Posted on 12/09/2011 8:15:47 PM PST by neverdem
It’s hard to say exactly when the Occupy Wall Street movement fizzled, but so far it has failed to become the politically potent force that the tea party was during the 2010 election cycle.
But even if the Occupy movement has not yet broadened its appeal or redefined our politics, it could still be a factor in 2012. The question, of course, is what kind of factor?
Occupy Wall Street has not established itself as a working-class or middle-class political movement of average Americans frustrated by government’s failures. Still largely decentralized, without financial muscle and not yet focused on campaigns or eolections, it isn’t even a pale reflection of the tea party last cycle.
“The tea party in 2010 was a political movement; it was Republicanism on steroids. Occupy Wall Street, on the other hand, isn’t a political movement. It’s a symptom of all the angst that middle-class Americans feel,” one Democratic strategist argued recently.
And yet, polls show that Americans have very similar — indeed, almost identical — reactions to both movements.
An Oct. 31 through Nov. 3 Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 43 percent of Americans support the tea party movement while 44 percent oppose it. At the same time, 44 percent said they support Occupy Wall Street and 41 percent oppose it.
At this point, it seems unlikely that the Occupy movement will ever have the clout that tea party groups achieved. Unlike the tea party, which succeeded in presenting itself as a movement of angry taxpayers, senior citizens and middle-class Americans, the Occupy movement has not evolved beyond its leftist roots.
Just take a look at the symbols and rhetoric of the movement. Words and phrases such as “oppression,” “the crimes of Wall Street,” “social injustice,” “solidarity forever,” “corporate manipulation of the agriculture system” and the “fight to reclaim democracy from the banks” are used the way they were by protesters in the 1960s. Hunger strikes and protest marches are back, and the clenched fist is the image of the movement, again echoing the 1960s.
Of course, it isn’t surprising that a movement relying primarily on college students and professors, anti-globalization activists, anarchists, professional protesters and a very small slice of organized labor hasn’t become a potent electoral force.
While Republicans can breathe a sigh of relief that the Occupy movement has not succeeded in appealing to working-class and middle-class swing voters, savvy GOP strategists understand that those same politically important voters are worried about some of the concerns raised by the Occupy movement — the economy, the lack of jobs, the seeming excesses of Wall Street and their own feelings of powerlessness.
Economic populism is still an effective weapon for the White House and Congressional Democrats, and Republicans may well play into Democrats’ hands if the GOP handles issues such as the extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance ineptly, as it has done so far.
Republicans who simply dismiss the concerns of working-class voters and reject lower payroll taxes unless they are offset with spending cuts don’t have a clue how voters view Congress or how they feel.
Perhaps surprisingly, the OWS movement is a potentially bigger problem for Democrats, many of whom can’t quite figure out how to deal with a movement that reflects some of their concerns about economic inequality, environmentalism and the evils of big business but too often appears radical, confrontational and unkempt.
Democrats now face the same problem on their left that the GOP has been facing for the past couple of years with those on its right.
Where Republican Reps. Steve King (Iowa) and Joe Walsh (Ill.) seemed to echo tea party sentiments and rhetoric no matter how impolitic, impolite or mindless, now it is those on the left, such as Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) and Democratic Reps. Keith Ellison (Minn.), Barbara Lee (Calif.) and Dennis Kucinich (Ohio), who have been outspoken in their sympathy, or even support, for the Occupy movement, no matter how confrontational, crude and rude the behavior of protesters.
While the Occupy movement is likely to show up at the Democratic and Republican conventions in Charlotte and Tampa respectively, activists will potentially be more disruptive in Charlotte.
Republicans can easily dismiss the Occupy crowd as a bunch of radicals, and the more confrontational the protesters look, the better the Republican view will appear.
Democrats will be in an inherently more awkward position, because the party and the Occupy activists will be blaming corporations, the banks, Wall Street and the wealthy for taking advantage of the “little guy” and for refusing to pay their fair share.
The Democratic National Convention, of course, will be held in the Time Warner Cable Arena. The city’s football stadium, where President Barack Obama could give his acceptance speech, is Bank of America Stadium.
Charlotte is Bank of America’s corporate headquarters, along with Duke Energy and Goodrich, the former rubber and tire company that now calls itself “a global leader in the aerospace, defense and homeland security markets” on its website.
You get the picture. There will be plenty of opportunities and venues for OWS activists to make statements about the country — statements which could well make some Democrats very uncomfortable.
