So now we have Occupy Wall Street. Thousands of people are taking to the streets in hundreds of cities to express their anger. Everybody knows what the problem is. Our political system is broken. The electoral and legislative processes have been purchased by corporate America, especially the Wall Street banks. Press reports, however, consist of putdowns, confrontations and sensationalism. The real story of who these people are, where their anger comes from and what they want is being suppressed.
For just a moment, President Obama got it back in 2008-09 but then he lost it. Almost 80% of the people in this country still want that "Change You Can Believe in." It is now the turn of the liberals, progressives or whatever you want to call the Left, to give up on the political process as a captive of Wall Street. They are following the example of their fellow Americans in the Tea Party Movement.
Both Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party are Americans rising up in frustration. Though similarities to the Tea Party Movement might be embarrassing to both sides, they share a lot. In the end, in both cases, we can say proudly, it is Americans exercising their constitutional right to petition their government.
Americans are slow but certain to do this when the government and the corporate press ignores them and their problems. The President, Congress and the courts are all taking their marching orders from corporate and Wall Street money. The government is ignoring the millions in bankruptcy, the tens of millions unemployed and the growing hopelessness of the people. At the same time the government is rescuing the too-big-to-fail Wall Street banks that caused the problem. It is that simple, that horrendous and that obvious. No wonder the Tea Party wants to get rid of the government!
Occupy Wall Street with its anti-corporate attitude, did not come out of nowhere, it did not begin just three weeks ago nor is it likely to go away shortly.
The idea to "occupy Wall Street" was proposed in mid-2011 by Adbuster, an anti-corporate Canadian protest magazine. It called for protesters to "flood lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street," which is pretty much what happened.
Citizen activism was occurring but it had been ignored. A group called US Uncut, a decentralized direction action group, has for months been targeting corporate America and particularly Bank of America with demonstrations, sit-ins and pranks. Uncut and other groups formed a loose coalition that eventually included UnitedNY, The Strong Economy for All Coalition, the Working Families Party and New York Communities for Change. The coalition has taken action in over 100 cities against firms like Verizon, BP, FedEx and Target. They were there; they just got no press.
The group has specific complaints centered around the injustice and unfairness of a politics controlled by corporate and Wall Street money. They don't propose any technical or simplistic solutions. In fact, Occupy Wall Street is criticized for being too vague. But the movement itself is quite explicit that there be no official demands. Such a list of demands would be a mistake for it would be an attempt to work within the system when, to borrow language, "It's the system, stupid!"
Where it all goes from here is completely unknown. The Republican Party is having trouble digesting the Tea Party's strong right-wing dogma. Those demands are certainly destabilizing the Republican presidential primary season. At present, the Democrats are warily endorsing the Occupy Wall Street actions but the Democratic Party, as bought and paid for as the Republicans, will eventually have to face their own. activists.
How the people will get government back from corporate power is yet to be determined. However, market-based solutions are all the rage and that might work. When Sen. Durbin (D – IL) denounced the Bank of America and its five dollar per month fee on debit cards, he told people to "vote with your feet" and take your business elsewhere. Many are doing that. Similarly, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs are paying junk bond prices to insure against default on billions of dollars of debt. That is bottom-line language they understand.
The Tea Party Movement and the Occupy Wall Street movement should show a little mutual respect for all those Americans who agree that our political system is broken but disagree on the solution. I happen to think that Occupy Wall Street is going after the real villains and their frontal assault on Wall Street is more likely to get us our country back.
If you bank with any of those big New York banks, find a nice local bank or credit union. If millions did this, we would be halfway home.
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