Disclaimer: I am a progressive. I believe taxes should be raised for people making more than 750k per year and defense spending should be cut in half and the National Endowment for the Arts funding should be increased 100x.
With that disclaimer out of the way I have to say that I do not understand the Occupy Wall Street movement at all. What are they protesting? What are their demands?
Here is a description from the website:
Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants.
No longer tolerate greed and corruption. What does that mean? Does it mean that all the banking laws that were never put into effect should be? Does it mean the rich should pay more in taxes? Does it mean corruption laws should be enforced?
This movement, unfortunately, is easy for politicians to ignore. After a few weeks or months it will peter out and fade away. There is no violence. There are no leaders. They are easy to write off as ‘crackpots’. They are not negotiating anything in particular. They are spread out geographically. They are, in a word, ineffective.
In this world, no one gets what they deserve. They get what they negotiate. – Chester Karrass
I wish the movement had leaders and could mobilize the people to political action. Specific laws to support. Specific candidates. The Tea Party has done a masterful job of translating right-wing emotions into specific political actions. I wish the left could be as organized.
Barack Obama is the leader of the nation, and specifically the democrats. He has been unable to convert this energy into political action. I hope that he (or someone else) can harness this power. Mass movements are incredibly powerful. I truly hope this one will yield some good.
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