re: #620 Sergey Romanov

The main problem I have is that I was never against the right of Tea Partiers to convene, to protest, to demonstrate, to do whatever. I never blamed them for the crazies on their fringes. What I do hold against the Tea Party people was their actual complaints— that taxes are too high, that government spending is too high, that socialism is running rampant, etc. etc. They demonstrated this not only through their actual speeches but their political organizing, the candidates that they supported.

The actual complaints of OWS have the benefit of being based in reality, for the most part. The one issue where I found them lacking— the end the fed nonsense— I’ve seen pushback and debate internally about.

The comparison between the two groups fails, for me, because one is based on protests against something fictional, and the other is based on protests against something real.

This is entirely beside any question of whether they’ll ‘achieve’ anything. On that score, given the large number of ideological non-voters, I still feel doubtful.