Construction workers to Occupiers: 'Get a job!'

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:

Last fall, the same crowd that had spent the previous two years mocking Tea Party activists began to swoon when leftist protesters set up "Occupy" encampments in cities throughout the nation. Time magazine made "The Protester" its Person of the Year, using as its cover image a picture of a Los Angeles Occupier. Former Vice President Al Gore declared, "Count me among those supporting and cheering on the Occupy Wall Street movement" and described it as the "primal scream of democracy." President Obama himself observed last October that the movement represented "broad-based frustration about how our financial system works."

Despite the Left's lofty hopes and backing from several major labor unions, the Occupy movement quickly degenerated into an orgy of violence and mayhem. Vandalism and theft plagued the businesses unfortunate enough to be near the Occupy encampments. Occupy Boston and Portland became hubs for illegal drug sales. Dead bodies were found at Occupy New Orleans, Salt Lake City and Oklahoma City. Arrests for sexual assaults were made at Occupy Wall Street, Philadelphia and Minneapolis. An Occupier in Dallas was arrested in the rape of a 14-year-old girl. There were riots in Oakland, Portland and Denver.

On Monday, the FBI arrested five anarchists accused of plotting to blow up a Cleveland bridge. One of the men, 20-year-old Brandon Baxter, had attended Occupy Cleveland protests for months, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported.

In its early days, the Occupy movement was billed as a liberal answer to the Tea Party. But as much as the Left liked to caricature Tea Partiers as an angry mob, they were in fact law-abiding people deeply concerned about the political direction of the country. They were also far more productive. They quickly organized to advance their iconoclastic agenda. In 2010, they defeated incumbents and heavily favored establishment candidates in primaries throughout the country. Tea Party energy not only helped Republicans retake the House of Representatives and gain six Senate seats, but shifted the terms of the debate in Washington today. House Republicans have since sworn off earmarks, voted to repeal Obamacare, passed sweeping entitlement reforms and refused to raise the debt ceiling without spending cuts. The results are far short of Tea Party hopes, but the culture change from last decade has been truly remarkable.