The "Occupy" Movement

What do you make of the so-called "Occupy" Movement? We haven't seen anything like it in years, and I think I like it.

It started with Occupy Wall Street, which is now over a month old. Every day, OWS draws several thousand people during the daylight hours, more on weekends, and is maintaining a steady 1,000 or so overnight occupiers. OWS has boatloads of Facebook friends and Twitter followers. It has spawned other "Occupy" actions in many U.S. cities, including Columbus, and has now spread to several European cities.

It's a true grassroots movement, with no particular source or leader, and no sugar-daddy funding. Contrast this with the Tea Baggers, who are bank-rolled by the Koch brothers and Dick Armey, and are given endless free publicity via Fox News.

Like all protests and public demonstrations, the Occupy movement is not the prettiest thing you've ever seen -- it's loose, funky, unfocused, and without specific demands. But they're righteously pissed off about all sorts of semi-related things, to wit:


Corporate greed and selfishness.
The insistence by the wealthy for lower taxes on the highest incomes.
The organized attacks on organized labor and public-sector workers.
High unemployment and lack of job security.
The ever-increasing cost of college education.
The high cost of health insurance, and consequent lack thereof by so many people.
The high cost of transportation and fuel.
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the lies that led us there.
The total absence of criminal prosecutions of the Wall Street executives who crashed our economy and trashed our retirement savings.
The god-awful Citizens United decision, in which our Supreme Court decreed that corporations are people too, opening the floodgates of unlimited corporate cash influence in our political process and our society.
The concentration of wealth in the hands of so few: The top 1% of Americans now control/possess 24% of all income/assets/wealth. The percentage hasn't been that high since the days of the Gilded Age.
The income disparity: The average annual income of the top 1% is $1,500,000, while the average annual income of the other 99% is $55,000.
Pollution, global warming, and impending environmental disasters.
Politicians and business leaders who deny and ignore pollution, climate change, and environmental dangers.
The creeping feeling that certain American powers-that-be are hellbent on turning us into an oligarchy.





These are not unreasonable things to be pissed off about, and if nothing else, it frightens the right people: Romney, Cain, Perry and Bachmann all made disparaging remarks. OWS is routinely mocked on Fox News. Eric Cantor called them a dangerous mob (Where was Cantor's concern when Tea Bag "mobs" were stomping around with pitchforks and misspelled signs?), and like the pussy he is, cancelled a Philadelphia appearance at the last minute when he found out that hundreds of Occupy Philly protesters would be in attendance. So whatever they are, whatever they want, the Occupy forces must be doing something right.

Where does it go from here? Who knows? The Occupy Movement could easily fade and wither on the vine with cold weather approaching, or it could stick and grow and become a real force in the 2012 election and beyond. I'm thinking maybe the latter. Things could get interesting!