Meet America‘s ’53%’ – And They Have a Message for the ‘99%’ Protesters

Meet The 53%. Who are they?  The term 53% refers to the people who are actually paying taxes for themselves and the rest of the country.

The 53% is a group of responsible young people organizing across the country. However, this group is not camping out in parks around the country and demanding the entire capitalist system be destroyed. These men and women have jobs (most of them work at more than one job in order to make ends meet), but they are talking about attending the Minneapolis Occupy Wall St. protest scheduled for today - Friday, October 7th.

Here's a statement from their web page;

So, like, when you’re, like, community organizing for solidarity and stuff, it’s totally cool to have this little hashtaggy thingy when you’re on twitter, so other people, like, totally know what you’re talking about and stuff. So if you’re, like, totally gonna spread the word about being one of the 53% of people who actually, like, pay taxes in America and don’t just, like, hang out protesting stuff all day… like, here’s the hashtaggy thingy. See you at the protest!   #iamthe53

Filmmaker Mike Wilson (the man who gave us "Michael Moore Hates America") maintains the page. We spoke with Wilson this morning and he explained that the 53% tumblr page came from his brain and the clever minds of his pals, Erick Erickson of Red State and Josh Trevino.

Reports out of Minneapolis say that a protest is expected today in front of the Government Plaza in downtown Minneapolis. The movement states they are going to try and reclaim and rename this area "The People's Plaza." Members of the 53% have mentioned that they will be in attendance to offer a counter opinion to the protest.

As we were talking, Wilson explained that he was loading up his camera and headed to the Minneapolis protest to capture it on video. The Blaze will link to Wilson's coverage as it comes in.

Mike Wilson told us the group was in the very early stages of organizing, but it is happening online – mostly because they have jobs, families, and a sense of personal responsibility. And the 53% have responded to the people alleging to represent 99% of the country. Based on these photo messages, the 99% is patently wrong in their claim.

And in case you have forgotten what the so called 99%ers look like... here are some snapshots from my recent visit;

Many of the protesters could be seen checking their emails and posting to their Facebook accounts on expensive laptops and cell phones.

This gentleman was carrying a cardboard camera and microphone, both adorned with the Fox News logo... and he appears to be conducting interviews...

UPDATE:

The history of the hashtag for this movement has been tracked to the Twitter account of Kevin Eder and this tweet from early October.

To get your picture and story on the page of The 53%, all you need to do is post it with the hashtag #iamthe53 and Mike Wilson will find it and post it on the site.

H/T to Dan Webb and Michael Hunt