ATLANTA – When I saw the images last week of rioting Greek leftists throwing molotov cocktails at uniformed officers, I thought it would be helpful to contrast that movement with the American Tea Party movement, to hopefully demonstrate what a dangerous, seditious movement truly looks like.
Here are a few helpful comparisons:
- The rise of the conservative U.S. Tea Party movement beginning in April 2009 has coincided with the greatest U.S. stock market rally since the 1930s. The rise of the Greek molotov cocktail party over the past two weeks has coincided with a precipitous drop in all global stock markets.
- The U.S. Tea Party movement, despite being “dangerous” and “racist,” has had no incidences of violence in its 100s of rallies since April 2009. The Greek riots produced three violent deaths just last week.
- The U.S. Tea Party movement stands principally against run-away deficits and unrestrained government spending, with the goal being to prevent economic crisis. The Greek movement is run by leftists who would prefer to default on Greek’s bond obligations and continue spending at breakneck speeds, no matter what the consequences.
- The U.S. Tea Party movement is slightly wealthier than the general U.S. populace and is composed of people whose productivity is being taxed to fund the growing U.S. welfare state. The Greek movement is composed of students and public sector union workers who are completely dependent on state handouts and probably pay few taxes.
Anyway- the comparisons could go on and on. Clearly, the Greeks are facing a much more imminent collapse than the United States is, and thus emotions are running high at these riots. But I really do believe left-wingers and their supporters are prone to much more violence then anything a conservative, limited government group in the United States is capable of doing. This is especially true when the left-winger’s welfare state is coming under challenge. After all, for them, redistributing wealth they had no hand in producing is a matter of “social justice.”
TennesseePaul
Stephen VanNuys
Brooklyn Daniel
The Freedom Thinker
The current situation in Greece is the result of long-term Communist infiltration of that country after the U.S.-assisted defeat of the Red-instigated coup attempt in the late 1940′s. What the Communists could not obtain by force, they have now managed through political subversion.
Greece is now an economic disaster, and a vitally important example of what is in store for America if Obama and his Leftist regime is allowed to continue their systematic destruction of our free-enterprise society.
It is so important to remember that Communism/Socialism/Progressivism, with its emphasis on “equality” and “social justice”, is simply another dictatorship where a small elite class siphons off the wealth created through the efforts of the public and lives in luxury while the proletariat sacrifices both freedom of choice and opportunity to serve them.
Look to Greece if you want to see where America is headed under Obama and his Leftist cohorts.
Definitely concur here, Maine. Greece is a complete mess and they have their leftist roots to blame. They are completely hamstrung by their entitlements, the power of their labor unions, etc. I really don’t see Greece coming out of this very well. I’m not sure they entered it well to begin with.
The collapse of Europe seems to be in the mix more generally. The welfare state is coming under economic siege much faster than I thought. I tended to think the collapse of the social-democratic model was going to come in the 2030′s or thereabouts. But looks like the gravity of economic reality is weighing on it much sooner than that. We live in interesting, and indeed scary, times.
Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.