‘Occupy Wall Street’ not as ‘fringe’ as some like to believe
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Federal Hall National Memorial was built at the site where Congress held its first session, at the foot of Wall Street in New York City.
The First Amendment, part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified by Congress meeting at Federal Hall in New York City on Sept. 25, 1789. Today, a motley, disorganized group of American citizens is exercising its First Amendment rights to peaceably assemble and to petition their government, literally within steps of where Congress met to acknowledge those rights.
The movement’s goals are at best uncertain, and to the extent they can be determined, in some ways extreme and unrealistic. And as has been demonstrated convincingly with other large political gatherings, it is certainly possible to wade into the crowd to find people whose antics and beliefs can be used to discredit the larger effort.
The protesters are at least pretty clear about what they don’t like: They don’t like the fact that Wall Street and the financial sector benefited enormously from taxpayer-funded bailouts, while insisting that ordinary Americans neither need nor deserve such assistance.
As the protesters like to chant, “The big banks got bailed, but the middle class got left behind.” Rasmussen reports, 79 percent of Americans say they agree with that sentiment. Only 10 percent disagree.
As Rasmussen assesses its poll findings, “The bailouts of the financial industry still leave a sour taste in the mouths of most Americans, who feel as strongly as ever that the government was looking out for bankers rather than taxpayers and that crimes on Wall Street remain unpunished.”
Earlier this year, Gallup conducted what has become an annual polling of Americans on their attitudes toward major corporations. Not surprisingly, given the role that Wall Street greed and arrogance played in creating this economic crisis, the public isn’t all that happy with them.
In fact, two-thirds of Americans say they are dissatisfied with the size and influence of corporations in national life.
But take another look at the charts above and below. This sense of dissatisfaction and distrust began to grow long before the crisis of 2008. Those events merely helped to crystallize sentiments that in fact had been building for years.
In other words, it’s easy to dismiss “Occupy Wall Street” as the work of the radical fringe, because in some ways it is. But what makes it bigger than that is the fact that the misgivings and distrust it is expressing are felt much more broadly, not just in campus coffee houses but in small-town diners, and not just in liberal chat rooms but in Tea Party meetings as well.
You don’t have to agree with the solutions they propose in order to recognize that the problems they dramatize and publicize have merit. Tens of millions of American citizens understand that .
– Jay Bookman
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658 comments Add your comment
buck@gon
October 7th, 2011
1:23 am
AmVet,
The wrong-headed right wing is all around you ON THE LEFT SIDE you brave truth-telling soldier.
Slinking Toward Retirement | ‘Occupy Wall Street’ not as ‘fringe’ as some like to believe | Jay Bookman | News, Travel, Opinion and Just Odd and Funny Things...
October 7th, 2011
4:41 am
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USinUK
October 7th, 2011
5:42 am
sorry, but I’ve gotta beat Normal to the morning funny
http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2011/10/06/rave-on-john-donne/
C-LASSIC!!!
Fast and Furious Spending
October 7th, 2011
6:07 am
Enter your comments here
USinUK
October 7th, 2011
6:36 am
“We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society,”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/liberia/8812949/Nobel-Peace-Prize-2011-handed-jointly-to-three-women.html
oh, hell yeah.
Normal
October 7th, 2011
6:48 am
Grand Friday morning to all y’all…we made it through another week!
This is for Bosch, Kam and the rest of you “Fotbol” fans…
http://news.icanhascheezburger.com/2011/10/06/political-pictures-the-beautiful-game/
BTW, USinUK, That was a funny post!
Joel Edge
October 7th, 2011
6:49 am
“They don’t like the fact that Wall Street and the financial sector benefited enormously from taxpayer-funded bailouts”
Hey, Jay, what other group didn’t like the bailouts? I can’t remember. They were called front groups for the Republican Party. Criticized at every opportunity you and the MSM. Can’t remember, it’ll come to me.
