(ThyBlackMan.com) As the Occupy Wall Street movement recently celebrated its two month anniversary with coordinated protests across the nation, most of the country apparently watched with indifference, according to a recent USA Today/Gallup Poll. Relatively unchanged from a similar poll taken a month ago, it was found that 56% of Americans neither support nor oppose the goals of Occupy Wall Street, with 59% of respondents saying they have no opinion at all. Given that we’ve witnessed an escalation of frustration between all sides, the occupiers, law enforcement personnel, elected officials, and civilians just trying to go about their everyday business, it would appear as if OWS is exacting an unnecessarily high physical and social toll with little results to justify it.
Yet, what can not be lost in the civil disobedience of Occupy Wall Street, is the competing vision put forth for the future of America that juxtaposes that of the Tea Party. Since the 2010 elections when the Republican Party resumed control over the house of representatives with a flood of Tea Party fervor and its candidates winning many seats, we can now examine their vision by reviewing their legislative agenda over the past year. Meanwhile, the Occupy Wall Street energy has yet to be converted into an actionable political strategy that would likewise alter election outcomes and represent a policy agenda. Which may explain why so many Americans who would benefit from the demands of Occupy Wall Street are noncommittal, they don’t know what they’re committing to (see http://occupywallst.org/forum/proposed-list-of-demands-for-occupy-wall-st-moveme/).
At the core of the Occupy Wall Street message is a call for justice. A reasonable one, being that we’ve experienced a period of growing income inequality that has widened class divisions in most segments of our society. As a result, Occupy Wall Street is an expression of economic insecurity felt by many, but like most people affected by the economic crisis of 2008 and its aftermath, it has trouble articulating the causes and its solutions. It’s that gnawing sensation you get when you leave the house knowing you forgot something but not quite sure what it is, and where it is, only to get three quarters of the way to your destination and suddenly it hits you, but by then you’re too far to turn back. OWS is a group of concerned citizens exercising their constitutional right to protest in an attempt to remind the nation that we’ve forgot something and we need to turn back to gather what’s missing before it’s too late. What’s missing? Justice!
Finish story over at; UrbanCusp – Occupy Wall Street, etc.
Also follow UrbanCusp on Twitter; http://twitter.com/UrbanCusp/.
and Facebook; http://www.facebook.com/urbancusp.
Most people don’t care because they can’t identify with the occupiers. They are a bunch of arrogant bullies, spewing an anarchist message that hasn’t rung true for most of us. The arrogance and the violence shown by this group repels me. I would never spit, scream and provoke the police or any person of authority. I would never take over private property, spitting and shoving the police who are enduring what I thought police were not capable of. No, they have nothing I want and in no way or form can most people identify with them nor they want to.
The insidiousness of the OWS slogan, “99% vs. 1%”: an “enemy” comprised of one percent of the population is easy to identify, easy to scapegoat and, above all, easy to attack, if this movement gets out of hand. Most of the adherents of OWS are the historical descendants of every useful idiot who’s ever been unwittingly conscripted into a rabble army–enabled by people with far more sinister motives than the rabble itself. Those enablers are people who cannot achieve the kind of power they desire by legitimate means, so they must stoke the rabble in order to achieve it.
Congresswoman Bachmann has seen through OWS from the first, calling them out for the nihilist rabble that they are. She is the most principled, courageous Constitutional Conservative on the national scene: the little lady with the spine of titanium.
I’m for justice, but are you willing to take it to the source?
The gnawing is partually due to the fact that prices keep going up and what little money people have doesn’t go as far as it used to. The anger sees that while peopel are feelign the pain of some process they don’t understand, they do recognize that banks are making large profits, and they know that they are connected somehow.
Here is how..
The purchasing power of our money is being diluted by the enormous amout of money that has been printed in the bailouts and to support the war. While I dont agree with the war, I’ll stick to the bailouts. QE1 & QE2 were huge money printing feild days, which lowered the value of everyone else’s money.
We know that our national debt is the biggest in history, but yet the FED printed over half our national debt 7.7 TRILLION dollars to bail out European banks. We are currently continiuing to bail our Europe in credit swaps.
