The OWS Protest: Clearly a small Left-wing Affair
The more I read about the OWS protest, the more evidence is daily accumulated that it amounts to nothing but the old left gathering together again and pretending to be leading something new and vibrant.
The most important article about the OWS that I have read appeared a few days ago in The Wall Street Journal and was written by former Clinton pollster Doug Schoen. He states his findings, based on a poll of over 200 protesters, as follows:
The Occupy Wall Street movement reflects values that are dangerously out of touch with the broad mass of the American people—and particularly with swing voters who are largely independent and have been trending away from the president since the debate over health-care reform.
In case readers don’t get his point he adds that “The protesters have a distinct ideology and are bound by a deep commitment to radical left-wing policies.” His polling firm made the first, and perhaps the only, systematic study of who is at the park and what they stand for. The movement, he states, does not represent unemployed America and is not ideologically diverse. Instead, it is am amalgam of many different factions of the far Left, all of whom are united by believing in a radical forced redistribution of wealth, and the use of violence, if proved necessary.
He writes:
What binds a large majority of the protesters together—regardless of age, socioeconomic status or education—is a deep commitment to left-wing policies: opposition to free-market capitalism and support for radical redistribution of wealth, intense regulation of the private sector, and protectionist policies to keep American jobs from going overseas.
As a centrist Democrat, Schoen is concerned with advising his fellow liberal Democrats to stay away from the OWS crowd, unless they want to assure themselves of political collapse in future elections, including the 2012 presidential race.
Some news stories appearing elsewhere substantiate his claims. I saw one report that at the Boston OWS, the most popular figures were Noam Chomsky, who was soon going to talk at the encampment, and the late Howard Zinn. Today, press reports appeared that Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, David Amran and Guy Davis, all leftist musicians of note, led a march from the Symphony Space Theater on the Upper West Side to Columbus Circle, in a march that began at ll pm and paused at the site for a concert. When the most notable figures of the Left are led by Pete Seeger—you know from the get-go that the OWS is not anything new.
The more figures like Susan Sarandon, Michael Moore and Pete Seeger and company become the spokesman for the OWS and its most celebrated public figures, the less relevance it has, and the less claim its anarchistic young people have to portray themselves as leaders of the 99 per cent.
Perhaps they should heed liberal Alec Baldwin, who surprised everyone at Zucotti Park by openly defending capitalism and the banks. Maybe seeing the disorganized chaotic site does something to promote reason even among the most extreme liberals- especially those like Baldwin who are definitely not part of the 99 per cent.
Schoen hasn’t been paying attention or he’d realize the president, his czars, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have all pushed for radical leftist policies and demonized anyone who challenges their vision. The old blue-dogs are gone, and now the left is moving in fast on the other party, judging from Romney’s record. The only difference is a pair of velvet gloves. Washington DC has shifted far to the left, where the center is now what the old left was. If Rasmussen Polls are any indication, the American people are at the other end of the spectrum.
Oh, he’s been paying attention. What he is worried about is that the voters will open their eyes.
This just in: Thinkpol has announced that Doug Schoen is wanted for crimethink. The Ministry of Love is taking action to prevent further thoughtcrimes against the People’s Republic of Zucotti Park.
OWS is like a fantasy camp for these Left-wing freaks. This is not a means to an end but the end itself. This really is all there is for them. Rolling around in their own filth and doing non-stop drum circles IS the accomplishment…not the beginning of anything substantive.
Don’t be hasty, now. Obama and friends are showing off the OWS crowd on TV, with plenty of microphone time.
The reason?
I think one of the main things Obama must do is wreck the Tea Party… and what better way, than to make it equivalent to the OWS???
By Christmas, no one respectable will want to be part of the Tea Party.
Did you notice that Nancy Pelosi mentioned that the Tea Party people had spat upon some Civil Rights leader during the budget debate? Now, we know that this is a complete lie, and I don’t think Pelosi is ready for the funny farm. But she is as smooth a liar as I have ever seen.
And I think these lies will work during November 2012. The one great hope has been that the voting will be honest, and that has depended upon the active participation of Tea Party types. Well, what if they stay home?
My latest blog post, OWS – The Democrats’ Electoral Albatross:
I visited the Occupy Portland encampment and came to the same conclusions as Mr. Schoen, though not as scientifically. True, the camp I visited was in Portland, a city with left leanings, but the protesters looked very much like the protesters I had seen in other cities on the news. Mostly hard lefties were present, the remainder, I suspect, were curious onlookers.
I saw a man in fatigues, military boots, a gas mask and a beret. How many Americans could identify with that. This movement doesn’t represent 99% of America. It is 100% about the egos of protesters, desperately trying to play the role of revolutionary.
The purple state voters are not being fooled into believing the Tea Party people are equally extreme as the radical left-wing protesters. This propaganda tactic is only proving to be successful with solidly blue state voters. In other words, the already converted. The Democrats are setting themselves up for a disaster on Election Day. They will likely only capture the Electoral College ballots of the blue states. Obama could lose by roughly a ten percent margin.
Blue state politicians have few worries. The odds are very high they will be easily reelected. These fortunate individuals could also care less about their fellow purple and red state colleagues. The latter will soon have to answer this awkward and unsettling question: why am I still a member of the Democratic Party?
It’s quite wonderful to live in a society prosperous enough for well fed people to indulge in child play, under the pretense of fighting the oppression of the means of production that provide the comfort they claim to be bereft of. Around age 5 or so, the big game is to pretend to be the big honcho (for boys, anyway). The young children of the authentically poor, such as found in various parts of Africa and Asia, have more demanding needs to attend, and don’t have the luxury of complaining for anything.
It’s quite immature on the part of self-indulgent loudmouths to claim to represent 99% of anything, unless they aim to represent the uppity “spoiled brats of the world, unite!” class, in which case they may have a shot. Whatever political entity tries to harness this spectacle, towards whichever end, exposes itself to the high probability of alienating a good part of the electorate. Short of 99% of course, but it does not take anywhere near that much to defeat the tantrum addicts and their apologists for a good while.