The Skeptic Conservative

Alright folks – I know I do this way too much, but in this case it’s warranted.

I owe you guys an explanation. This content draught has gone on much longer then usual, and before I unleash the full flood gates of what I’ve been up to – allow me to cover one of the reasons I’ve been very quiet over the past two months.

To put it simply, it’s been the Occupy Movement.

Over the past month, I really sat down and dunked my head deep into the mire that is politics. Not only did I absorb news coverage from all angles, I personally went down to Occupy San Diego on its opening day and took over 100 photos and several video clips. I have gone over and collected a few different manifestos, watched countless videos, really sat down and took it in. I published an initial impression of the overall movement. My first take – even after a half a week of thought, me trying to be fair! –  was that the soul of the movement was fueled by anti capitalism, and that troublemakers and professional protesters would hijack any moderates trying to turn it into a tea party like movement.

I have strong reason today to tell you, my audience, that I think my initial impressions were correct.

Tomorrow I’ll share with you a document I received about two weeks ago at the short lived “Occupy UCSD” movement tied in to the broader “Occupy Higher Education” tiied in to the “Occupy Everything” movement. I’ll happily go over – bullet point by bullet point – why their manifesto – one approved by Occupy San Diego and Occupy Wall Street – betrays the initial message of bi partisanship.

This movement has been coopted all along by Big Labor and hard leftists who want to crash the system to bring about socialism. THAT SAID. Believe me, I know that there are libertarians and ordinary minded folks frustraited with the system in this group – but their voices are being drowned out. I contend that all along, the idea has been to get folks hungry and angry through long term occupations, and then wield them as blunt instruments to bring about societal tension. Residents around the occupations get angry. The activists get angry. Inevitably, confrontations happen and they are gleefully embraced by the leaders of the movement.

Observe the videos below.

1) Occupy DC mob Injures elderly Woman at Americans for Prosperity Reagan Memorial Dinner

2) Attack Victims interviewed

How is this supposed to bring about meaningful reform and change? How is physcially intimidating, harrasing, and wounding people you disagree with supposed to color your organization in a good light? The occupy DC group expressely said multiple times that their intent was to bar conservatives from leaving the event. Why? What was that supposed to do? The event was hardly a sinister meeting of the ‘vast right wing conspiracy’ – it was a remembrance of what would have been Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday.

I’ll go into more detail on this later – but to sum, my biggest problem with the Occupy movement has been my impression that they act like a mob. They practice mob justice, they circle the wagons and/or excuse most criticism, and they more or less allow the vagrants and violent members to do their thing unchallenged. “We can’t police free speech!” after all. The overall attitude in my eyes is that their flagship inspiration – Tahir Square and the Arab Spring – is misguided. It seems like they feel that all they have to do is camp out for weeks on end, make noise, and get what they want. That is not how politics works.

Meaningful politics involves actual action. Sitting in a square doesn’t count. I’m talking about things similar to Occupy’s teach ins, but done less destructively. Things that local tea party groups around the country (including one I’m getting involved in) do every day. Yes, folks, it is possible to be a political activist while having a life and a job. I intend to prove that over the next several months.

Do I see a crash coming? Yeah. Does that mean I think we should embrace what amounts to socialist anarchy? NOPE. I believe in reaching out to all ideologies in the goal of destroying corruption and bringing back an emphasis on locality in politics. It’s very possible, it’s hard work, and oh yeah – it’s been done. WITHOUT MOBS IN THE STREETS.

Mobs in the streets are bad things, folks, no matter who is part of them. You can have the noblest, most decent people on the planet in a mob – and bad things will happen when bad apples act. I’m not decrying all protests – but I AM decrying protests that are largely aimless, anarchistic, and open ended in nature because the founders of the movement deliberately wanted them to be that way.

Remember that I think that we have elements in power right now who want to create problems so they can force in the solutions of their choosing. Van Jones, here’s looking at you.

-Doug

PS: I will do an audio segment tonight or tomorrow on me and my plans and thoughts. As I’m becoming very fond of saying – We live in interesting times. Take nothing for granted, folks, and keep a careful, skeptical eyes on the news.