Will The Tea Parties and Occupy Wall Street be Signs of A New Age of Social Activism?

There have been numerous articles in the past couple week discussing the similarities and differences of the "Occupy Wall Street" and "tea party movements. I have been particularly fascinated by the articles which discuss the similarities in goals shared by these two movements, in part before the former is perceived as being a faction of the Democratic party and the latter is seen as being a faction of the Republican party. My fascination with these movements is that they each represent substantial increase in political involvement by members of the general public, and they also each represent a commitment of individual citizens without political experience to speak out on issues of concern to them.

I am less interested in the precise political messages of these two organizations, at least for the purpose of this piece. I am more interested in the existence of these groups. I am plesantly surprised to see organic grassroots movements on at least two political spectrums that represent the type of citizen engagement in democracy that was envisioned by DeToqueville an Jefferson. I am hopeful that both organizations will lead to serious citizen engagement in the day-to-day life of democracy.

There are some people that appear afraid of each of these organizaitons. They are afraid that either organization could devolve into violent factions. However, the history of this country shows that because of our democratic ideas, genuine social movements do not turn violent. Although our nation's history includes the existence of riots and violent acts, destructive acts have generally been pretty separated from political organizations and movements. Thus an obvious contrast with Ireland and Palestine, where certain destructive forces, aka terrorists, worked hand in hand with political movements. This contrast is an essential distinction between engaged citizenship and mobbery factionalism.

I am looking forward to seeing more of these movements. Although my views are much more aligned with the left than the right, I think that American democracy thrives only when there is creative civic engagement from multiple political perspectives.

Thus, to quote Langston Hughes, "Let America be America Again."