The politics of resentment, from the tea party to Occupy Wall Street

October 14, 2011

America is entering this election cycle in a dyspeptic mood. The grim economic tidings are reason enough for this gloom, but something more fundamental may be at work here.  More than discontent, or even anger — it’s a belief that our country is in the grip of powerful forces that do not have our best interests at heart. This feeling is hardly new, and depending on where you stand on the political spectrum, it may be a sign of paranoia — or wisdom.

Watch the rest of the segments from this episode.

Last modified: October 14, 2011 at 1:20 pm
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Comments

  • Asteroid Miner

    What PBS needs to know:  Political Astroturf [fake grassroots political movements]

    The Tea Party is the creation of Koch Oil Company.   ["Koch" is pronounced "Coke."] The Koch brothers, David H. and Charles are worth $21.5 Billion EACH.   You probably never heard of Koch oil since they don’t have retailers of their own.   5+ years ago they set up a front-creating organization called Americans for Prosperity [AFP].   Koch hired a political operative named Tim Phillips to generate fake grassroots political movements.   Fake grassroots political movements are called “Astroturf movements.”   The tea party is completely under the control of the Koch brothers.   The Koch brothers stay hidden behind AFP.   AFP [Americans For Prosperity] is an organization of political operatives paid for by the Koch brothers.

    AFP also set up a number of other astroturf groups to work against working people.   These include astroturf groups to tell you lies about Global Warming and other issues.

    Taki Oldham infiltrated an AFP meeting with a concealed camera.   The movie Mr. Oldham made shows David Koch in charge of the AFP meeting where they talk about how well the Tea Party is working in carrying out the agenda of the billionaire Koch brothers.   The video is at:

    http://climateprogress.org/2010/10/14/video-proof-david-koch-the-polluting-billionaire-pulls-the-strings-of-the-tea-party-extremists
    or
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JjQxPJOAfg&feature=player_embedded#!
    The Koch brothers own Koch Oil Company.
    The Koch brothers own Koch Oil Company.
    http://climateprogress.org/2010/10/20/koch-big-oil-chamber-glenn-beck-plot-2010-election/

    The source of the video of David Koch [oil billionaire] running the Tea Party is Taki Oldham [http://astroturfwars.org/].   
    From: 
    http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2010/10/25/toxic-brew/ 
    “Oldham infiltrated some of the movement’s key organising events, including the 2009 Defending the Dream summit, convened by a group called Americans for Prosperity. The film shows David Koch addressing the summit. “Five years ago,” he explains, “my brother Charles and I provided the funds to start Americans for Prosperity. It’s beyond my wildest dreams how AFP has grown into this enormous organisation.”” 

    From: info@1sky.org:
    “Big Oil, Dirty Coal, and their allies have spent more than $990 million to influence the politics of the 111th Congress and to elect a whole slate of climate deniers and shills for big polluters this November.”

  • Asteroid Miner

    Woops!   The Koch brothers are now worth $40 Billion each.

  • Asteroid Miner

    I have met Charles Koch in person.   I have seen David H. Koch’s picture many times at Koch HQ in Wichita Kansas.   That is definitely him in the video.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LFI35KPATGGTKQLMGYGIPZSZ4E kittyk

    Thank you for this thorough “debunking” of Greenfield’s erroneous conflation of tea party and the occupy movement. 

  • Anonymous

    Let me say thank you, thank you, thank you! One of the mainstream media outlets which is giving this movement any credence at all. I watched Face the Nation this morning and not a peep about this. Meet the Press, nata! CBS Evening news, nope.

    This is a legitimate movement with real consequences to future elections and I would wager that given our time in history that the outcome of this movement will weigh more heavily than will who the Republican nominee turns out to be.http://michaelmaczesty.blogspot.com/2011/10/house-always-wins.html

  • C. R. Pierrot

    I’m not QUITE sure I’d classify PBS as *completely* “mainstream,” but nah, man, PBS has a history of this. Basically, they give you NO bias NO spin, nearly 100% complete coverage of the truth but NEVER any of the laziness, sensastionalization, retarded lay error, or…corporate-ness of the MSM. Plus they actually deal openly AND HONESTLY AND *ONLY* w/the FACTS, no matter where those facts may lead them. And because of this thwy have REALLY insightful discussion, analysis, and debate. I’m usually dumbstruck at how awesomely insightful they are politically.