That's part of Andrew Hartmann's explanation for why they just can't get along, despite both being spawned by Wall Street excess:
Tea Party activists dressed up as 18th century patriots and often talked as much about God and Country as about Taxes. OWS activists look like hippies, smoke weed, and often talk as much about the spiritual evils of consumerism as they do about anti-austerity. Style, identity, and culture: these things seem to matter to both sides as much as politics (which is not to argue that these things can replace politics, if reform or revolution be the goals). Style, identity, and culture: these things are as polarized as politics. This is the legacy of the culture wars that helps shape our understanding of the great debate taking place right now.
But why does one side of the debate wear costumes from the 18th Century? Doesn't that clue you in to what they're really about? Two words: cultural panic. The only way they could actually unite with OWS would be if the cultural right re-embraced its early twentieth century suspicion of capitalism as a threat to traditional mores. Which doesn't seem likely any day soon.
(Photo: 'Occupy Wall Street' members stage a protest march in New York, on October 12, 2011. By Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)
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