President Obama and the Democratic leadership are making a critical error in embracing the Occupy Wall Street movement—and it may cost them the 2012 election.They are the 0.99%.
Last week, senior White House adviser David Plouffe said that "the protests you're seeing are the same conversations people are having in living rooms and kitchens all across America. . . . People are frustrated by an economy that does not reward hard work and responsibility, where Wall Street and Main Street don't seem to play by the same set of rules." Nancy Pelosi and others have echoed the message.
Yet the Occupy Wall Street movement reflects values that are dangerously out of touch with the broad mass of the American people—and particularly with swing voters who are largely independent and have been trending away from the president since the debate over health-care reform.
Schoen helpfully offers advice to Democrats.
Put simply, Democrats need to say they are with voters in the middle who want cooperation, conciliation and lower taxes. And they should work particularly hard to contrast their rhetoric with the extremes advocated by the Occupy Wall Street crowd.Good luck with that.
They own this movement of dangerous extremists.
10 comments:
Question: How are these protest any different than the Tea Party protests of the past couple of years? In one case you have a group of people upset at government spending regarding social programs and entitlements. In another case you have a group of people upset at government spending to prop up multinational corporations.
Its the same thing.
Some people see them as selfish, self-centered individuals who are wanting everyone else to bail them out of their own poor life choices. I have sympathy for the fact that they are in difficult straits, but what adults do is pick up the pieces and buckle down to work through things.
Nobody made ANYONE take out $50k-$250k student loans.
Nobody made anyone choose a major for a degree like 'gender comparative psychology' which has little or no productive value to society (it doesn't actually produce anything).
Nobody made anyone think they could make a fast $50k by taking out a 3.5% ARM with a five year balloon payment and flipping it to some other person who really couldn't afford it either.
It seems to me that most of these people were happy with the system when it was working for them and they were, with minimal effort, able to climb the same ambitious ladders they now criticize. But now that their dreams are going to have to change they are showing that they have never grown up, and throwing temper tantrums and holding their breath to try and make everyone feel sorry for them.
Manipulative, selfish, self-centered, spoiled, envious, and jealous. That is how they come across to me.
Except one group (Tea Party) is a rational, calm, America-loving cadre of citizens. The other is a violent, anti-Semitic, Communist-laden, Nazi-endorsed mob.
I don't endorse violence or bigotry of any kind, but I don't approve of corporate welfare. If a business fails then it should go bankrupt, not get propped up with my tax dollars.
OWS has no official creed beyond the vague goal of ending "inequality". That's something that pretty much everybody supports.
If you oppose nazi's, communits, anti-semites, and violent mobs, you should join the movement and get them out of there. Because if they're claiming they're out to level the playing field, then people will support them and they'll gain power. If you don't want them gaining power your best bet is to get them out of the movement, not criticize the movement itself. You should start by joining up and giving them some real, solid, admirable goals. Like ending political corruption.
<span>I don't endorse violence or bigotry of any kind, but I don't approve of corporate welfare. If a business fails then it should go bankrupt, not get propped up with my tax dollars.
You want to get rid of the communits, anti semites, and nazis, you should be joining OWS and getting them out of the movement, before they co-opt a widely supported message for their own gains.</span>
This is a good opportunity to get corporate bribes out of politics. OWS is saying "get big money out of politics" and "end corporate welfare" and those are pretty popular messages.
The problem is that extremists like to take popular messages and twist them to their own ends. You should join the protests, the only way this OWS stuff can possibly end well is if level-headed Americans join up and keep the extremism down.
To be honest, I don't think you'll ever get anybody to agree with more deregulation, but you could definitely help get racists, thugs, and revolutionaries out of the movement, so they don't get any more influence in American politics.
So evidently all the various age groups, ethnic groups all the
diverse people are to be painted as extremist- Boy are you
getting a rude awakening- all these folks who are there protesting
inequity are your neighbors- your fellow citizens - and there excercising
their 1st amendment rights - horrifying - yeah denigrate them for
looking to change society for the better - Smart AND Classy - NOT !
I had to look three times to be sure you're really serious. And that means you don't get it. Sure, the Nazis and Communist parties are trying to co-opt the Occupy movement. Likewise, some other guy on another site was claiming today that the Occupy movement will never succeed until they have corporate backing. It seems to me that the protesters themsleves want none of any of that, and if you bothered to ask them, they would reject it.
Let's compare the two movements:
Teaparty: Supported by Large businesses, backed by billionaires, extolled on International Right Wing media (like FOX).
OWS: ragtag young people angry about their future prospects, ridiculed by businessmen and disrespected or feared by MSM.
TP: Tote around guns, talk about the 2nd amendment like it's a joke to shoot other Americans, and are easily confused with Christian extremists like Timothy McVie and Jerry Falwell.
OWS: After 3 weeks, in over 800 cities, I have yet to equate the image of a gun with this international event. Most of the folks that are noticable are folks that work 8-10 hour a day jobs, such as the Pilot's Union, the Nurses' Union and the Teachers' Unions, spending their time there in solidarity.
TP: Want to break up the Union, devolve power to the several states in a naked attempt to reinvigorate southern slavery and anti-minority sentiments, Hate illegal immigrants (despite being descended either from people that STOLE others' lands or BOUGHT the land from someone who bought from the person or from a person who bought it from a person who stole it down a chain not all that long that ended in a Native American getting RIPPED OFF). Hate all regulation and want to see an end to every form of power save the power of the county sherriff.
OWS: Want to reinvigorate the UNION, and ferret out corruption, NOT dissolve the Union because some of those within are clearly mentally deficient fools. OWS wants to STRENGTHEN the government we live under to REGULATE CRIMINALS ON WALL STREET. Not to invade your home with M-16s! The government already HAS taken over! It's these criminals we have to stop from taking the government over! "Arming ourselves to the teeth to fight the coming Apocalypse/Zombie Army" is NONSENSE. Wearing a tri-cornered hat and claiming you are with the "Tea Party," when, in fact, the original Tea Party was VERY MUCH what you are seeing on Wall St. right now, makes your foolish attacks on the OWS even more humorously ironic! The REAL Tea Party were FAR more destructive than this event occurring all over the world: they risked not only their own deaths, but the deaths of the men GUARDING THE BRITISH EAST INDIA TEA COMPANY'S TEA! And they certainly committed serious property damage in a world in which goods took MONTHS to deliver.
So, Puhleeeze......
If by "most voters" you mean those bamboozled one way or the other by corporate money, then yeah, they are WAY out of touch with "most voters."
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