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Occupied America
Townhall.com ^ | October 9, 2011 | Paul Jacob

Posted on 10/10/2011 4:49:54 AM PDT by Kaslin

"Rush Limbaugh’s Occupy Wall St. Rant Proves The Protesters Are Winning,” claims Politicususa.com, a blog boasting “Real Liberal Politics — No Corporate Money. No Masters.”

On Friday, Limbaugh had called the Occupy Wall Street protests “laughable.” Moreover, and exactly mirroring accusations on the left regarding the Tea Party and the GOP, he charged that the protests were “not spontaneous,” a mere front for Democrats and the Obama re-election campaign. Specifically, he pointed to support from the country’s biggest and most politically powerful unions.

Regardless of any attempted (or even successful) manipulation by the usual political powers that be, the seething anger and fear — on both right and left (and in-between) — is most assuredly spontaneous and genuine. The protests have now spread beyond Wall Street, across the country. The anger is everywhere. It is boiling against the politicians, who have mismanaged everything they’ve touched (and that’s quite a lot) and also against those in the Wall Street-corporate-government complex who have been bailed out at great expense to the average American, who even now pays more in taxes than did most medieval serfs.

We know, sorta, what the protesters are protesting. Unfortunately, we have to read between some of the lines, since “Wall Street,” and “capitalism” prove tricky to understand, as vague as those words have become — by processes George Orwell warned us about in “Politics and the English Language.”

We cannot know in any official sense what these protests are designed to achieve. When a list of specific demands was posted at the OccupyWallSt.org forum — universal single-payer healthcare, raising the minimum wage to $20 an hour, “fast track process to bring the fossil fuel economy to an end,” free college education for all, “re-imposing trade tariffs on all imported goods,” a trillion dollars spending on infrastructure, another trillion for ecological restoration, and so on — the site was quick to declare, “This is not an official list of demands. . . . There is NO official list of demands.”

The Freeman’s Sheldon Richman is right: “Their agenda is vague, but they at least have the good sense to know that something is awry with the political-economic system we labor under.”

Despite tenets to their protest to which I cannot subscribe — and despite the loathsome term “occupy” — I’m glad these people are protesting. I like protests. They are active, rather than passive. As Frederick Douglas once said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand.” Time permitting, I plan to attend and to talk with my fellow countrymen (and woman) about our governance. Sure, some Saul Alinsky-wannabes will be there, as will some people whose policy prescriptions are poles apart from my own.

But I’m not afraid of honest disagreement. We must not permit the partisans to unnecessarily divide us. I’m convinced many if not most of those participating are allies in the fight to restore a republic with basic liberties, constitutionally protected, as well as democratic checks on government power.

They are friends and not enemies.

Friends, perhaps in part, as the enemy of your enemy can be your friend. But also friends to the degree that they can be persuaded to recognize that the problem is systemic, and not solvable by either Republicans or Democrats gaining a more powerful majority grip on power. Indeed, that has been proven time and again.

Honest, thoughtful citizens on the left as well as the right have an abundance of reasons to be disgusted by the Obama Administration, and by Democrats in Congress, just as they were by the former Bush Administration, and Republicans in Congress. The time has come for us to work together, everywhere we can find common ground, to restore a legitimate political process — one that allows the people to decide, and makes government listen.

To the gnashing of special interests’ teeth.

In a recent interview for The American Conservative, Ralph Nader spoke in exceedingly positive terms about Republican Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul. “Libertarians like Ron Paul are on our side on civil liberties,” the legendary consumer advocate argued. “They’re on our side against the military-industrial complex. They’re on our side against Wall Street. They’re on our side for investor rights. That’s a foundational convergence. It’s not just itty-bitty stuff.”

Nader is on to something.

It might be amusing to sit like has-been celebrities on American Idol and judge the Occupy Wall Street (and various other cities’) protests — just as Tea Party efforts were snarkingly sneered at. But these days the stakes are simply too high and the prospects too frightening for such petty amusements. We need all the allies we can muster to help us restore a government of the people.

No, I don’t want to “occupy” Wall Street. Or any other American city.

But I do want to work with every willing American to end the occupation of our constitutional, democratic republic by a political class filled with mucky-mucks from Wall Street, and other boulevards, who wallow in bailouts and special privileges bestowed upon them by the power-obsessed politicians on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.


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1 posted on 10/10/2011 4:49:58 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
"I do want to work with every willing American"

and, there is your problem. You can't work with a lefty. They are irrational sheep to the slaughter.

