The #OccupyWallStreet protests have legs. There's no doubt about it.
If you don't believe it, just take a look at the live feed some genius put on the web.
What you won't see is a bunch of angry, middle-aged folks -- some armed -- complaining about government. Instead, you have people, many young, who know something is wrong in America -- and want to make it right for everyone. It's joyful, and inclusive, and means no harm.
Of course, voices from the right have already pulled out their jeering slogans, and otherwise try to twist the available evidence into some sinister union/commie plot to subvert America.
But I doubt that will hold, if only because your average Tea Party member agrees with the #OccupyWallStreet analysis -- that government has forgotten about its citizens and works instead for the guys who pay for their campaigns.
If you want proof of that, consider that both Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich support the protests.
That the right will probably not recognize what they have in common with #OccupyWallStreet and attack it instead is too bad. There's an opportunity here for Americans to reach consensus and unite for the People, instead of a clutch of special interests.
But while I want that, what I expect is to hear talk radio rattle on about the dark forces behind #OccupyWallStreet -- George Soros, certainly, and any number of other figures from Hollywood and whatever so-called enemies of America come to their minds.
It's even possible that as the protests gain strength and attract more media attention, some right wingers will decide enough is enough, and begin counter-demonstrations that could take an ugly turn. Then, of course, they'll try to pin the blame on the kids.
In fairness to those right-wingers -- if in fact they appear -- most are sincere patriots who, just like the #OccupyWallStreet folks, know that something is wrong in America and want to bring it right. This is why they're so uncompromising; they honestly believe they're in a war for the soul of America. And let's face it -- if that's your premise, and you love your country, no self-respecting patriot could do anything else
The difference between these people on the right and the #OccupyWallStreet folks is that the people they trust have turned them into foot soldiers for their own purposes. And now that their tactics have scared the bejesus out of the country -- Ã la August's debt ceiling showdown -- many of them honestly seem to be at a loss to understand what happened, when they thought, as right wing voices insist, that they have the numbers, the guns, and God on their side.
Of course, they don't represent anything like a majority and have high negatives in many polls. But that shouldn't prevent Americans from understanding that these are people who want to do the right thing for their country.
Meanwhile, the nation's swing voters seem to be giving the economic and political facts a hard look, drawing sensible conclusions about where this is taking us and what should and shouldn't be done about it, and, from what I can tell, are coming down on the #OccupyWallStreet side.
As many of you may know, I live in Central New York. This, of course, is far from people who think they have the inside skinny on anything. And I've found that a genuine advantage in understanding what's really going on in the US.
So today, I was talking to the chimney sweep who came to fix my chimney. And he agreed with me that the right wing solutions bruited about not only aren't adequate to the scale of the problems we face, but don't even address the world we're moving into; that going forward, the challenge facing America isn't how to maximize individual liberty, but how to keep the lid on in a country that not only won't take care of people cast adrift -- by forces beyond their control -- but won't give them the opportunity to help themselves.
This, it seems to me, is what the #OccupyWallStreet folks are talking about when they chant that they're the 99 percent -- as opposed to the 1 percent that now owns pretty much everything. In other words, they're addressing the real concerns of real Americans. And that gives the movement, or whatever you call it, justification, a broad base, and strength.
The right-wing can cry class warfare all they want. In the long run, people don't support political ideas they can't justify, and if nothing else, America simply isn't a country that will tolerate the sort of mean-spirited policies the right has been trying to sell us lo these 30 years. They could put them over when everybody thought they were getting rich, but now, not so much.
Look at it another way: I think #OccupyWallStreet has history on its side, and that the right, as the Chinese say, has lost the Mandate of Heaven. If the #OccupyWallStreet people can make their case the right way, they could make the coming election about the 99 percent.
And that would be a good thing.
Christopher Emdin: 5 Reasons Why Public School Teachers are Occupying Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street protests spreading to Knoxville
Occupy Wall Street Rocked by Jeff Mangum
Occupy Wall Street Hits Connecticut [VIDEO]
Occupy Chicago meets police resistance, vows to keep vigil
Occupy Wall Street Gets Hacker Support
"... the challenge facing America isn't how to maximize individual liberty, but how to keep the lid on in a country that not only won't take care of people cast adrift...."
Please elaborate?
Read these and then get back to me, if you want:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-reinbach/america-heres-your-dystop_b_615297.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-reinbach/work-and-tomorrow_b_642364.html
*****http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-reinbach/tomfoolery-and-criminal-n_b_825626.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-reinbach/default-or-no-real-econom_b_914687.html
So, back to the original premise. How is it possible/necessary to effect the widest distribution of wealth/resources, on a finite planet, while flatly ignoring freedom?
You state, ‘What you won't see is a bunch of angry, middle-aged folks -- some armed -- complaining about government. Instead, you have people, many young, who know something is wrong in America -- and want to make it right for everyone. It's joyful, and inclusive, and means no harm.’
