If the Tea Party somehow realizes that they have more in common with Occupy Wall St. than they do with their penurious corporate sponsors, we the American populace may still stand a chance.
Forget the labels for a bit and consider the near unanimity of the working and entrepreneurial class's dissatisfaction with the status quo.
We have been divided by multiple false dichotomies of republican vs democrat, liberal vs conservative, individualist vs. statist, ad nauseam.
Dichotomies by definition are limited to two points of view, which ultimately come down to to "that which you espouse" vs. "that which you despise" or at the very least "that with which you disagree". Frankly, it is easy to despise both extremes of these false dichotomies. To the conservative, the object of your derision is the "taker", the otherwise healthy government check sucking individual who shirks individual responsibility and "believes" that he (or she) is somehow owed a livelihood and sustenance at the expense of the rest of us. To the liberal, the "banker" or "inheritance baby" represents the personification of social parasite and "the problem" of our current state of being.
Can't both of these be the problem simultaneously? Haven't we artificially divided the workingman and small businessman along these lines when in fact both of these personifications are equally despicable?
Only when the working/entrepreneurial class realizes that both of the extremes are to be held to account, will we the vast majority of American citizens finally have a framework with which to build an acceptable future.
We have been duped by corporate media to believe in these false dichotomies, when in fact both extremes are responsible for where we find ourselves. We are told to trust in a free market which has devalued our jobs by simultaneously hiring often illegal immigrant labor while exporting our jobs overseas in the name of profit. We are told to despise those who would attempt to dismantle social programs like medicare, social security, and union rights all the while subsidizing those who would take advantage of these programs unnecessarily and selfishly with no regard for the common good. The fact is that both of these extremes, the international corporatist and the benefit sucking slacker are despicable. Although the liberal within me does insist that the slackers don't have much of a lobbying or advertising budget, the fact is the vast majority of us have accepted the false dichotomy that is presented and repeated ad nauseam in the corporate media.
When working people and small businessmen recognize that we have far more issues upon which we agree than disagree and ignore the current mechanisms of division which we are told repeaterdly is our "reality", only then will we take the first step to heal ourselves, our economy and our society.
