The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

One of These Things Is Not Like the Other

Posted on | April 4, 2010 | 20 Comments

Jim Hoft says it’s a “smear” for the New York Times to compare the Tea Party movement to the Weather Underground of the 1960s and ’70s. More to the point, the comparison is stupidly inaccurate.

The Weathermen emerged after 1969 from Students for a Democratic Society — an organization, as it name says, composed primarily of college students. SDS was founded at Port Huron, Mich., in 1962 from the remnant of a predecessor, Student League for Industrial Democracy. While they had a full agenda of left-wing politics, SDS grew from a relatively small group to a mass organization during the 1960s based on its leading role in organizing protests against the Vietnam War. 

As the war escalated, SDS leaders grew increasingly alienated from “the System” and in 1968, led protests at the Democratic National Convention that turned into a riot. This was followed by the 1969 “Days of Rage” — a spree of vandalism in Chicago — after which Bill Ayers and other Marxist radicals in SDS, contemptuous of mere protest, formed the Weather Underground as a sort of American Vietcong, intending to lead a guerrilla revolution.

That thumbnail history alone should suffice to differentiate the two movements, but for the sake of clarity let’s consider the significant fact that the Tea Party is not a student movement. At its peak, SDS counted among its membership tens of thousands of college students who brought to the organization all the impracticality, impetuousness and impertinence that we might expect from disgruntled teens and 20-somethings.

The fact that the Tea Party movement is composed primarily of middle-aged, middle-class adults — people with homes, jobs, families and the other responsibilities of adulthood — is highly significant. These are not starry-eyed idealists who dream of changing the world, but citizens inspired to activism aimed directly at influencing the political process.

SDS and its allies in the campus Left fomented lawlessness by encouraging draft evasion. SDS engaged in a series of headline-making stunts in which students took over administration buildings at elite university campuses — including Columbia and Cornell — and issued demands to the administration. SDS was also instrumental in organizing a series of demonstrations (most memorably at Yale) on behalf of Black Panthers accused of criminal violence.

By contrast, leaders of the Tea Party movement have never encouraged or condoned any criminal behavior. They have organized no sit-in protests nor other acts of “civil disobedience.” To suggest that Tea Party activists are fundamentally like SDS and the anti-war movement of the 1960s simply because both engage in public protest rallies is to say that Barry Manilow and Metallica are fundamentally alike because both engage in concert tours.

The main thing illustrated by this New York Times article is the editorial mindset at 620 Eighth Avenue. Guarantee you what happened is that an editor got this cute idea for a feature story and assigned it to a staff writer who dutifully rounded up “expert” sources — professors at Northwestern, Bryn Mawr and Pitt — who obliged by offering their responses to the reporter’s question: “Hey, uh, these Tea Party people — they’re kind of scary and dangerous, right?”

UPDATE: Ann Althouse:

Remember, the NYT readers are aging liberals. They — we — remember the 60s as glory days.

For our TMI files, Professor Althouse adds this:

I have had lovers quarrels with Communists.

Yeah? Well, in 1983 and ’84 I dated a Cranston delegate named Donna – with a capital “D,” IYWKWIMAITYD — and it’s probably best if we all left our “glory days” in the past, where they belong, as reminders of our youthful folly.

Did I say “folly”? I dated Donna while two-timing my regular girlfriend, an Auburn fan who was 4-foot-10 but still the meanest girl I ever knew. She damn near clawed my eyes out . . .

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Category: Media Bias, New York Times, Tea Party

Comments

  • http://dad29.blogspot.com dad29

    the Tea Party movement is composed primarily of middle-aged, middle-class adults — people with homes, jobs, …

    And would like to KEEP them!

  • http://dad29.blogspot.com dad29

    the Tea Party movement is composed primarily of middle-aged, middle-class adults — people with homes, jobs, …

    And would like to KEEP them!

  • http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com Reaganite Republican

    Great post- and Happy Easter to you and yours

  • http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com Reaganite Republican

    Great post- and Happy Easter to you and yours

  • http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com Americaneocon

    Happy Easter, dudes!

  • http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com Americaneocon

    Happy Easter, dudes!

  • http://dontletmestopyou.wordpress.com Dan Draney

    To suggest that Tea Party activists are fundamentally like SDS and the anti-war movement of the 1960s simply because both engage in public protest rallies is to say that Barry Manilow and Metallica are fundamentally alike because both engage in concert tours.

    Home Run.

  • http://dontletmestopyou.wordpress.com Dan Draney

    To suggest that Tea Party activists are fundamentally like SDS and the anti-war movement of the 1960s simply because both engage in public protest rallies is to say that Barry Manilow and Metallica are fundamentally alike because both engage in concert tours.

    Home Run.

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  • http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com Americaneocon
  • http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com Americaneocon

  • Pingback: NYT compares the Tea Party Movement to the Weather Underground | Political Byline

  • Brian

    Well, not paying the fine issued for failing to purchase federal government-mandated health insurance would be criminal conduct that a lot of us would be happy with. But I think the distinction here is between passive resistance v. criminal conduct that harms the person or property of others.

  • Brian

    Well, not paying the fine issued for failing to purchase federal government-mandated health insurance would be criminal conduct that a lot of us would be happy with. But I think the distinction here is between passive resistance v. criminal conduct that harms the person or property of others.

  • Pingback: New York Times “Slimes” the Tea Party Movement | UNCOVERAGE.net

  • Annie Oakley

    GREAT smackdown of the NYTimes opinions!

    One minor thing I noticed in the NYT piece- the “cut propane line” was mentioned as merely a propane line to a barbecue grill- that CERTAINLY was not the impression of the “vandalism” that was reported initially. It would be interesting to see the actual police report on the incident.

  • Annie Oakley

    GREAT smackdown of the NYTimes opinions!

    One minor thing I noticed in the NYT piece- the “cut propane line” was mentioned as merely a propane line to a barbecue grill- that CERTAINLY was not the impression of the “vandalism” that was reported initially. It would be interesting to see the actual police report on the incident.

  • Annie Oakley

    According to a C’ville newspaper, the “cut” line WAS on a propane tank to a portable barbecue grill, which was sitting on a deck at the rear of the house. IF the line from the propane tank was “cut” wouldn’t the propane have bled out? Thus, how did the Perriello brother “smell” the gas, unless he was out on the deck within minutes of the line being “cut?” As acts of “vandalism” go, this was a VERY odd one. Why risk going up on a deck when the family is at home? Why cut a propane line to a PORTABLE gas grill? Why do something that is so easily replaced that the owner just has to go to Home Depot to get a replacement hose?

    Something “stinks” about this story.

  • Annie Oakley

    According to a C’ville newspaper, the “cut” line WAS on a propane tank to a portable barbecue grill, which was sitting on a deck at the rear of the house. IF the line from the propane tank was “cut” wouldn’t the propane have bled out? Thus, how did the Perriello brother “smell” the gas, unless he was out on the deck within minutes of the line being “cut?” As acts of “vandalism” go, this was a VERY odd one. Why risk going up on a deck when the family is at home? Why cut a propane line to a PORTABLE gas grill? Why do something that is so easily replaced that the owner just has to go to Home Depot to get a replacement hose?

    Something “stinks” about this story.

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