The Occupy Wall Street Movement, which began on September 17, continues on with no signs of slowing down. Many on the right contend that there’s little credibility to the movement: that it’s simply unwashed lazy kids who don’t want to work, according to Bill O’Reilly; or as Ann Coulter says, the protesters are an unruly mob. Not so, says TAC contributor Michael Tracey, in a piece for Reason:

“The banks got bailed out / we got sold out” is probably the most common chant I’ve heard at Liberty Plaza, and I think it best encapsulates the protest’s overriding sentiment: that regardless of political persuasion, people are sick and tired of a select few billionaires, in collusion with government, making decisions that hurt the rest of us behind closed conference-room doors. The feeling is fundamentally post-partisan.

Tracey spoke to a number of protesters in New York, including a fully uniformed Marine, John Cortes, who told Tracey his purpose in being there was to protect the right of citizens to peaceably assemble:

“We’re supposed to defend our fellowmen, right? So if you see somebody, whether it’s the police or not, abusing somebody—you’re going to do something about it, right?”

Could there be common ground between the Tea Party and OWS movements? Tracey recently wrote for TAC about another possible left-right alliance, one between consumer advocate Ralph Nader and libertarian Republican Ron Paul.

Unfortunately for post-partisan cooperation, there’s also been animosity on left-right battle lines as well. The Daily Caller reports that there was a lot of anti-Tea Party sentiment at the recent Occupy march in Freedom Plaza.

Later this week, I’ll be heading down to McPherson Square to see the D.C. occupation for myself — and to report on it for TAC.