Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street

At The Aberdeen News, Professor Kenneth Blanchard discusses the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements:

Both the left and the right in American politics want to believe that their own army of protesters is spontaneous and righteous and that the folks across the street are artificial and pernicious.

In fact, the tea party movement and the occupy movement are entirely genuine, composed of red-blooded American sons and daughters of liberty. We're mad as hell, and we aren't going to take it anymore, or at least not without a good shaking of our fists.

After the tea party movement emerged, Democrats launched a campaign to show that the movement was violent and racist. Neither accusation was true. Whoever you are, you'd be safer at a tea party gathering than pretty much anywhere else. And now that the current favorite of the tea partyers is Herman Cain, the charge of racism is refuted.

It's true that of the hundreds of tea party gatherings, a handful of racist signs have been observed. It's also true that some occupiers have carried anti-Jewish posters. There are bad eggs and oddballs at any gathering.

The tea party movement had a big influence on the last election. The influence of the occupation remains to be seen. Let me just say that this is how Americans are supposed to behave.