USinUK
October 7th, 2011
6:52 am
Normal –
love it
USinUK
October 7th, 2011
6:54 am
Joel – did you skip merrily past “But what makes it bigger than that is the fact that the misgivings and distrust it is expressing are felt much more broadly, not just in campus coffee houses but in small-town diners, and not just in liberal chat rooms but in Tea Party meetings as well.”
guess so …
Brosephus™ - Browning America Since 1973
October 7th, 2011
7:03 am
USinner
Methinks he didn’t read the entire post, and just generalized after reading a sentence or two…
Happens alot around these here parts.
Joel Edge
October 7th, 2011
7:04 am
USinUK@6:54
No, I just know that within the next two or three blogs he’ll be back to the same spiel. That and the general tone of his comments as it relates to either side. I’m sure he can wax poetic about women, women’s rights and generalities about gender equality. Then say some vicious things about Palin. One use of a term does not an endorsement make.
Mad Max
October 7th, 2011
7:21 am
Jay,
It would be interesting to present the same graphs for our government, after all, a lot of what the banks and Freddie Mae and Freddie Mac did was our government bidding. There might be a lot of parallels there.
AmVet
October 7th, 2011
7:25 am
Good morning, gang.
buck must have insomnia. And was clearly mentally exhausted when he posted that. (Does it make any sense?)
A new day of
Wall Streetworldwide protest.But where are the Tea Partiers???
Looking in dismay at their portfolios and wondering how Obama has done this to them???
(CNN) — Wall Street is more than 10,000 miles away from Melbourne, but 24-year-old Australian Alex Gard felt a kinship to the outrage expressed on the streets of Manhattan.
“It’s great that people are finally standing up against the privileged few people who want to rule together,” Gard said. “I wanted to stand together and say, `Enough is enough’.”
Gard is one of the organizers of “Occupy Melbourne,” a group that started on Facebook that now has more than 2,000 members with plans to protest on October 15 in City Square. Similar calls have sprung up around Australia: “Occupy Brisbane,” “Occupy Perth,” and “Occupy Sydney.”
“We are inspired by what’s happening on Wall Street and loosely liaising with each other, but it’s not organized in any central way,” said Gard, who works as a mechanic on cargo ships.
“Occupy the London Stock Exchange” — referring to Europe’s largest bourse and the world’s fourth largest exchange outside of New York and Tokyo — has more than 6,000 followers.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/07/business/wall-street-protest-global/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
Worldwide epiphany.
Down in the lowlands to the top of the hill
Don’t know what’s comin’, but we know that it will
Blind in Benares, deaf and dumb in LA
Hiding in Africa, but nobody gets away
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp4hrQRSiuM
AmVet
October 7th, 2011
7:40 am
According to Loofah Boy on Fox, “they don’t want to work…So all of these people, all they have to do is take a shower and they can get a job”.
Is it any wonder that that very same stupidity is parroted here?
Are you Republicans proud of your beloved, bellicose lout who profits from dealing in outright lies?
Ronnie Raygun
October 7th, 2011
7:46 am
Who’s Loofah Boy on Fox? Sean Vanity?
Granny Godzilla
October 7th, 2011
7:50 am
I love this shot
Granny Godzilla
October 7th, 2011
7:53 am
Compare it to this shot
And the times they are a’changing!
Jm
October 7th, 2011
7:53 am
Goooooood morrrrrnnnnnning Vietnam!
How are the commies this morning?
Mad Max
October 7th, 2011
7:56 am
Amvet,
Not as proud as you are of the current liar in the white house.
Jm
October 7th, 2011
7:56 am
I think it’s hilarious these guys presume to speak for 99% of America
LOL
Granny Godzilla
October 7th, 2011
7:57 am
Jm
Peek under your bed and ask them.
They are right next to the socialists and the seculars and the rest of your boogeymen.
Jm
October 7th, 2011
7:58 am
They should probably say: we are 1/2 of the unemployed 9%.
“we are the 4.5%”. That would have a good ring to it and be more accurate
AmVet
October 7th, 2011
7:58 am
Ronnie, Fox’s apex bully was forced to settle out of court back in 2004 for a phone conversation he had with a young Fox producer – “a lewd and lascivious, unsolicited and disturbing sexually graphic talk”, about how he imagines he would handle business if they were in the West Indies.
