Tea Party Takes On Occupy Wall Street

The Tea Party has a message for you: It is nothing like Occupy Wall Street, even though there have been many inevitable comparisons between the two movements. Such comparisons are “almost laughable,” however, a chief strategist for the Tea Party Express tells Politico. A FreedomWorks campaigns director explains that the Tea Party utilizes MLK-like tactics and that its numbers are made up of “kind of cheerful, happy warriors,” whereas the Occupiers are “really, truly, very unhappy, angry” and more like Malcolm X.

In order to drive this point home, several Tea Party groups are encouraging their members to dig up dirt on the Occupiers. The Tea Party has blasted everything from labor union ties to reports of littering and drug use (one demonstrator allegedly even defecated on a police car), and is posting its findings online—a tactic similar to the ones liberals used to denounce Tea Partiers when they first came on the scene—but organizers are frustrated the bad behavior they’re digging up isn’t getting more mainstream media coverage. “If this stuff was happening at tea parties,” the FreedomWorks rep says, “it would be the leading story on all the networks.” (Click for another conservative response to "We Are the 99%.")