2 posted on 10/10/2011 5:01:14 AM PDT by FreeAtlanta (Fight for Liberty)
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To: Kaslin
“We cannot know in any official sense what these protests are designed to achieve.”

Not so.

They are designed to discredit ‘establishment America’.

I don't think it is any more complex than THAT. They feel they don't need to be specific. AND the abject and pervasive failure of “O’s” policies assures that these protesters do not need to be accurate or on target with their grievances.

Add to that, that the MSM has successfully shunted blame for these failures onto the WRONG people and organizations and BINGO!!!....the 'demonstrations' practically organize themselves!!! I think it is all going according to "O's" typical and now, well known pattern of duping constituents and shameless grandstanding ....only THIS time it is the entire country which will suffer, NOT just Chicago

3 posted on 10/10/2011 5:04:26 AM PDT by SMARTY ("Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny. " Edmund Burke)
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To: Kaslin

It would be good, if we can figure out how to manipulate those flea bags into helping us defeat more of the old establishment (communist, socialist, and RHINOs).

How do we do that? Maybe, we just keep giving them publicity. The picture of the dirty occupier crapping on the police car has been repulsively fried into my mind.

I don’t want anything to do with the trash in these protests, and I would love for them to be deported to N. Korea or Venezuela.


4 posted on 10/10/2011 5:04:54 AM PDT by FreeAtlanta (Fight for Liberty)
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To: FreeAtlanta

A conservative wants a fair shake.

A liberal wants a free shake and free shakes for all his friends and the shakes better be the flavors they want. And then they want free fries too.


5 posted on 10/10/2011 5:05:05 AM PDT by cripplecreek (ALCS/NLCS playoff thread http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2789907/posts)
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To: FreeAtlanta

I personally think they could do some real good if they started a protest by black market. They might actually learn to love capitalism and that’s something I’d be happy to help them with.

Unfortunately they’re anarcho/facsist scum and only want to destroy.


6 posted on 10/10/2011 5:08:22 AM PDT by cripplecreek (ALCS/NLCS playoff thread http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2789907/posts)
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To: FreeAtlanta

Many of those on the left who are protesting against having their lives dictated to by ‘large corporations’, and who are complaining about the loss of their civil liberties and self-determinism are perfectly happy with the government doing the exact same things to others in society. The small business owner gets hurt, so be it. Physicians and others in health care get hurt, so be it. The families dependent upon oil drilling in the gulf get hurt, so be it.

As long as they get what they want...


7 posted on 10/10/2011 5:14:57 AM PDT by pieceofthepuzzle
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To: Kaslin
They are friends and not enemies.

And many of them are paid.

8 posted on 10/10/2011 5:24:39 AM PDT by Mike Darancette (Psalm 109:8)
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To: Kaslin

Looks like the old folks rebelled last year in the form of the Tea Party and now the young folks are rebelling in the from of this OWS movement, but they are both rebelling against the establishment. It also becomes tangentially obvious that the elders have money and want to keep it, and the youngsters have no money and want to take it. Either way, petitioning government to achieve these ends is dangerous... “A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have.”


9 posted on 10/10/2011 5:25:44 AM PDT by ez ("Abashed the Devil stood and felt how awful goodness is." - Milton, "Paradise Lost")
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To: cripplecreek

“Unfortunately they’re anarcho/facsist scum and only want to destroy.”

Bingo. Only the media seems to not know who these people are. We have seen them at every G8 and other international trade meeting. They are a loose association of anarchists, communists and potheads looking to take down the system if only just for grins. Yet the media pretends to be blissfully unaware and treats them like heros. Just like in Egypt, were anyone with a brain knew who the result wasn’t going to be democracy. It was going to be the same islamofascism, only much more hostile to the US and Israel. Revolutions are good shows and thats all the media cares about, right up to time they are put up against the wall and shot by those they supported.


10 posted on 10/10/2011 5:28:20 AM PDT by Hacklehead (Had enough?)
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To: Kaslin

Am I supposed to work with people who desire to mug me?
I worked hard all my life, usually two jobs. I have no bills and planned for my retirement with programs invested in stocks. Now they want my savings and I am being asked to work with them? Never.


11 posted on 10/10/2011 5:34:38 AM PDT by Seabeejas
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To: Hacklehead

They also appear to be quite insane. Its like they’re morphing into the Manson family on a grand scale. Every time I tune into their live stream page they’ve been doing that bizarre echo chant like some kind of mass hypnosis.

