Sure, Americans are sympathetic to the idea that the nexus of Wall Street and Washington are partly to blame for the nation’s rising misery index as claimed by the Occupy Wall Street protests.
But the Tea Party claimed as much first, and in my opinion, much more effectively than OWS.
In part, this is because the Tea Party has always aimed at party-like activities, like victory in elections or on legislative issues, while the Occupy movement is interested in the extra-legal occupation of other people’s property and persons.
Both visions reflect in my opinion, the competing visions of where each movement stands in regards to the Constitution and how it operates in the US.
Accordingly, the trend for the Tea Party is continued victory at the polls, but for the Occupy movement the party is now officially over, if indeed it ever aimed to be a party in the first place.
For the Democrats, who have given encouragement to the Occupy movement, the stakes are grave.
The progressive party of the left, which already seems out of touch with the regular, everyday aspirations of the American people- who, after all, just want the opportunity to succeed- has moved even farther to the left in the wake of the Occupy movement.
And Americans aren’t suckers.
They love free speech, but they have little respect or patience for lawlessness. They have patience for dissent, but not for dissent that aims at taking by force what can not be legitimately gained at the polls.
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The Occupy movement isn’t fury so much as a fit by the left for what the American people refuse to grant the protestors- electoral victory.
Getting past the anarchy element of OWS, the movement is in fact an attempt to hold the progressives’ breath until America starts electing the kind of candidates that have been roundly defeated since Obama’s election.
And two events over the weekend have gone a long way towards killing the tentative goodwill Americans had for the growing number of shanty towns that have come to symbolize the unwashed Occupy.
In Oakland, the Occupy movement lit fires in the street and police had to deploy tear gas and flash-bang grenades to disperse crowds after protestors closed down one of the nation’s busiest ports for five hours.
“The clash and subsequent standoff came only hours after Occupy Wall Street protesters declared victory after thousands of demonstrators shut down one of the nation's busiest shipping ports late Wednesday,” reported the Houston Chronicle, “escalating a movement whose tactics had largely been limited to marches, rallies and tent encampments since it began in September.”
Yeah- “largely since,”- both qualifiers that no longer apply- if they ever did in the first place to a movement that has tolerated the crimes of rape and theft in their midst if not the criminals.
In DC, according to police accounts, Occupy protestors jumped in front of cars in the street and managed to injure elderly attendees going to a dinner put on by Americans for Prosperity to honor Ronald Reagan.
“Protesters chanted, beat drums and massed near Seventh and K streets NW,” reported the Washington Post, “attempting to shut down the intersection and block moving cars, police said. They said that around 10 p.m., one driver tried to navigate a gap in the crowd, but three pedestrians moved in front of the vehicle and were hit. ‘They jumped in front of the car,’ said Officer Araz Alali, a spokesman for the department.”
At this rate, it won’t be long before someone is killed in an attempt to convince us all that only greedy Republicans are responsible for the thefts on Wall Street.
The Occupy protest in DC, for example was targeted at the Koch brothers’ support for Americans for Prosperity, a political group that’s been pretty darn effective in training and providing logistical support for conservative activists, including those in the Tea Party.
What the Occupy Wall Street group needs is a similar framework to the one that has been provided by Americans for Prosperity for conservatives; a framework that can provide the movement with the management expertise to help Occupy manage its logistical details, its money and its message.
I hear Jon Corzine is available.
And I can’t think of a better guy to represent OWS.
PS- If you friend me on Facebook you get sneak peeks of columns!
PS Part 2- The email function at the top of the page working again. Sorry it took so long. Let the Hate Mail begin!
John Ransom | Create Your Badge
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