Taibbi goes after Breitbart's attempts to paint OWS as a manufactured uprising controlled by him, Chomsky, and Bill Moyers. And he gives us this:
What nobody is comfortable with is a movement in which virtually the entire spectrum of middle class and poor Americans is on the same page, railing against incestuous political and financial corruption on Wall Street and in Washington. The reality is that Occupy Wall Street and the millions of middle Americans who make up the Tea Party are natural allies and should be on the same page about most of the key issues, and that's a story our media won't want to or know how to handle.
Now, on a congressional level, I've made my feelings on the possibility of compromise and common ground with Tea Partiers pretty clear. But out here in the real world? Yes. Taibbi is absolutely right.
I DO think the Tea Party is a fringe group based on fringe political views that has elected mostly fringe candidates. But it's hardly monolithic. The Republicans didn't pick up all those seats last year because people are excited about Ayn Rand, they picked them up because people are sick to death of the Washington establishment.
The "We are the 99%" catchphrase is pretty good, because honestly, my day-to-day life's got a lot more in common with the average Tea Partier's than with any given millionaire's. And ultimately we all want the same thing: a fair shake. The rest is details.
There are some people who are unwilling to compromise on any regulation or any taxation. So forget those people. But a solid majority of the population thinks Wall Street's fucked up, Washington's fucked up, and we need some sort of reforms to fix the problem. And most people are at least willing to discuss what those reforms should be, and willing to haggle and compromise.
Which is why people on both sides will seek to play this up as a left-versus-right, faction-versus-faction issue. They don't want us talking to each other and figuring out just what the hell we can agree on.