If Occupy Wall Street Doesn't Matter, Why Are the Powerful So Nervous?
If Occupy Wall Street really is just a bunch of unemployed bongo-playing, pot-smoking freaks, then why are so many powerful people so worried about them?
GOP House leader Eric Cantor says they are a "mob" devoted to "pitting of Americans against Americans." Michael Bloomberg, New York's billionaire mayor, says they want to destroy the city:
What they're trying to do is take away the jobs of people working in the city, take away the tax base that we have. We're not going to have money to pay our municipal employees or anything else.They pose such a threat that they aren't actually allowed on Wall Street. Instead they are kept blocks away from the Vatican of Capitalism. Bloomberg has made it clear that he wants them gone and no doubt he will soon come up with a pretext to have the police interfere with the right to peaceably assemble. (Note to the mayor: That never turns out well. In 1932, Herbert Hoover sent in Gen. Douglas MacArthur with tanks and cavalry to clear out protesters encamped around Washington. Fifty-five World War I veterans were injured and a 12-year-old boy died after being caught in the tear-gas attack. Now imagine that with YouTube.)
Ignore them and they'll go away. Unless...
The media derides the protesters for being incoherent and not having a single message or demand. Commentators scoff because, "They don't have a solution!" The message is clear: The protesters are an irrelevant, fringe group of whiny malcontented hipsters.
If that's true, then just ignore the protestors and they'll go away. But there's clearly some fear that things aren't quite that simple. A lot of people laughed at the original Tea Party movement, and when that didn't go away, they got desperate and co-opted it instead. The Democrats have already tried using all the skill and subtlety at their command to co-opt this movement. The protesters still haven't stopped laughing.
So why are the mighty worried? This is the kind of thing that gives people ideas. Ideas like participating in how the nation is run. No, they don't agree on what changes are needed. Some want to end the Fed, some want to raise corporate taxes, some want to cut spending and others want more spending. But there are two things they do agree on: Something has to change and the people need to be heard.
These are the true messages being carried by these protesters and why the protests have spread across the nation. This is why the mighty tremble. The messy, contradictory, desperate voice of the people is starting to sound. Trouble is in the air. "Something must be done," is the rallying cry. The cry may get whisked away in the wind but until it does the lambs will stare down the lions.
Related:
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- The Recession Has Been Here For Awhile; Here's the Proof
- Occupy Wall Street and the Original Tea Party Are Two Sides of a Red Hot Coin