First he’d get two wines into Ms Mackris, “maybe intravenously”. Then, “You would basically be in the shower and then I would come in and I’d join you and you would have your back to me and I would take the little loofa thing”.
One presumes that Billy O’Loofah’s wife was just find and dandy with the pig’s unsolicited, and I’m sure the young woman involved would say, revolting advances.
But his depraved filthiness sells very well, as it translate to all things political for his immoral minority fans.
Regarding that utterly absurd claim that I noted above, O’Loofah’s deliberate prevarications and childish nonsense come straight out of that assh0le Reagan’s playbook, who said something very similar in 1966.
THAT is how stuck in their stupid past the political right wing of this country has become.
But again, they are gonna get absolutely murdered on this moronic stance of theirs.
I would not be surprised to see, that as this movement coalesces and develops further, that there will be electoral fallout for the criminal coddling, wrong-sided right wingers…
Jm
October 7th, 2011
8:00 am
No granny
They’re right here on this board
Trotsky being the most honest about it
Amvet second
Granny Godzilla
October 7th, 2011
8:01 am
jm
well, considering they enjoy the support of 79% of the American people
I think you are being hilarius…
Mad Max
October 7th, 2011
8:01 am
Amvet,
Does that fallout include Barney Frank, The self appointed protector of the Freddies?
Granny Godzilla
October 7th, 2011
8:01 am
Jm
No son, they are under your bed and more telling…under your skin.
AmVet
October 7th, 2011
8:03 am
Mad meat, I voted AGAINST Obama, you uninformed fool.
Besides, that is ALL you have???
I indict liars in their role for spreading gross misinformation regarding these people and you come back with petulant red herrings about your favorite bogeyman?
Make it easy on yourself and just raise the white flag now…
Jm
October 7th, 2011
8:03 am
Good thing we’re not in the 50’s red scare anymore
Guess you guys didn’t get the message
Communism and socialism lost
Yeah capitalism!
Brosephus™ - Browning America Since 1973
October 7th, 2011
8:04 am
I think it’s hilarious these guys presume to speak for 99% of America
LOL
It’s no more hilarious than thinking that all Blacks think alike and are brainwashed to vote Democratic in elections.
Just sayin’
USinUK
October 7th, 2011
8:05 am
joel – 7:04 – that’s okay, you can just admit that you didn’t read the entire post …
Jm
October 7th, 2011
8:05 am
Granny
They don’t have 99% support
They don’t even know what they want so you can’t exactly survey people on whether they support them or not
USinUK
October 7th, 2011
8:06 am
commies, jm??? really???
who here is advocating for state ownership of ANYthing???
g’head. name names. we’ll wait.
Jm
October 7th, 2011
8:07 am
Oh I forgot
They do have one unifying goal
They want to sit in the financial district
Well, congrats. They have accomplished their mission. So what?
Oh and they don’t have a clue. 1/2 or more of wall st is in midtown, not lower manhattan
Jm
October 7th, 2011
8:08 am
Usinuk Trotsky
Carlosgvv has said essentially the aame thing more than once
Jm
October 7th, 2011
8:09 am
Hey old lady
Grow up. And don’t call me son
Granny Godzilla
October 7th, 2011
8:12 am
Jm
Son, it’s really really under your skin.
Get used to it, it’s not going away and is growing everyday.
All my love, Old Lady Granny
Mad Max
October 7th, 2011
8:12 am
Amvet,
You are the one who indicted all Republicans(Are you Republicans proud of your beloved, bellicose lout who profits from dealing in outright lies?) in one swipe so get off your high horse and look at what he has said and done and the Repubklicans didn’t do all of this by themselves. We had a lot of help from the guys on the other side that you seem to conveiently forget.
