Chart Comparing the Tea Party and the Occupy Movements

Many mainstream media outlets have taken to comparing the Tea Party and Occupy movements. They have attempted to tar the Tea Party movement with the same brush that has been used to tar the radical Occupy movement.

If you look through this chart you’ll see that there is no similarity between the two groups , other than the general description of both being Fed Up. Other than that descriptive phrase, there simply is no comparison.

The Democrats have said that the Occupy Party was their answer to and “just like” the Tea Party.  The data below conclusively indicates otherwise.  Amazingly, this listing only covers reported actions and events.       REPORTED OCCUPY PARTY TEA PARTY ARRESTS 4149+ 0 DEATHS 7 0 RAPES 12 0 ARSON DAMAGE $10,000,000.00 $0 PUBLIC DEFECATION YES NO ANTISEMITIC RANTS 12 0 COST TO TAXPAYERS (11/9) $19,327,487.00+ $0 PUBLIC MASTURBATION 3 0 MOLOTOV COCKTAILS THROWN 10 0 FIGHTS STARTED YES NO CHILDREN EXPLOITED YES NO POLICE CARS DAMAGED 2 0 PUBLIC DRUNKENNESS YES NO DRUG POSSESSION ARREST YES NO CONCEALED WEAPON ARREST YES NO DRUG OVERDOSE YES NO THEFTS YES NO BURGLARIES YES NO VANDALISM ARREST YES NO TRESPASSING ARREST YES NO NON FATAL SHOOTINGS 1 0 PUBLIC URINATION YES NO URINATION ON OTHERS YES NO ISRAELI FLAGS BURNED 2 0 AMERICAN FLAGS BURNED 1 0 AMERICAN FLAGS DANCED ON 1 0 AMERICAN FLAGS DESECRATION 25 0 FELONY ASSAULT ON AN EMT 1 0 HEAD/BODY LICE OUTBREAKS 1 0 TUBERCULOSIS OUTBREAKS 1 0 MURDER 1 0 SUICIDE 1 0 SHOTS FIRED AT WHITE HOUSE 1 0 SCABIES OUTBREAKS 1 0 OBAMA ENDORSED YES NO PELOSI ENDORSED YES NO CAIR ENDORSED YES NO SOCIALIST PARTY ENDORSED YES NO NAZI PARTY ENDORSED YES NO MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD ENDORSED YES NO COMMUNIST PARTY ENDORSED YES NO BIDEN ENDORSED YES NO HUGO CHAVEZ ENDORSED YES NO BLACK PANTHERS ENDORSED YES NO HEZBOLLAH ENDORSED YES NO MARXIST UNION ENDORSED YES NO 9/11 TRUTHER ENDORSED YES NO BOLSHEVIK ENDORSED YES NO IRAN GOVERNMENT ENDORSED YES NO AYATOLLAH ENDORSED YES NO NORTH KOREA ENDORSED YES NO FARRAKHAN ENDORSED YES NO

A Comparison: Tea Party versus Occupy Movements

With the emergence of the Occupy Wall Street Movement in September the mainstream media has gone out of its way to seek a link between the two anti-establishment movements. Let’s take a look at the two movements by way of comparison.

The Tea Party Movement’s initial rallying cry was “Taxed Enough Already”. The clever acronym being TEA. The movement’s coming-out party was April 15, 2009, although there were a number of demonstrations in the first three months of that year. The demonstrations took place in such diverse locations as Binghampton, New York, Lansing, Michigan and Washington, D.C.

The demonstrations were one day affairs that lasted at most several hours with marches and speeches that proclaimed the need for lower taxes, less intrusive and smaller government. Most of the demonstrators were well-behaved middle class Americans. The signs that they carried were handmade and they cleaned up after themselves.

Over the last three years this has not changed. Yes, there have been abusive protesters but whether they belong to the Tea Party movement or not is unknown.The Tea Party members are mainly white and slightly more likely to be male, married, older than 45, more conservative than the general population, and likely to be more wealthy and have more education.

Polls have shown that they are to a very great extent more likely to be registered Republican, have a favorable opinion of the Republican Party and an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Party.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is a recent phenomenon with the initial demonstrations taking place on September 11, 2011 in the Wall Street area of New York City. It’s interesting that the first demonstration took place on Constitution Day.

Other demonstrations followed shortly thereafter. Most of the early demonstrations took place in large urban centers such as Boston, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles and Oakland, California. Demonstrations also took place in metropolitan areas worldwide.

The protests are against social and economic inequality, high unemployment, greed, as well as corruption, and the undue influence of corporations—particularly from the financial services sector—on government. After the initial month of protests many left-wing unions joined in with Occupy, the SEIU and the UAW to name two.

The average age of the protesters is 33, with people in their 20s balanced by people in their 40s. According to a survey of Zuccotti Park protesters by the Baruch College School of Public Affairs published on October 19, of 1,619 web respondents, 1/3 were older than 35, half were employed full-time, 13% were unemployed and 13% earned over $75,000. 27.3% of the respondents called themselves Democrats, 2.4% called themselves Republicans, while the rest, 70%, called themselves independents.

The mainstream media would like nothing better to link the two groups in order to discredit them in the eyes of the general public but that doesn’t seem to be working. A recent Gallup poll found that Occupy Wall Street “may not be resonating with majorities in any party.”

At the same time the poll found that the Occupy Wall Street movement doesn’t represent 99% of the population. At best they represent a sub-set of 26%. Meanwhile, the TEA Party movement has a base two and half times as big.

What are we to deduce from these findings? Small government, personal liberty, and state’s rights are major winning issues right now. These are the very issues that the Tea Party movement has championed for almost three years.

The Occupy movement needs to take notice as well. Their call for more government regulations to control corporations will allow politicians to write special rules for their friends. Attacking big business will do nothing to change this fact.