Its a recording right now but that’s what they were doing last night when I tuned in.

http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution


12 posted on 10/10/2011 5:36:43 AM PDT by cripplecreek (ALCS/NLCS playoff thread http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2789907/posts)
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To: Kaslin
The author is fundamentally wrong in his premise that the anger in America on the Left and on the Right stems from a common desire to restrain government power, and restore human freedom.

Conservatives wish to reduce the size, power and scope of the Federal government by returning America to constitutional governance, the central object of which is to restore individual liberty and personal responsibility.

Progressives generally, and the Wall Street protesters specifically, have a far different agenda. Their plan is to centralize all political and economic power in the service of collective transnational goals, the greatest of which is the forcible redistribution of wealth. Street protestors, as they have in the past will serve as the "vanguard of the revolution" by fomenting chaos and violence in order to precipitate state action, and in the process hope to achieve their deepest personal desire: the successful evasion of responsibility.

13 posted on 10/10/2011 5:51:19 AM PDT by andy58-in-nh (America does not need to be organized: it needs to be liberated.)
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To: Kaslin
I’m convinced many if not most of those participating are allies in the fight to restore a republic with basic liberties, constitutionally protected, as well as democratic checks on government power.

Then you, sir, are a fool or think that we are.

They're parasites, perpetual children and so unlike us that they might as well be from another planet.

14 posted on 10/10/2011 6:05:34 AM PDT by Madame Dufarge
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To: Kaslin
I’m convinced many if not most of those participating are allies in the fight to restore a republic with basic liberties, constitutionally protected, as well as democratic checks on government power.

No, they aren't. They want to float through life with no responsibilities, and to have every need, whim, or desire taken care of by other people. They don't care who is enslaved to ensure their personal irresponsible lifestyles. As far as they're concerned, those of us who work are the problem, not the solution.

15 posted on 10/10/2011 6:06:17 AM PDT by exDemMom (Now that I've finally accepted that I'm living a bad hair life, I'm more at peace with the world.)
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To: FreeAtlanta

I was just listening to a local radio interview with one of these kids. Everything he stated that was ‘wrong’ has been instituted under 0bama.

I just shook my head in amazement at the level of literal ignorance. Ignorance at even recent politics that laid the burdens on their very backs.

And there they stand in the public square like Oliver Twist asking for ‘more please.’


16 posted on 10/10/2011 6:11:20 AM PDT by EBH (God Humbles Nations, Leaders, and Peoples before He uses them for His Purpose)
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To: cripplecreek

A conservative also wants to fix the economic system and end cronyism. Run the Free Market as it should run without government in the way.

A liberal or progressive wants to end capitalism and/ or continue the crony capitalism and statism.

A libertarian thinks they can get away with the best of both worlds. Attack corporations as globalists, but claim they are for the free market. Thus the libertarian is unwittingly helping the left.

By libertarian I mean a Ron Paul type as opposed to a John Stossel or Wayne Allyn Root type.

A Stossel type was dissatisfied with the left and became a fiscal libertarian. A Wayne Allyn Root type was republican and dissatisfied enough with the party to become libertarian.


17 posted on 10/10/2011 6:31:03 AM PDT by Mozilla
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To: andy58-in-nh

“Their plan is to centralize all political and economic power in the service of collective transnational goals, the greatest of which is the forcible redistribution of wealth. Street protestors, as they have in the past will serve as the “vanguard of the revolution” by fomenting chaos and violence in order to precipitate state action...”

Just because tens of millions of people have been killed every other time this has happened is no reason not to try it again.


18 posted on 10/10/2011 6:33:38 AM PDT by Hacklehead (Had enough?)
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To: Hacklehead
That's the problem with Utopian socialism - it can never be proven to fail. This time it will work, you see, because it's being directed by a bunch of really, really smart people with PhD's from Harvard. And if it doesn't work, well: then it will be because it was sabotaged by capitalists, Zionists, racists, sexists, homophobes, and other class enemies of the people, etc.
19 posted on 10/10/2011 6:57:17 AM PDT by andy58-in-nh (America does not need to be organized: it needs to be liberated.)
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To: Kaslin

Video Exposing How ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Was Organized From Day One by SEIU/ACORN Front – The Working Family Party, and How They All Tie to the Obama Administration, DNC, Democratic Socialists of America, Tides and George SoreA$$:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/video-exposing-occupy-wall-street-was-organized-from-day-one...


20 posted on 10/10/2011 7:21:36 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS DESTROYING AMERICA-LOOK AT WHAT IT DID TO THE WHITE HOUSE!)
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