Quote:
Originally Posted by oab_au
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"In 2009 and 2010, tea parties turned out hundreds of thousands in protests against the Obama administration’s policies"
Conservative propaganda.
The Tea party actually started with Ron Paul in 2007, and was co-opted by the religious right / Fox media clowns. In my meandering experience I see a vast majority of non-Ron Paul Republicans are in offense of Obama's policies regardless of their knowledge, because they didn't vote for him. Of COURSE they disagree with his policies, but to claim this is the purpose of the Tea Party is to essentially claim they are protesting his presidency.
According to Wiki
(and fully sourced):
"It
[The Tea Party movement] endorses reduced government spending, opposition to taxation in varying degrees, reduction of the national debt and federal budget deficit, and adherence to an originalist interpretation of the United States Constitution."
As we well know these are
not problems limited to the Democrats.
Mr. Victor Davis Hanson, you are not off to a good start.
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"Ostensibly, the Wall Street protests rail against a small elite who makes a lot of money by lending, investing, and speculating — although the protesters don’t seem to worry much about the mega-salaries of actors, professional athletes, or sympathetic multimillionaires such as Al Gore, George Soros, and John Kerry."
I wasn't aware celebrities had a hand in
destroying the working man's economy...? Many of the protesters do have varying goals and political targets, though. I'm sure plenty of people involved don't like Gore or Kerry, and I'm sure for many of them it has nothing to do with the fact they are Democrats, as
the OWS protests are non-partisan.
0 for 2, Mr. Hanson.
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"American flash mobbers and London hoods thought it was okay to take things that were not theirs, since they have less than others. "
There is no reason to associate this
"flash mob" theft with Occupy Wall Street. The thieves represent a VERY small minority of people, but more importantly, the research I am turning up indicates
the most recent flash mob theft occurred in August, a full 2 to 4 weeks before OWS even started.
0 for 3, Mr. Hanson.
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"In response, millions want someone or something to be held accountable — whether Wall Street insiders, or wasteful and corrupt governments, or the affluent, who have more than others."
Hey, you got one!
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"So here goes an explanation for the multifaceted unrest. For the last six decades, constant technological breakthroughs and growing government subsidies have given a billion and a half Westerners lifestyles undreamed of over the last 2,500 years. In 1930, no one imagined that a few pills could cure life-threatening strep throat. In 1960, no one planned on retiring at 55. In 1980, no one dreamed that millions could have instant access to civilization’s collective knowledge in a few seconds through a free Google search."
Here now he is hyping us up so that before he gets to his next point we begin to believe that everyone's standard of living has been raised to Olympian levels... relative to goat the herders. Many people
can not afford health care. Many people
can not afford prescription drugs.
MANY people can not afford to retire at 55, especially not with this rampant inflation. Google is nice though, problem is people don't use it for the right reasons AHEMCOUGHMr.HARPERCOUGH.
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"Remember, none of these worldwide protests are over the denial of food, shelter, clean water, or basic medicine."
And your point is...? As I said there are myriad reasons why people are protesting, but the common goal as you have acknowledged is about accountability for corruption, that collusion between Wall Street and government. That is what they believe is the root of many problems. Why attack only a symptom? The protests are not rendered irrelevant simply because the standard of living for many people is adequate to our achieved level of technology.
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"None of these protesters discuss the effects of 2 billion Chinese, Indian, Korean, and Japanese workers’ entering and mastering the globalized capitalist system, and making things more cheaply and sometimes better than their Western counterparts."
We do not live in China, India, Korea, or Japan. We solve our problems first. This is not an unreasonable position, unless of course you are a war hound, I guess. Once again I will challenge the objective accuracy of your statement. I'm sure someone would just
love to talk about emerging industrialized nations and their sometimes-higher-than-U.S. standards of quality control.
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"None of these protesters ever stop to ponder the costs"
NONE of them do, EVERRRRRRRR.
"and ultimately the effect on their own lifestyles — of skyrocketing energy costs."
Not only are you objectively wrong here, but I can prove it with video I shot myself at a local protest event
(which I have not bothered to upload). A TREMENDOUS amount of
protesters are concerned about energy (pay special attention to the comments).
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"Federal and state budgets are near bankrupt. Countries like Greece and Italy face insolvency. The U.S. government resorts to printing money to service or expand entitlements. Near-zero interest rates, declining home prices, and huge losses in mutual funds and retirement accounts have crippled the middle classes."
Ok, nice recap of some common knowledge there, what else you got.
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"Westerners will have to work a bit longer and more efficiently"
Why? Work on what exactly? It's impossible to discern what you mean unless you are suggesting everyone will have to become completely self-sufficient...?
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"Otherwise, a smaller, older, and whinier West will just keep blaming others as their good life slips away. So it’s past time to stop borrowing to import energy and most of the things we use but have given up producing — and get back to competing in the real world."
So you are suggesting nobody is at fault for our economic problems, that it's just inherent in the system? I partially agree, our economic system is designed to inflate and it is inevitable many people will not be able to keep up. What it comes down to is whether or not you have compassion for your fellow humans, or would prefer to relegate them to the processes of natural selection.
This also appears to be a statement in veiled support of increased domestic oil extraction. Maybe Mr. Harper is a fan of the Palin school of energy? Drill baby, drill.
(Unless he means manufacturing and exporting solar panels, windmills, and ion batteries. Doubt it!)
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Sorry, Harv, this article reeks of bull**** of the highest order. I could eat a can of alphabet soup and **** out a better article than this.