The emergence of angry anti-capitalist street fighters from the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations may not be a godsend for either the Democratic Party or for President Obama.
Consider this post yesterday by David Swanson, a nationally known progressive blogger for the October 2011 march in Washington, D.C., which is to be held tomorrow. He argues there is little difference between Republicans and Barack Obama:
“Richard Nixon gave us the EPA. Barack Obama is giving us a tar sands pipeline, lower air standards, and more nuclear power. George W. Bush took the trouble to lie to Congress when starting wars. Barack Obama goes out of his way to not consult Congress at all.”
This is the emergence of the angry and hardened socialist underground that has operated from the shadows for decades. They do not represent the fresh new kids who used to attend an MTV “Rock the Vote” rally. They actually represent a genuine political danger for Barack Obama.
Swanson most vociferously objects to the incipient movement being hijacked by Democratic Party progressives as the new “anti-tea party.” Calling the new establishment Democratic organizations “electoral political groups,” Swanson gives them a kick in the pants.
“As we watch electoral-political groups swoop in to join Occupy Wall Street, you’ll notice attempts to label this Occupation movement the anti-teaparty, followed in the next breath by attempts to define the duty of the anti-teaparty as electing Democrats. No matter how well-meaning this may be, if you agree with me that what we desperately lack is non-electoral politics, then you have to see this “support” as an act of betrayal.”
He is particularly loathsome of Democrats who have taken Wall Street money like the president, saying they are the same as Republicans. He writes “Well, you know, only Republicans do have money; some of them are just called Democrats.”
Swanson is not a marginal figure in the Occupy movement. He is a major voice for it. His progressive credentials are impressive.
For three years he was the communications coordinator for the now defunct ACORN and has been a chief advisor to Dennis Kucinich’s for his many Presidential forays. His pushes many sites, including WarIsACrime.org and ProsecuteBushCheney.org. His sites have been hailed by The Nation magazine.
“Occupy Wall Street Movement Hates Democrats and Obama”
Just goes to show you, there’s a little bit of good in everyone, and even dopey protestors get something right once in awhile.
These protestors are doing the dirty work after the adults left the room for a decade and allowed greed and self-interest metastasize to a scale that has brought down a nation. Fraud and corruption at EVERY level, kickbacks and insider trading, ruin of the very industry that is the backbone of the economy (housing)and the loss of an ability to obtain a job was happening while a credit expansion (lending) took place as a tool to create debt slaves for generations to come. You are a card.
First ones accused of crimes against the Revolution are always the early supporters of the Revolution
Grapes of Wrath provocation event in 3…2…1…
The Tea Parties can scoop up the best ones from this movement. If my past experience with protests is any indicator, there will be people in attendance simply because a friend of a friend asked them to show up. The core protesters always need these “extras” — that’s why they schedule their events to coincide with concerts (or rumors of concerts).
The “extras” will include the curious, and many of them will be repelled by what they see and hear at these protests. Those are the people who should be welcomed by the Tea Parties.
Those who support the Tea Parties should make an effort to show how the Tea Parties, using sound economic and historical experience, plan to address the very real economic issues of our time, and also to preserve individual liberty.
Because of the wisdom of our forefathers, we do not need a destructive revolution to make a better life for our people: all we need to do is vote for politicians who understand and believe in our system. The people at the root of this “movement” are helpless to do anything positive, because they don’t have the intellectual tools to make good use of the system we have.
It’s the difference between the gardens of a pesticide-enthralled amateur and a long-term master gardener, who has learned how to maintain the soil.
They’re too intelligent for the Tea Party, as are most Americans.
Excellent. So does this mean they’ll all vote for me in 2012, thus syphoning off votes from Obama? Me and Kucinich could team up, and hopefully get 7%-to-10% of the Dem vote.
I just walked past the Occupy Boston encampment on my lunch break. The LaRouchies had a table there, replete with the Obama-and-a-Hitler-mustache poster. There was quite a gaggle of interested individuals gathered around and I definitely did not perceive much animosity among them.
Mr. Pollock, you have no idea how right you are!
Yeah, but the “Unions” have gone there to join up with them … who’s next? … and there’s a lot of violent talk. This ain’t no tea-party. It’s scarey.
But how much violence can 20-30 protesters actually commit?
The problem for people like Swanson is that the big media can turn them on and off like a light switch, depending on how useful they are at advancing the preferred agenda.
At the moment, as a non-violent group attacking Wall Street and banks in general, Swanson’s not a threat, so he gets favorable media coverage. Were the protest to spiral up to the point that they start truly scaring the swing voters even further away from Obama and the Democrats, you won’t see negative stories about people like Swanson; instead, they simply become “non-persons” to the media, in the same way Cindy Sheehan vanished from the face of the Earth following the 2006 elections, when she suddenly started turning her sights away from just George W. Bush and focusing on Nancy Pelosi, because Congressional Democrats were failing to live up to their promises.
Well, good. These people hate Obama, and they most definitely hate the Generic Republican, which means they will have no incentive to vote at all next year. The tantrums in the streets just turn public opinion against them, another win.
Who cares? All the “occupy” whiners are spoiled little brats who should be spanked and sent to bed without their suppers.
When the little brats grow up and accept responsibility for their actions — boo hoo, they took on $40k in debt to get a degree that gave them enough knowledge to serve fries — then we can talk. Until then — don’t work, don’t eat.
I’ve always favored the “no work, no eat” equation. In DC, the kids I’ve seen interviewed were only “occupying” between classes and the main thing they were protesting is that debt Rob mentions. It’s not corporations getting rich off their self-incurred debt….
You say that these are not the ‘rock the vote’ kids but actually they are, they are the ones who became cynical and had to fight political apathy after the betrayal of Obama and much of the democratic party. They have become politicized by betrayal, they are looking beyond both parties because they weren’t given a choice, not all of those who join Occupy are ‘socialist’ and they are not all unemployed nor are they all ‘kids’, the remarkable thing about Occupy is that its become a vortex for all kinds of people who show concern for everything from health care to jobs to corporate fraud, foreclosure, workers rights, social inequity and the environment. Its not simply a fiscal movement such as the Tea Party nor are they telling people they should vote for this or that party, I hardly hear anyone mention Obama’s name at all on Liberty Square, they ignore him as well as the democrats. They also ignore the lack of coverage by the mainstream press, using other channels to make themselves known, finding other means of communicating with citizens and groups. The disconnect between government, the media and the people is huge at this point and I think they have decided to work around wall st, the politicians and the media because they recognize that eventually the wave of discontent brewing from the ground will eventually sweep upon the doorsteps of those institutions, and the arrogance of the mainstream is of such a magnitude that they won’t even see it coming.