Our two populist movements have, this morning, taken dramatically different directions. While GOP operatives decry #OWS as anti-Semitic, actual White Supremacists and Anti-Semites are planning to recruite Tea Party members into their hateful and counterproductive ideology.
#OWS, on the other hand, has issued a declaration, modeled on the processes and documentation that founded our nation, which calls for a popular petition to the government for redress of grievances. These include banning private funding of elections, closing the “revolving door” that permits public officials from working for or gaining from persons, corporations or entities that they are supposed to be regulating, debt reduction, and the creation of actual universal health coverage.
Both sides have picked July 4th as their date of execution.
Rank-and-file Tea Party members and corporate (and government) sponsors would be well advised to back away from, repudiate, and otherwise block radical right wing elements from coopting their message.
#OWS would be well advised to embrace any elements who genuinely want to reform government, even those from the right side of the political spectrum. Those whose political ideals fall on the right, who also reject racist, biggoted messages and movements, need a place to stand. The nonpartisan #OWS promise can be made real, very quickly, by actively reaching out and opening the door to people who would naturally feel hesitant to join them.
It’s also important to make these actions very public. The RNC MUST repudiate not just the racists and bigots who want to corrupt their message, but to also stop smearing #OWS with the anti-Semite label, when their own movement is the active target of those who wear it proudly.
The desire for clean, uncorrupt government is neither left wing nor right wing. It is a moral right and a moral imperative. People from all walks and all philosophies CAN and MUST work together to make it happen.
