The Hypocrisy That Dares Not Speak Its Name

It's so funny that ever since the Tea Party hijacked the anti-tax crowd Tax Day protest and converted that issue into being against "wasteful government spending," pundits and the news media knew exactly what was fueling these people. They were more than happy to have them on the interviews, promote their politics and even endorsed one or two for public office. The fact that this group was slowly being infiltrated by disenfranchised conservative Republicans went virtually unnoticed, even when the calls for eliminating "wasteful government spending" changed to things like abortion, immigration and health care.

Now, we have another set of protests, aimed not at the government for wasting the taxpayer's money, but at the corporations for manipulating the political and financial systems to the point where they receive maximum benefits and everyone else suffers. And the response from the same media that saw the "grassroots" efforts of the Tea Party as being so American? Confusion. Mockery. Disdain.

According to the media, the Tea Party movement included frustrated out-of-work patriots, but the Occupy Wall Street Crowd are dirty hippies. Tea Party = genuine outrage, OWS = misguided. Tea Party = organic, OWS = created by the "left" (or Obama or Michael Moore, depending on who you're watching/reading).

I'd really like to know how many people in the OWS crowd were original ex-Tea Party protesters. If there are any, they need to step up and talk about the real similarities and differences between the two.