Tea Party Meets Occupy San Diego

San Diego 1 PM, November 15, 2011 marks another turning point in the struggle for human freedom. Well, not really, but Rhonda Deniston of StopTaxingUs.com and several Tea Party supporters, including myself for the SoCal Tax Revolt Coalition, had a press conference at the #OccupySD location in support of Centre City Coffee owner Linda Jenson.

During the conference, the typical disagreements surfaced as a woman pretending to be "a billionaire" attempted to grab the spotlight by blaming the ills of society on the Tea Party and the rich. Other Occupiers raised their voices and made the endeavor difficult. In the words of Jerry Seinfeld, "yada yada yada..." That is all "dog bites man" stuff.

The Issues at Hand

Let's get real, the Tea Party arrived to support a small business woman, but there is a lot more to that story.  I got the other side of the story, the occupiers' side. Let's look at both sides and you can decide who is right.

Linda was run off from her business by the OccupySD crowd and the front of her car was smashed at her home. There are many aspects to this story including a support rally by San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio. Occupy participants claim that Linda had issues with homeless people obstructing business prior to the OccupySD event, but had no explanation about her car. An occupier added that she has been given a credit by the city, insinuating that she may be taking a vacation.

Occupiers were dismissive of Councilman DeMaio as a political opponent. Upon hearing these sentiments I mentioned some of the reasons he is supported by both fiscal conservatives and more libertarian Tea Party members. The change in attitude in the occupiers toward Councilman DeMaio was abrupt and surprising.

Several occupiers courteously took me on a tour of the coffee cart area and it did appear to be graffiti and damage free. There were tarps pulled over three sides of the cart.  Access was open from the remaining side and the internal items appeared unharmed.

My home has been the target of vandalism on a few occasions since my involvement with the Tea Party. My Facebook has been hacked for writing about the Chicago Precedent. My google accounts including this blog have been suspended at various levels (for writing about the global warming hoax). I understand left wing intimidation and the coffee cart being unharmed is not consistent.

Rhonda Deniston has been the target of occupy violence per her video. One very dishevelled occupier claimed to have been there and resembled the young man in the black scarf. He accused Rhonda of being rude and provocative but was not prepared to speak to the media with his side of the story.

Occupy/Tea Party Interaction

Beyond the reason for my attendance of the event, I attempted to discuss politics with a group of Occupiers. As mentioned above, they were engaged and courteous. A young man calling himself "Nexus" spent quite a bit of time talking to me, as did a large occupier named "Durg" who carried a red and black flag. Several of the group claimed to be veterans and one wore a "veterans for peace" tshirt.

During my discussion, I asked if books or other informative items would be welcomed by the occupiers. After some deliberation, they agreed that pocket constitutions would be appropriate. Books had previously been removed and only items that could be carried conveniently are now seen as practical.

A major question asked was why the Tea Party had guns and OccupySD was not allowed signs large enough to be considered weapons.  I explained some of their rights but fundamentally they felt that Constitutional rights should trump local authority.  We left that discussion at the doorstep of states' rights.

One item that struck me was the claim that many occupiers are fiscal conservatives. First, it was good to see that they are educated enough to understand the term fiscal conservative. It was an appeal to common ground which is as dangerous a political position for the Tea Party as it is for the Democrat Party.

My main point of discussion was about cannon fodder. When a group of "expendables" are used to engage enemy forces not knowing that cannons will be used upon both the enemy and themselves once entangled in battle. I supported the calls for nonviolence that Rhonda espoused during the conference, adding that calls for restrictions upon occupier liberties will be applied to all other groups who stand up against big government or its cronies.

Occupy Movement Political Implications 

"Idle hands do the devil's work" is the adage that comes to mind. The occupiers are unemployed and free from commitments to attend to. Tea Party members typically work and cannot attend 1 PM news conferences, let alone sleep in tents for weeks and months.  The occupy movement, in my opinion, is a plan by the elitist left to employ the idle hands their policies have created in pursuit of several goals:

• Battle harden their next generation of political insurgents as they see colleagues harshly treated by authority and media figures.
• Demonize opponents of the statist, big government agenda by desensitizing the general public to activism. Activism will be slotted as a dirty, fleabagger, dangerous and possibly criminal activity.
• Harsh Darwinian "Sink or Swim" political training that will force certain individuals to survive and become useful pawns to advance the extreme left anti-capitalist agenda in the future.
• Create a false impression of a large, dangerous, extreme left movement that makes the "moderate" socialists look reasonable.
• Triangulate "moderate" socialists between the extreme left occupiers and the "right-wing" Tea Party.

To accomplish these goals the Occupy movement must evolve through the following "marketing" steps:

1. Advertise - make the public aware of Occupy's existence.
2. Demonize - show the public that Occupy is a "bottom-up" danger.  (Create the need)
3. Criminalize - call for authoritarian "top-down" solutions to the problem of protestors. (Fill the need)

Consider for a moment that the left is full of people who lived through the sixties and seventies as radical activists. They have first-hand knowledge of what worked and what did not, and why. The Occupy movement, like progressive political policies, is designed to fail in order to enrich an elitist political class through expendables, dependents and useful idiots. Consider the negative connotations of the language "Occupy."

Any movement, living in squalor, beset by radicals and including fringe elements, will eventually have individuals commit heinous and deplorable acts. The movement will react to those events and be an easy target for public outrage, outrage focused upon both the individuals involved and the movement as it reacts. The sixties and seventies radical left activists remember this, teach this, and use this. This tactic is often used against conservatives who aspire to a set of high standards but, being human, make mistakes that can be exploited as "hypocritical."  The application of this tactic is only slightly different when creating groups to demonize as opposed to demonizing opponents. Machiavelli would be proud, but the myth of the compassionate left is clear.