The Charlotte convention managers, the party’s Congressional leadership and, most importantly, the White House will have to figure out how to deal with Occupy Wall Street in a way that echoes some of the message without elevating the group and forcing the Democratic Party to either totally reject or embrace the OWS movement, and all that that includes.
It will be a delicate balancing act.
Subprime loans, at the heart of the housing bubble, were foisted upon us by Andrew Cuomo and the bent one, and they are a big reason for the Great Recession.
Too big to fail banks compensated by securitizing those loans into complex derivatives that were supposed to diversify risk, but they couldn't be easily assessed for value.
The rats were the biggest recipients from Wall Street banks. Why do you think we still have banks that are too big to fail?
but so far it has failed to become the politically potent force that the tea party was
Maybe they should try again only using responsible, hard working people this time around.
“Occupy Wall Street has not established itself as a working-class or middle-class political movement of average Americans frustrated by government’s failures.”
It never will. The movement doesn’t see government as the problem. It’s big corporations that are the whole problem.
For those whose jobs suffered from the economy, how about What Did You Do With Our Occupations?
While Republicans can breathe a sigh of relief that the Occupy movement has not succeeded in appealing to working-class and middle-class swing voters
Uh what? I think I speak for many when the only thing that came to my mind was incredulity that law enforcement allowed these guys to break the law for so long. I don't think those protestors could organize a phone call....at least not without that annoying echo of the human mic. Bwahaha.
I just heard today that Obama’s Occupy thugs in cooperation with the longshoreman’s union are going to shut down the ports on the Left Coast on Monday. Don’t know how strong the rumor is but that is what I am hearing.
Great movie. The only thing missing is Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.
I have it in my Netflix cue for the reason that Rush talked about, but I keep pushing it back because Kevin Spacey is in it. He turns me off for his Left wing BS anymore. The concept of the film thought is interesting to me.
I know what you mean about politics. My family can’t generally get me to movies, because there is some bozo like Danny Glover, or Baldwin, etc. Margin Call did not have any politics, far as I could tell. That’s what made it so good. Hollywood could learn a thing or twenty from it. Doubt they will.
Thanks for the tip. I just moved the movie back up on your recommendation. I will be interested to see what that is about.
Many of those subprime loans were bundled and sold to third parties with no requirement that the originating financial institution had to keep at least some skin in the game. Thus you had companies, I think Goldman Sachs was one, promoting the sale of these instruments, while at the same time “voting” against them through short selling.
A major problem for the Occupy people is that they try to be “superdemocratic” by not having an established controlling leadership, but try to work by concensus.
I don’t know what the current situation is with regard to the West Coast longshoreman’s union, but years ago if I remember correctly the Communist Gus Hall had considerable power. The Occupy movement better watch it’s step that it doesn’t get completely co-opted.
My father was on the New York Port Council in the late 1940s and fighting to keep the Communists from taking power in his Insurance Workers Union. For years I hardly ever saw him and we lived pretty poor because instead of selling insurance, he was putting so much time and energy into his political/union activities to block the Communists.
I hope Charlotte is a repeat of 1968! The liberals and leftists in Charlotte deserve to experience the fever in Parasite Nation they have built and fostered.
I shall enjpy watching Charlotte be trashed and burned while the media spins it as unhappy people unable to have their voice heard.
The politboro elite inside their enclave shall wonder and fret “why are these people doing this, we are trying to make their lives better under socialism?”
Burn Baby Burn!!!!
Thats the Common wisdom,but I believe OWS is Obama and his People,They will Not cause him Trouble,the Real whackos,true believers, the Hangers on will be controlled by the Union thugs, SEIU,Nation of Islam and that bunch.
The real Mess will be at the Republican Convention,you Know the Party of the RICH,Dont forget the Template,the whole focus of the Strategy.
All of those cockroaches will be back on the streets come the spring weather....and by summer they will be rioting as a run-up to the Nov elections.
OWS was nothing more than a whine-in, a collective wallow in victimhood.
For liberals, victimhood is like a drug. The gatherings had their own psychological fulfillment for participants, and the media glow sustained the rush.
It had no political purpose, it didn’t need one.
I’ve long suspected that the OWS rabble is Obama’s “civilian army”, and that when the time is right (when it looks clear that Obama will lose re-election) they will be turned loose across the country, to disrupt polling places, and create the scenario Democrats will use to manufacture votes and steal the election.
And those folks will be inside the Charlotte convention hall. They are the delegates.
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