.. ok, so what does that mean? Your money is worth less, and the Fed gives money to Banks for pratically nothing.
Thats probably enough to get people to occupy Wall St
The banks on wall st get money for basically nothing, and can easily make more than it costs to borrow. Even if they gamble and lose sometimes, their winnings can overcome any losses because the price to borrow that money from the FED is almost Zero.
The Fed does this on purpose. Yes, the banks are taking advantage, but only because the FED makes the money interest rated artificially low.
Another knock on wall stree is that they use this easy money to swing the markets and make money off the ups and downs. We have a volitile market and the banks keep making money. They make money form the big market swings.
The thing is, unlike the FED, they Wall St doesnt make money out of thin air. The banks can only “win” when someone else loses.
Okay, this is enough to make people want to occupy and ask for Justice. I agree.
But are you willing to take it to the source??
Banks are beating up peoples 401ks in the market with their easy money, but that is not the source.
Banks are making big profits from eashy monty, but that is not the source.
Getting to the Fed is getting closer to the source, because this money is erroding our spending power and allowing the banks to work the market…
But is this the source?
Who makes this happen? The Treasury Secretary and the Fed Chairman.
But who appoints these guys? Who can replace them?
The fact that they haven’t havent been replaced and thier policys haven’t changed means that who they report to agrees with them.
SO the person that they report to has to be the soource.
..the american people will have the chance to replace the source in Nov 2012.
I enjoys this article, thanks for sharing with us. I have to agree with a previous comment, though. I have participated in a few of Occupy Seattles events, and after talking and learning from the people down there I also learned that although there are a few socialists scattered about, the intelligence of the movement is not anti-capitalism. On the contrary, they recognize that capitalism is one of the things that made the United States of America the great country that it is. Despite the main-stream-media slander that states this anti-capitalist view, what they REALLY are protesting is capitalism run amok. Corporations have been allowed for far too long to influence our government. I can give you a good start of what the Occupiers would like to see happen of nothing greater comes of it : a repeal of the Citizens United Act, a reinstatement of Glass-Steagall (including the Volcker rule) and Electoral reform. If they accomplish ANY of these things, mixed with the conversations thisovement has inspired in this country- Occupy Wall Street will be a victory.
Your column is awesome. I wanted to share a website with you which I believe may have relevance to the cause. It’s a third party run for President. They’re calling it the Justice Party. I seen it on Rachel Maddow a couple of nights ago, and the guy was impressive in what he had to say. Furthermore, if Justice is the founding motivation for how you (we) would like to be known, there has to be some mention of the prison industrial complex, and the civil rights evil that has stemmed from the so called ‘war on drugs’. The statistics are staggering, and my #1 hero, MLK, WOULD NOT BE HAPPY… BTW, I don’t know the individuals name whos’ making this third party run from the Justice Party, nor do I know the actual name of the website; I just came across this site and thought I’d jump in real quick…
@Oscar Ramon
I agree with most of what you say but..
it’s not an anti-capitalist movement.
It is however an anti-corruption , anti-corporate controlled government , and an anti-unregulated capitalism movement.
Corrupt politics leads to EVERYTHING the governments have done in the US. Other countries face the same problems.
Laws are bought , hence why stealing a mars-bar from a supermarket is against the law but short-selling derivatives is not.
$2.45 Billion….. wtf..that number amazes me everytime….
$2,450,000,000 in Lobbying/bribing SOFAR this year(oct 2011)
last year REGISTERED total : $3.51 Billion (we know it’s more in reality)
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/index.php
“”Anti-capitalist””…. is the Corporate media’s attempt at slander.
Please don’t call it that , it is not.
Thx.
Totally support the anti capitalist movement. Clearly, the State today is a hostage to Bankers Greed and they are holding the taxpayers worldwide to ransom. The government leaders are weak, clueless with no imagination of how to deal with this crisis. Bernanke, Giethner and Blankfields are in with the new Godfathers. The citizens have no option but take up the fight and root out this evil root and branch to protect their future.