Senator Rand Paul recently made some insightful points about the differences between The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street. Sen. Paul said, “The Tea Party, I always say, is more like the American Revolution, and Occupy Wall Street is more the French Revolution. . . . We (The Tea Party) weren’t unhappy with people just because they were rich; we weren’t happy with you (the banks) if you were making money off of our taxes and we were bailing you out. If you were making $100 million, your bank goes bankrupt and all of a sudden we bail you out and you’re still making $100 million — that upset us.”
The Tea Party hated the big bank bailouts because it violated the rule of law and would only encourage risky behavior in the future with taxpayers' underwriting the loses. Occupy Wall Street just hates rich people and corporations. Big difference. Liberals see the world as a clash between oppressors and the oppressed. Libertarians see the world as a clash between coercion and free choice. A political philosophy based on envy will not lead to win-win solutions, it will only give us lose-lose outcomes.
