Occupy vs. Tea Party

Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party Movement is the two most recognized modern political movements in the United States. Both of these political movements aspire to make a change in the US government and they are both demonstrating so that the US government will hear their sentiments. Many Americans must have heard their names being pronounced in radios and even on the national news, but who are these protesters anyway?

Reasons for Protest

These two movements have been compared a lot of times already, and today you will be reading comparisons again. The comparison will begin with the purposes of their demonstrations.

What are they protesting for?

Occupy Wall Street have been protesting mostly for campaign financing reforms on big businesses, the taxation of the rich and the investigation and detainment of fraud banking executives who have contributed to the great financial crisis. The Tea Party Movement, on the other hand, protests for the reduction of the size and power of the US government, the reduction of taxes, and the reduction of the federal spending.

Differences in Demographics

When it comes to the demonstrators, most demonstrators in the Occupy Wall Street Movement are unemployed college graduates between the ages of 22-30. Occupy Wall Street protesters also include the hipsters who want to abolish capitalism and also the liberal middle class who are worried about the next recession. All of these demonstrators want to have a radical distribution of the US wealth.
The demonstrations of the Tea Party Movement on the other hand are mostly part of the Upper Class Americans who believe that the government should lower the taxes. Tea Party protesters also include the racists who want to remove Obama because of his race and the conservative middle class Americans who have libertarian views on taxation and governance.

Statistics

Statistics on the demonstrators’ income have been compared as well. Researchers have found out that demonstrators of the Tea Party movement are wealthier since they have 56% of demonstrators who earn $50,000+ per year compared to the 30.4% of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Tea Party movement also has 31% $75,000+ earners compared to the 13% of the Occupy Wall Street.

In terms of educational attainment, the Occupy Wall Street movement has approximately 92% demonstrators who have been to college while only 70% of protesters on the Tea Party movement have been to college. 70% of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators have jobs while only 56% of demonstrators on the Tea Party movement are working. However, 1/3 of the Tea Party movement demonstrators are retirees.

Size of Movement

In terms of the sizes of their protests, Occupy Wall Street is actually larger. They were able to create a protest with over 1.4 million participants in over 950 cities in 82 countries. In approximately 32 days, the movement was able to generate 100,000 participants in the US, 1 million+ in Spain, 300,000+ protesters in Italy and 23,000+ in Germany. The largest protest of the Tea Party movement is only 311,460 protesters in over 346 cities.

Occupy Wall Street obviously has more supporters. 54% of people agree with their movement and only 23% are against them. The Tea Party movement only has 20% of supporters and about 40% of people are against them.