Yesterday, the ‘Grok went to Manchester after the show to see first hand what the hubbub was all about as much to see how they set themselves up and organize as it was to see what the message was. Certainly what the New Media is reporting is not what I have been seeing in the MSM. The latter make out the Occupy Wall Street ("OWS", of which OccupyNH is merely the local instantiation) to be the Left version of the TEA Party – simply a grass roots movement.
Right! It took MONTHS after Rick Santelli’s rant to build up to any kind of numbers – and these folks are having hundreds of events not only here in the US but across the globe?
Anyways, per normal, we tried to grab a few micro-interviews. Much to my surprise, in additional to the Democrat Socialists and hard core "perpetual protester prototypes", I found a handful of Libertarians amongst the crowd – and for all the right reasons.
For all the right reasons, Leah is right (and so is Mirav). Yes, both are Ron Paul supporters (full disclosure: the ‘Grok supports Herman Cain), but they were willing to confront the collectivist mindset of the crowd (and the organizers of that crowd) and at least "wave the flag" of Individual freedom and liberty.
For those TEA Party folks that might see their presence as a bit of betrayal? I see this as taking the intellectual fight to the Socialists. If you strip off the top veneer layer, this is what this really is – their use of the issue of crony capitalism is a smokescreen to have an even bigger Govt controlling even more of our livelihood and our lives). I applaud them both (and the others) for being there for at least attempting to fight the absolutely collectivist mind set even as OWS uses the trappings of a ‘democratic process’ to set their agenda.
I think that one unifying point of angst between the two groups, OWS and TEA Party, is the crony capitalism, but more on that later.
