Wall St. protesters fed up with both parties

Gene Levine speaks to a crowd as he takes part in a protest on Oct. 6, 2011, in Nashville, Tenn., to draw attention to concerns over Wall Street practices and economic inequality. / AP Photo

NEW YORK - Their chief target is Wall Street, but many of the demonstrators in New York and across the U.S. also are thoroughly disgusted with Washington, blaming politicians of both major parties for policies they say protect corporate America at the expense of the middle class.

"At this point I don't see any difference between George Bush and Obama. The middle class is a lot worse than when Obama was elected," said John Penley, an unemployed legal worker from Brooklyn.

The Occupy Wall Street movement, which began last month with a small number of young people pitching a tent in front of the New York Stock Exchange, has expanded nationally and drawn a wide variety of activists, including union members and laid-off workers. Demonstrators marched Thursday in Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and Anchorage, Alaska, carrying signs with slogans such as "Get money out of politics" and "I can't afford a lobbyist."

The protests are in some ways the liberal flip side of the tea party movement, which was launched in 2009 in a populist reaction against the bank and auto bailouts and the $787 billion economic stimulus plan.

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Obama: "Occupy Wall Street" reflects "broad-based frustration"

But while tea party activists eventually became a crucial part of the Republican coalition, the Occupy Wall Street protesters are cutting President Barack Obama little slack. They say Obama failed to crack down on the banks after the 2008 mortgage meltdown and financial crisis.

"He could have taken a much more populist, aggressive stance at the beginning against Wall Street bonuses, and exacting certain change from bailing out the banks," said Michael Kazin, a Georgetown University history professor and author of "American Dreamers," a history of the left. "But ultimately, the economy has not gotten much better, and that's underscored the frustration on both the right and the left."

Obama on Thursday acknowledged the economic insecurities fueling the nearly 3-week-old Wall Street protests. But he pinned responsibility on the financial industry and on congressional Republicans he says have blocked his efforts to kick-start job growth.

"I think people are frustrated and the protesters are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works," he said at a nationally televised news conference. "The American people understand that not everybody has been following the rules, that Wall Street is an example of that ... and that's going to express itself politically in 2012 and beyond."

The president has been pushing for a $443 billion jobs plan to be paid for in part through a tax on the wealthy. Republicans have resisted such tax increases.

GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Herman Cain have criticized the anti-Wall Street protests. All the Republican contenders have also pushed back against the demonization of Wall Street. They accuse the Obama administration of setting regulatory policies that have stifled job creation and say his health care overhaul will prevent many businesses from hiring new workers.

In Zuccotti Park, the center of the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York, activists expressed deep frustration with the political gridlock in Washington. While some blamed Republicans for blocking reform, others singled out Obama.

"His message is that he's sticking to the party line, which is `we are taking care of the situation.' But he's not proposing any solutions," said Thorin Caristo, an antiques store owner from Plainfield, Conn.

But Robert Arnow, a retired real estate worker, said the Republicans need to tell their congressional leaders, "You're standing in the way of change."

Quayzy Cayusso, a Web designer, didn't watch Obama's news conference even though it was broadcast on TV monitors at the protest site in New York.

"He's a cool president, but he was given a hard task," Cayusso said. "He should get some gratitude for what he's done so far, but he's been overlooking jobs and not putting much effort into that until now."

[DebbieCorona]

The system is broken. The experiment in a democratic republic has failed. It came from within. All three branches of government have failed. Executive branch wins by the highest bidder. Congress represents corporations over constituents. US Supreme Court legally gives $$$$ personhood. Neither the DEM/GOP/TEA can fix this. They represent party over people. The cause of this is $$$$$. It is very similar to the French Revolution. The only question left is what will we become: officially a $$$$ plutocracy? Colony of China? Or perhaps the people will revolt. Maybe an American Style French Revolution where the 3rd Estate (99%ers) revolt over the 1st Estate Clergy ($$$$Worshippers) and the 2nd Estate Royalty(3 failed branches of government) I stand with the 99%ers, give me liberty or death, We the People!

[aldrich617]

Obama's Jobs Bill is better than nothing, certainly better than anything that may be found in the GOP Playbook of Plausible Parables that Glorify Gargantuan Greed.

It is a fact that despite Austerity more and more of the wealth in America is migrating swiftly
toward the top 1% of the populace. The well-being of society, however, depends on this wealth
being recycled to the bottom somehow so that the other 99% do not have to subsist in permanent
poverty. The main avenues for this recycling have to be either Charity, Investment and Jobs, or Taxes.
The rich as a group are rather stingy and their charitable efforts are so piecemeal and puny that there
is no possibility that Charity can be a solution. Investment is the ideal solution, but in our late-stage
capitalist system there is now a severe excess of capacity in the means of production for almost every
imaginable product, and certainly there exists the possibility of nothing more than a few small potatoes
that may invested in profitably, so there will be very few jobs created no matter how much regulations or tax
burdens are reduced (the GOP program).

