Andrew Sullivan posted a photo illustrating the dual hypocrisies of the tea party movement and the OWS protests. You might recall the curbside tea party protest photo in which all of the government-run taxpayer financed items in the scene are marked with orange arrows.
Now there's a companion OWS photo pointing out protesters and their corporate-purchased items. But it isn't an accurate portrayal of OWS hypocrisy.
I'm sure there are OWS people who are completely anti-corporation and anti-capitalism, and some of those people are tweeting about it from their iPads while eating Cranberry Orange Scones that were charged on their Capital One cards, but that doesn't represent the vast majority of the movement.
But I always believed OWS was about the crimes and malfeasance that created the current economic mess and how government needs to reinstate Glass-Steagall and enforce laws like the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in order to roll back the conditions that allowed all of this to happen. While we're here, why not create an environment that builds the middle class instead of killing it?
So it's entirely consistent to support corporate accountability while simultaneously using corporate products. Or as the president said yesterday:
"At this moment, when our politics appear so sharply polarized, faith in our institutions so greatly diminished, we need more than ever to take heed to Dr. King’s teachings. If he were alive today, I believe that he would remind us that the unemployed worker can rightly challenge the excesses of Wall Street without demonizing all who work there. That the businessman can enter tough negotiations with his company’s unions without vilifying the right to collectively bargain. He would want us to know that we can argue fiercely about the proper size and role of government without questioning each other’s love for this country."
On the tea party side, you absolutely can NOT be anti-wealth-redistribution, anti-socialism and anti-tax while also being on Medicare and using public schools/roads/parks etc. That, and the original Boston Tea Party was a protest against a corporate tax cut -- an idea that the modern tea party supports.
Sorry.