The longer the Occupy Wall Street protests continue, the more they seem likely to have influence beyond their campsites—and the more that influence draws comparisons to the Tea Party, our other anti-establishment movement. Apparently, those comparisons don’t sit so well with Tea Party machers.
The New York Times reports that those Tea Party spokespeople have begun pointing out differences between the movements by suggesting that Occupy Wall Street will lead to another Chicago 1968 moment, that Zuccotti Park will be the next Grant Park.
But in fact, other than the park-central geography, today’s protests are unlikely to turn out like those of 43 years ago.
- In the months before Chicago 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were both assassinated. The Tet Offensive began just a few months before that. As divisive as our economic problems may be right now, today’s protests lack similar specific and shocking national turning points to galvanize participants.
- The Yippie “Festival of Life” that brought many protesters to Chicago in August of 1968 was timed to coincide with the Democratic National Convention. Occupy Wall Street—like the Tea Party—is in opposition to a national phenomenon and, while it has certain location- and time-specific centers, there is no equivalent establishment event to compare to the 1968 DNC.
- While all kinds of people came to Chicago in 1968, the Yippie movement was instrumental in organizing the protests, and there was a Yippie manifesto and platform. Occupy Wall Street has is more diffuse in its leadership and goals.
- Bloomberg is not Daley. Plus, the management of Zuccotti Park and the NYPD have, thus far, succeeded at keeping the park free of violence. The Chicago police were making a serious effort to get protesters out of Grant Park. This contrast also underlines the extent to which, despite instances of police violence and overreaction in New York recently, the Chicago riots were distinctly police-versus-protesters, leading to much more volatile atmosphere than we’ve seen recently.
For all these reasons, it’s a good bet that OWS will remain at a constant simmer instead of boiling over quickly, the way things did in Chicago.
One thing the two movements do have in common? The whole world's watching...