USinUK
October 7th, 2011
8:13 am
“Carlosgvv has said essentially the aame thing more than once”
there’s a world of grey in “essentially”
hell, I’ve “essentially” called for pushing Celine Dion in front of a bus …
Granny Godzilla
October 7th, 2011
8:15 am
somebody is wound a little tight this morning….
USinUK
October 7th, 2011
8:16 am
GG – there’s always one in every crowd …
(how on earth can you be wound tight in the morning, though … criminey, it’s all I can do to shower and get dressed … getting riled takes WAY too much effort)
Jm
October 7th, 2011
8:18 am
Usinuk
I named one and there are tons more that have the same sentiments though don’t go as far
Tell ne why I should take seriously the comments of people who believe expropriating wealth is a good idea, who think more government control is a good idea. When all economics and obvious real world evidence says the opposite.
Whatever. You guys are a joke.
Jay is more serious than the whole lot of liberals here combined.
Jm
October 7th, 2011
8:19 am
Usinuk
Did u warm up before moving the goalposts today?
Granny Godzilla
October 7th, 2011
8:19 am
JM
and you, son, continue to be the best punch line we could imagine!
Butch Cassidy
October 7th, 2011
8:22 am
Morning all,
I had the opportunity to hang down in the Financial District last night after dinner on Staten Island. I hate to burst the “why don’t these people get a job” bubble, but as I mentioned in another post yesterday, several of the protesters I spoke to, and one that I know personally are trust fund babies. In GOP speak, the “evil rich/job creators”. Although they are well healed, they still disagree with the course the country has taken. After talking about yesterdays comments on the AJC blog, they extended an open invitation to anyone from Georgia to come up and see first hand what it’s all about. I tried to tell them that it would never happen, folks in Georgia don’t seem to like facts very much.
Mr. Dick Turpin
October 7th, 2011
8:22 am
This comment is pending approval and won’t be displayed until it is approved.
In many ways it’s as if someone declared a “National Disenfranchisement Month” for all those poor souls out there who are frustrated with their lives for one reason or another and feel powerless to change their situation.
Unfortunately, feelings of powerlessness often coexist with laziness and the belief that speaking (i.e., complaining, criticizing, protesting) is sufficient to change one’s situation in life, when in fact it almost never is. Why? Because it’s so easy to ignore words – and, believe me, that’s exactly what those “in power” are doing right now.
I don’t doubt most of these occupiers feel frustrated and angry for fine personal and professional reasons. I’m sure most of them can relate a compelling narrative to explain how they got to where they are. But joining together in huge herds of frustrated complainers (that’s the cynical take on it, sure) only makes them more powerless. The time they spend out there commiserating over their collective situation is time they could spend brainstorming new life plans, making professional connections, etc.
There’s a real failure of imagination on their part. They’re probably only making their situation worse by demonizing wealth (or worse, conflating wealth with greed). These people need to go “toward” money, not away from it. They need to learn to cooperate with the wealthy. They need to understand that even though Wall St. may be a zero-sum game, life in fact is not. They need to use their collective imagination RIGHT NOW.
Mr. Dick Turpin
AmVet
October 7th, 2011
8:25 am
Poor confused, self-destructive cons, completely ignorant of our glorious history. if not so dangerous, they’d be absolutely pitiable.
You are a den of vipers! I intend to rout you out, and by the Eternal God, I will rout you out. If the people only understood the rank injustice of our money and banking system, there would be a revolution before morning. ~ President Andrew Jackson
I am concerned for the security of our great nation; not so much form any great threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within. ~General Douglas MacArthur
I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is now controlled by its system of credit. We are no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men. We have restricted credit, we have restricted opportunity, we have controlled development, and we have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated, governments in the civilized world–no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and the duress of small groups of dominant men. ~President Woodrow Wilson
I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country. President Thomas Jefferson
Don’t blame Bush, nobody saw this coming. ~Dick Cheney
Granny Godzilla
October 7th, 2011
8:28 am
Mr. Dick
That’s what folks said about the anti-Vietnam, civil rights and womens suffrage movements…
They ended a war and got votes for women and blacks.
