permits. We cooperate with police. We fund porta-potties. We respect the rule of law and are responsible for meeting our own needs including food, water, shelter, medical care and bathrooms. The Occupy protestors just showed up and took over a busy part of Lower Manhattan, using local businesses’ bathrooms as their own personal washrooms – or worse – and even refusing to temporarily leave Zuccotti Park so it could be cleaned for their own safety and hygiene.

But the biggest difference between the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street is that the Tea Party is bound by a common set of values based on freedom, responsibility and property rights. While the Tea Party members hold a diverse set of views on many issues, they are united in a desire for less government, lower taxes and more freedom. Conversely, the Occupy Wall Street protesters are unified only by their hatred of the wealthy, and seem to take pride in the movement’s inability to present a coherent set of proactive initiatives. Their attacks are disturbingly similar to those levied against the rich in Ayn Rand’s ”Atlas Shrugged,” where punishing the most productive members of society was more important than fixing the nation’s problems.

The values that inform and shape Tea Party demonstrations also require the Tea Party to be consistent in applying its principles. We are willing to hold both Republicans and Democrats accountable, as well as bad actors and crony capitalists on Wall Street. We support capitalism based on hard work and wealth creation, not crony capitalism based on whom you know in Washington, D.C. That’s why we opposed the Wall Street bailout, handouts to GE and Solyndra, insurance companies writing individual mandates in ObamaCare, and Car Czars choosing winners and losers in the automobile industry.

Occupy Wall Street, on the other hand, suffers from cognitive dissonance. They say they oppose special favors to Wall Street but their so-called ”progressive” leaders who are waging the same kind of class warfare in Washington, starting with Barack Obama, are the enablers of bad actors on Wall Street. Big banks and investment firms were among Obama’s top donors in 2008, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup, UBS AG and Morgan Stanley.

Tim Geithner, current Treasury Secretary and former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, orchestrated the AIG bailout. Nancy Pelosi’s brother-in-law got a $737 million loan guarantee from the same Department of Energy that gave $535 million to Solyndra. Rep. Maxine Waters helped arrange a bailout for a bank that counts Waters’ husband among its board members. Rep. Barney Frank’s boyfriend was an executive at Fannie Mae as the government lender made it easier for unqualified homebuyers to get loans.

Where was Occupy Wall Street when the bailouts were being handed out? Where was Occupy Wall Street when politicians in Washington were handing out taxpayer dollars to irresponsible bankers, bad businessmen, and political donors? While Occupy Wall Street is making threats against people trying to earn a living and making a mess in New York and other cities, the Tea Party is working for real change at the source of the problem, Washington, D.C., by electing fiscal conservatives.

Their answer is more government, but more government has been the problem all along. Our answer is less government and more freedom.  But with individual freedom comes individual responsibility and respect for private property.  These are the values that bind us as a community.  That’s why freedom works.

Matt Kibbe is the president and CEO of FreedomWorks, a nationwide grassroots organization fighting for lower taxes, less government and more freedom; and the co-author of ”Give Us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto.”