The only alternative to degenerate institutionalized economic injustice, unfortunately, is to tax the rich heavily
and create public infrastructure jobs as FDR once did in a similar economic situation (the DEM program).

[wdrussell1]

Politicians stay away.
American Bastille Day should be a citizen movement.

[skeezix06]

I may not be with the protestors in person but I am in spirit. I've had all I can stand from both parties. The tea party/libertarians have lost any resemblance to sanity. I'm looking for a new party.

[1stlttightwad]

Question: Does anyone really think a bunch of yelling, disobedient protestors are going to be taken seriously by Wall Street and change their policies of making money for their investors? You can yell and scream all you want to. Wall Street will not change, they cannot, and will not.
Sticks and stones may break my bones. But names will never hurt me.
If the protestors begin damaging, looting, or starting fires, that will be the end of them. No one is going to put up with it or ever have any respect for their views. Get rowdy and the cause is completely lost.

[shawshank22]

And the longer this goes on .....an incident is sure to occur .....young folks just goof up.

[1stlttightwad]

Obama has lost suppport from Wall Street and his campaign donataion from them has dropped to zero.
Enter the protestors from move on and the unions.
We the unions and move on will call off the protestors if you start with your campaign donataions again.
Can we say Acorn in the bank lobbies.
The dems/unions/move on are bIack mailing Wall Street.
Can you see it now?

[chonder2]

by __One_American____ October 7, 2011 2:21 AM EDT
If these hoodlums were REALLY against both parties - they would have supported the Tea Party.

No - this is just another Leftist orchestrated attempt to co-op the Tea Party movement by a bunch of Communists.

Liars, weasels, and money grubbing lazy Leftists, all of them.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Sorry One Moron...This was pedicted over a year ago.

Millions upon millions out there don't march in open mouth drooling lockstep with anyone that calls the general public unpatrotic or communists when they start asking questions.

One Moron,if you loved what had been going on "BEFORE" the 2008 election stay in that same "POSITION" you have been used to...

"You and your family bent over the kitchen table with pants pulled down to the ankles waiting for more corporate "Leadership"!!

[kevjustice]

the tea-tanic is sinking.

[shawshank22]

ummmm it is no where near"millions".....you are watching msnbc too much.......And.....the protesters are the 1%....most people aren,t....."miserable".

[ahrats]

Hello America, look what happened in North Africa and what is happening in Syria, THE PEOPLE are sick and tired of the GOVERNMENT not listening to the people. Democrats got it wrong with spend too much time the Health Care Bill instead of a JOBS BILL. REPUBLICANS just got it wrong, WE THE PEOPLE @ the Start of the Constitution, remember that document you TEA PARTY Yahoo's, from 2001 till Obama's election, when you were in charge got the U.S. into 2 WARS and 7 Trillion Debt which we are still paying on beacuse the U.S. is still heavily Finanically and Physically Involved in Iraq & Afganistan.

[slatep]

The bi-partisan government is wholly and completely responsible for the current crises here in the United States.

They feel; that now they hold an office in Congress, they no longer are responsible for their actions as they pertain to their constituents.

Americans have FINALLY awakened to the fact that we have been subjected to being deceived and shafted for almost the last 12 years.

If ever there was a time to take our country back from corrupt, bought and paid for politicians; it's NOW.!

I only hope we can keep the momentum going until the 2012 election.

[arthanyel]

Think Progress points out that the mainstream media, including the Washington Post, Fox News, and others, are calling the protestors who are occupying Wall Street "anti-capitalist". Even some progressives, like Alan Colmes and Gawker are referring to the protests as "anti-capitalist".

But this is clearly wrong. In fact, calling the protests "anti-capitalist" seems like it is mainly designed to discredit the protests by painting them as anti-free enterprise and anti-free markets. But if we actually had free markets, would we have felt the need to bail out banks and huge multi-national corporations? Or would CEO have received huge bonuses even though their companies lost money and laid off employees?

As Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz pointed out at a teach-in at the site of the occupation, it is not capitalism when you socialize losses and privatize gains. Nor is it capitalism when corporations have more political power than real people.

Douglas Rushkoff had a very good opinion piece about Occupy Wall Street which everyone should read: http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/05/opinion/rushkoff-occupy-wall-street/

Is this the Arab Spring for the US? I hope so.