Actually what people see are an unwashed, misinformed, angry group of takers who are angry because other people are tired of giving them free stuff through government transfers. The unemployment-insurance-leeching and welfare-enjoying ‘takers’ are part of the problem in America. Throw in the sleazy unions and their duplicitous habit of financially supporting the same people with whom they will be negotiating their fat entitled contracts against the interests of the beleaguered taxpayer and you can see that this protest has devolved into an organized effort to get the government to take from others and give them. It is this poverty of spirit, morals, and ethics that is hollowing out the United States from the inside, making this protest ‘joyless’, ‘exclusive’, and ‘ruinous’ to America.
Kai
As far as I'm concerned, such writers can peck away. They're directed at the choir, and remove any doubt about what they're made of. What the writers don't realize, though, is that this stuff does nothing to pursuade the people the writers need to reach--the undecided--and in fact works against them. So to repeat, peck away, Kai, by all means.
I agree with you and, James Madison, on the Constitution as a living document that can be updated and reinterpreted; disagree that means a wide range of expanding powers can be imputed to it that are not explicitly stated or enumerated. Either add or clarify amendments through the legislative process or curtail current overreach.
On your second point, I would agree with you that there is no data, yet, proving the numbers of OWS because the movement is not even fully defined and its goals determined. However, if what I am seeing is their mission statement and goals, then I am fairly certain that few Americans will tolerate it for long. But like I said, I support the rights of OWS to make themselves look as foolish as they want in public through the first amendment.
I agree that the fascist overreach of government and the abrogation of individual rights is becoming so cloying that producers will have to start moving elsewhere. I am 3 years into the 7 years I need to become a citizen of Hong Kong. A few points about Hong Kong: it was Milton Friedman’s ideal government and is currently ranked #1 for economic freedom:
What we have now is a third world government. This movement needs too and will grow into millions of people.
Wall Street needs to shut down. Closed for business, just like in the days after 9/11. And all of congress needs to be put on administrative leave, without pay (they aren't working for us anyway, why should we keep paying them?)
Correction - You find living there is an advantage to understanding what is going on in a large urban setting. Your residence in Central NYC grants you zero points for knowing what's going on in the US outside of NYC. You and other city NYC dwellers are just like the arrogant religious leaders of the past. You believe that you are the center of the universe and because everything and everyone revolves around you and your experiences that makes you the expert to decide what's best for all. What unbelievable arrogance. I bet your also a pusher of going GREEN and making those who dare drive pay dearly for the ability to do so. Because you don’t need a car and you're city is the center of the known universe that means no one else anywhere on the planet needs a car either and so its should be a luxury item.
BTW - I see you're a right-wing basher / left wing over. That means you're just as suckered as the right-wing foot soldier you make fun of. The only diff between you and he is you’re a slave patron of the left side of the fake Left-Right paradigm in American politics.
OccupyWallStreet folks and you around the country, it's Washington too who is pulling the strings and controls Wall street.
Witnessing from afar, I see the frustration in people as the scale continues to be weighted against the ordinary citizen, and reducing the load for the richest of the rich. Repeal Citizens United. Start there as that has allowed the richest of the rich to pump as much money as they want to buy off the politicians.
government. Expecting government to solve the problems it created is lunacy.
"Nearly half, 48.5%, of the population lived in a household that received some type of government benefit in the first quarter of 2010, according to Census data."
bureaucrats control ownership and distribution of resources. Or easier, just study
the history of Cuba and Russia to decide which is best.
We may agree on auditing the Fed but that is where we part ways. They do not honor or uphold the Constitution, they do not believe in individual liberty, they are collectivist anti-capitalists. Dr. Paul supports peaceful civil disobedience, they have promised to use violence to achieve their demands.
See http://www.dailypaul.com/181356/occupy-dc-adam-kokesh-video-should-make-rp-supporter-wary-of-the-occupy-protests
Their goals/demands are: from their website http://occupywallst.org/about/
Republicans and Blue Republicans vote for Ron Paul 2012...our only hope to restore this nation. OWS wants to destroy this nation.
The conservatives, the economic Royalists can no longer lay claim to that moral high ground. Their authoritarian, ruthless, greedy policies are now nakedly visible.
They don't even try to hide it anymore. All those with open eyes and minds can see it.
Though the moderators seem to not like me posting on this thread so who knows if this will even show up.
http://www.flixya.com/blog/3201910/Beautiful-Butterflys
Want more Americans working--protect American industries and punish the outsourcers with tax penalties.
We have the most affluent society in the history of the world. The idea that we don't give people in this country an opportunity to help themselves is absurd. The belief that taking more money and giving it to the government will do that is even more so. The government isn't a benevolent entity. Spending by the government has increased by over $1 trillion per year in 4 years. What have we gotten for that? Smoother roads? Billions in fraudulent loans to companies owned by Democrat party donors? That is who the Democrat party helps, not this group of kids who have been tricked into believing emptypoliticalrhetoric.
No. The average "poor" person in America does not have a higher standard of living than the average person in Europe. (And where I am, all citizens have health care coverage.)