Youth In Revolt - Part 2

The hostile reaction of Wall Street plutocrats, Republican presidential candidates, and right-wing commentators on Fox "news" seems to indicate that the Occupy Wall Street movement is beginning to hit a nerve. The general talking points of these conservatives is that this is a movement of frivolous, pot-smoking, lazy, unfocused youth, most of whom don't have a clue about why they are protesting.

You could expect that the right-wing in this country, which is so cozy with Wall Street, would do everything they could to discredit this movement, which by all accounts is a legitimate popular uprising. But this smear campaign doesn't seem to be working. A recent Time Magazine poll, for example, clearly shows that OWS is viewed far more favorably by Americans than the Tea Party is. Only 27% of Americans have a favorable feeling about the Tea Party, while 54% feel favorably about OWS. Even more telling, 89% of those who had familiarity with the protests agreed with the statement, "Wall Street and its lobbyists have too much influence on Washington," 79% agree with the statement, "the gap between rich and poor in the United States has grown too large," and 68% agree that "the rich should pay more taxes."

It would appear that a vast majority of Americans are in agreement with the basic guiding principles of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and that the more they learn about this movement, the more supportive they will become.

The problem so far is that the movement has not done quite as good a job identifying solutions to our economic problems in the United States as they have drawing attention to the problems themselves. Nor has the Democratic Party and President Obama effectively taken on the issue of income inequality, which is the ultimate source of most of our economic difficulties. The reason for this is obvious to me: the Democrats take at least as much campaign money from Wall Street as the Republicans do, and you don't ever "bite the hand that feeds you."

So until the Democratic Party gets over being so testicularly challenged, it is up to those noble men and women at Zuccotti Park and elsewhere around the country to keep the pressure on Wall Street and on Washington. To the extent that they can do this, I feel confident that more and more Americans will come to view this movement favorably and will ultimately begin to understand--as the protesters clearly do--that the real problem in this country is not that there's too much government, but that the American government has become co-opted by the top 1% of economic elites.

...and when the 99% of the country, who have been bearing the brunt of this economic down-turn, start to realize who is responsible for the mess that they are in, watch out Wall Street.

The real occupation is just beginning....

Youth in Revolt - Part 1

For several weeks now, a committed group of young men and women have encamped at Zuccotti Park and have been protesting daily on Wall Street. The protests in New York have captured the attention of the entire country and have been duplicated in cities throughout the United States.

Naturally, there are those who are not at all enamored with what these young people are trying to do. The protesters have been accused by conservatives of engaging in class warfare and lawlessness. House majority leader, Eric Cantor, for example, called the protesters "a growing mob." Republican presidential candidate, Herman Cain, labeled them as "anti-American" because they are "anti-capitalism and anti-free market" and just plain jealous of the success of Wall Street tycoons.

The protesters have also been accused of having an intellectually incoherent agenda. Certainly, their cause was not helped by interviews that were aired with bubble-headed neo-hippies, who seemed incapable of explaining why exactly they were on Wall Steet in the first place or who appeared to have agendas that had nothing to do with corporate greed at all.

In fact, most of the protesters are united in a common theme--namely that 99% of the country is being cheated by the richest 1%. Recently, the protesters put out a "Declaration of the Occupation of New York City," which couldn't be clearer in it's critique of corporate practices that have driven the United States to the brink of economic disaster.

For twenty years I've been bemoaning the fact that American youth has been totally apathetic in the face of widespread economic injustice, the concentration of power in the hands of a corporate elite, the co-option of government by these same elites and their enablers in the White House and Congress, and the frightening growth of the military-industrial complex. Now the Millennial Generation finally seems to have found it's mojo and I am damn proud of them for it. The Occupy Wall Street Movement represents what is noblest about the American tradition--the fact that ordinary citizens have the right (and indeed the duty) to speak out against social and economic injustices. The spirit that animates these protests is the same that inspired the Civil Rights and the Anti-War Movements of the 60s and it has the potential to be equally as transformative.

So what can we do to support this important movement. First, read about what the protesters are actually saying, rather than relying on the distorted commentary of the mainstream media. Then, if you live in a city where protest are going on, consider lending your support. Numbers, unfortunately, do count, and if enough Americans register their disgust at the way things are going in this country, our elected official will be forced to take notice.

I, for one, will be taking a group of students this Friday to Zucotti park to find out what's really going on and to interview protesters for this blog. I look forward to sharing my insights in a few days.