“Should Democrats Distance Themselves from Occupy Wall Street?”
That’s the title of this article. My answer is NO. And not just “No” but Fuck No! Democrats who try to “distance” themselves from Occupy Wall Street and the 99 Percent Movement are the exact same politicians whose constituents will stay home on Election Day.
Hasn’t this simple fact already been made crystal clear over and over during the past two and a half years?
Every time Obama has compromised and folded and yielded to the Republicans, he’s alienated a few more of the people who voted for him in 2008. Number of new rightwing converts Obama has gained every time he bent/folded/yielded: Zero. Nada. Zip point shit.
Same goes for all of the “moderate” “Blue Dog” Democrats in Congress. The Right doesn’t hate them any less for being moderate and not wanting any trouble. The only thing these DINOs are accomplishing is alienating the people who voted for them.
Like it or not, the 99 Percent Movement — which includes the “Occupy” movements that are spreading to more cities every day — has become a Litmus Test. Take a side. Take a stand. Speak out. Or get voted out.
The Republicans understand this. They’ve been told by their corporate pimps to get out there NOW and start their smearing and name-calling. And their useful idiots have complied. Eric Cantor (R—Prostitute) has expressed his “concern” about those unruly “mobs.” Peter “Kill All The Mud Races” King is whining that if the media keeps covering and “glorifying” the protesters, it’ll be like the 1960s all over again, and “we can’t allow that to happen.”
Democrats who squirm and try to sneak out of the spotlight will only be sabotaging their own careers. Three years of unarticulated public rage and frustration have finally crystallized. As the 99 Percent Movement spreads and gets more coverage, more and more Americans will be lining up on one side or the other: Wall Street powerbrokers — and this includes the “legislators” and “regulators” who keep going down on them — versus the other 99 percent of the population.
As someone in the linked article said, “Democrats can either lead or get left behind.”
Or as Steppenwolfe sang a few decades ago: “If you want to retire, get out of the way.”
Labels: 99 Percent Movement, Eric Cantor protesters, Occupy movements, Occupy Wall Street, Peter King protesters
posted by Tom Harper @ 1:09 PM
18 Comments:
This movement seems to be truly grass roots, there are no Koch brothers or George Soros funneling money into them and they ask what the Democrats have been saying they wanted to do for years but were hampered by the Republican administrations - this seems a no brainier.
Yes they get into a few scuffles buy mark it as "passion of the frustrated" after all the Tea Party can spit on Congressmen, carry Confederate Flags at rallies and still get Republican support ...well?
Get them while their hot and still willing to get some support!
Erik
I agree Democrats should, out of conviction, not only support the various Occupy protests, as long as they remain peaceful, but start showing up at them to show their support. That includes Obama.
The linked article strikes me as a pretext to trot out a bunch of broadly stated, highly negative things that smear all Democrats with the failings of a few. That doesn't surprise me, coming from Yahoo! News. More and more, I see evidence it's becoming a component of the right-wing noise machine.
I know Yahoo! has had some financial problems. Wouldn't surprise me if the Kochs or someone on the radical right with deep pockets has stepped in to help out — provided Yahoo! presents the right kind of news.
Or, it could just be a reflection that Silicon Valley and many in high-tech elsewhere tend to be pro-Republican.
Excuse me it's JOHN KAY and Steppenwolf.
OWS can be a powerful shot of adrenaline for all Democrats, including the president. The Right's instant characterization of the protesters as a mob or just a bunch of potheads sitting around is a really shortsighted reaction and they are pay badly for it next November.
Oops, meant to say "will pay".
Already I'm seeing reports OWS is being pushed by labor.
And as I always say:
Only a Conservative would consider a hundred or so millionaires and CEO's the voice of the people while calling millions of laborers a special interest group.
Erik
Plus I'm getting in my Democratic mailers outrage over the BofA Card fee and If I'm outraged send money blah, blah, blah!
C'mon guys hook up
Erik
Erik: It sounds like a no-brainer to me too. The protesters are echoing the Democrats' constant soundbites, so we'll see how many of the Democrats actually mean what they say.
SW: I think the Democrats, including Obama, should do this out of conviction and pragmatism. If they don't, it'll be the umpteenth time they've decided to hide under their desks and stay out of trouble; and like all the previous times, they'll accomplish nothing except alienating their supporters.
Randal: I didn't know you were old enough to remember those dinosaurs.
J: I agree, OWS and the Democrats could help each other. And the Right definitely needs to pay in November 2012.
Erik: Yup, that's rightwing "reasoning." A few CEOs and lobbyists = "The American People," and millions of union members are a special interest group.
We took our money out of Bank of America several years ago; mostly because they closed the branch we were using so we switched to a locally-owned bank. But if everybody switched from a large bank to a credit union or locally-owned bank, it would have a lot more impact than all the banking regulations in the world.
All OWS needs is a few voices to more clearly articulate their positions, and then for some more media coverage, and it will take off. The Republicans like to write this kind of stuff off before it even gets started, but they are fools.
Democrats do need to embrace this, they need to become involved with it, and they need to push their elected representatives to lend it support. This could truly be the left's answer to the "tea party", and to let such an opportunity slip by would be utter folly.
Snave: The OWS protesters definitely need to clarify their message further. They should adopt some of the Right's tactics: the soundbites and slogans that are spewed out every day by talk radio and Fox News. Maybe they shouldn't go to quite that extreme, but unfortunately that tactic works.
In this article, Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton -- among others -- are giving advice to OWS on how to reach more people more effectively.
Actually there is Soros money going to this.
The Tea Party spitting is a made up lie. While a lot of 99rs are being arrested.
Labor unions, communists, “community organizers,” socialists, and anti-capitalist agitators have all joined together to “Occupy Wall Street” and protest against “greed,” corporations, and bankers. But despite efforts to portray the movement as “leaderless” or “grassroots,” it is becoming obvious that there is much more going on behind the scenes than meets the eye.
Billionaire financier George Soros’ fingerprints, for example, have been all over the anti-Wall Street campaign from the very beginning. And this week, the infamous hedge-fund boss publicly announced his sympathy for the protesters and their complaints about bailouts — despite the fact that he lobbied for even greater unconstitutional handouts to bankers in 2009.
“Actually I can understand their sentiment, frankly,” he told reporters while announcing a large donation to the United Nations. “I can sympathize with their grievances.”
But Soros’ support for the protesters goes far beyond his tepid public statements. In fact, the original call to “Occupy Wall Street” came from the magazine AdBusters, an “anti-consumerist” publication financed by, among other sources, the Soros-funded Tides Foundation.
Other Soros-backed outfits promoting big government — some with myriad ties to the Obama administration — are also publicly driving the occupation campaign. MoveOn.org, for instance, has received millions of dollars from the billionaire banker. And now, the group is urging its supporters to join the Occupy Wall Street movement as well.
“Over the last two weeks, an amazing wave of protest against Wall Street and the big banks has erupted across the country,” MoveOn said in a recent e-mail to supporters, praising the “brave” demonstrators. “On Wednesday, MoveOn members will join labor and community groups in New York City for a huge march down to the protest site — the biggest yet.”
On top of supplying activists to join the demonstrations, MoveOn is also staging what it calls a “massive ‘Virtual March on Wall Street’ online.” The Internet-based demonstrations are a collaborative effort with another radical and well-connected outfit tied to Soros called Rebuild the Dream.
Led by self-described communist and former Obama administration czar Van Jones, the “Dream” movement is a partnership between a host of Soros-financed “progressive” groups. Big Labor and even Planned Parenthood — the largest abortion provider in America, which receives hundreds of millions of tax dollars each year — are partners, too.
I can sympathize with the movement a bit too but I think the answer is not a socialist/communist movement but instead pro-competition laws against "too big to fail" corporations is what is needed.
OK, you've got my number. I confess: I get a huge stipend every week from George Soros, just for writing a bunch of anti-American pro-Communist pro-terrorist propaganda on my blog every day. Same with every other liberal blogger and every Occupy Wall Street protester. Hey, it beats working for a living.
OK, being serious this time, in answer to your most recent comment:
I think the OWS protesters and at least some tea partiers agree that "too big to fail" corporations were the cause of the 2008 crash. What specific pro-competition laws do you have in mind? And more importantly, how would those laws ever get passed? All three branches of the government are wholly owned subsidiaries of corporate conglomerates, and they would never permit a law like that to get passed.
I think the people get what they scream for. The voices for less government control (public/private partnerships) and more choices are not that loud.
An example is education or healthcare. The government controls education completely. If I was to get the nearly $20,000 that CA spends on each kid each year, I could get 5-10 more kids and pay a teacher that I liked very well and have money left over for many extra curricular activities.
In healthcare, Medical Savings Accounts are the cheapest way to get the most coverage because it gives the power and $ to me and no one else.
If I was able to save the $400+/mo. benefit that I started receiving over 20 years ago to the nearly $1,000/mo. I get now I could easily have afforded catstrophic policies for the rest of my life.
I don't think the Soros comment said anything about Tom H...
Dear leftist romantic(adventurers?)friends! So many of you appeared in communist paradize in the past and dissappeared there.Poor chaps never understood the regime.After half a centure of socialist USSR serfdom I look at your ridiculose leftist games with the deep sorrow.
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