Oh and a few hundred years ago those herds one independence from England….
Granny Godzilla
October 7th, 2011
8:29 am
won not one!
AmVet
October 7th, 2011
8:33 am
Mad, what the hell are you even talking about?
I am discussing the protesters. And the irrefutable fact regarding the reprehensible wholesale lies about them from your beloved talking heads. AND the other faux conservatives here on this forum. I’m sure you’ve seen some of the desperate lies they have written here. Or maybe you’ve “missed” all of those a swell?
You seem to be having some sort of unrelated parallel conversation and want to desperately devolve off onto Barney Frank and Barack Obama.
Focus.
I’m trying to warn you that the Republicans are gonna get destroyed in the American court of public opinion for lying about and denigrating working Americans while coddling corporate criminals.
The gig is up. Your time for doing so is over.
Start acting like real conservatives.
Eli Jones
October 7th, 2011
8:35 am
SIGN THE PETITION TO PROSECUTE ERIC HOLDER FOR “FAST AND FURIOUS”
http://act.theteaparty.net/5273/prosecute-eric-holder/
USinUK
October 7th, 2011
8:42 am
“Tell ne why I should take seriously the comments of people who believe expropriating wealth is a good idea, who think more government control is a good idea. When all economics and obvious real world evidence says the opposite.”
laugh flippin RIOT … he posts that THEN has the gall to say that *I* move the goal posts …
Donovan
October 7th, 2011
9:20 am
Bookman runs up the class warfare flag and all his legion of liberal zealots come out of the wood work. Sorry folks, but all this barking from these neo-hippies who want everything given to them and don’t have a clue are the product of bad economic times. Take a good look at Greece.
Way back when this all started, any and all companies who got themselves into financial trouble should have been left to their own troubled devices. That’s capitalism.
However, I recall your community organizer pleading that we are on the edge of the abyss and we could not allow such big businesses to fail. I also recall your Barney Frank and Chris Dodd threatening the banks to allow mortgage loans for risky loan seekers. Sub prime then became a financial tool gone bad. The real estate bubble was destined to burst.
The majority of banks later paid back their indebtedness to the treasury, but the other bail out funds in the Democrat slush fund program didn’t have any positive effect on job repatriation. Auto unions got their end and government ownership fattened up.
Now that the Democrat Nation has nothing to show for its time in governance, their pathetic playbook calls for adulation of these poor souls occupying Wall Street and whipping up resentment against those who have more than they do.
Naturally, people are upset with this stubborn economy. Everyone loved the way it was before the economy tanked. Even without taking a sociology class, it goes without saying that people become frustated and angry at having things eliminated in their lives that they enjoyed.
Don’t blame Wall Street and the banks for making a buck from capitalism. Blame the politicians who formulated and put things into motion that caused the bubble to burst.
This classic battle between the haves and have-nots is once again being fomented by the very liberals that created this economic mess. I am surprised that these have-nots haven’t railed against Steve Jobs on their iPads for making so much money. God rest your capitalist soul, Steve.
Look, if you all don’t like living in a capitalist society, then go live in Cuba, Greece, Italy, or France where everyone gets to share the wealth. Trouble is…there is no such fairy tale.
Today is what it is. Make the best of what you have and go forward what you’ve got.
St Simons - we're on Island time
October 7th, 2011
9:21 am
Biff & Muffy down at the yacht club are NOT happy this morning, they have big frowny faces. Things must not be going as planned heheh
Joe Mama
October 7th, 2011
9:27 am
oldguy — “I object to their taking over public rightaway and harrassing others who don’t agree.”
Be nice if you felt the same way about Operation Rescue.
Adam
October 7th, 2011
10:29 am
What Do They Want?
Argh
October 9th, 2011
4:02 pm
To create a future for our teenagers and 20-somethings, we must immediately downsize government entities and government programs (including corporate handouts like TARP & Stimulus 1-2). Pass a Balanced Budget Amendment, and maybe our nation’s children (including the OWS kids) will have a chance at the American dream.
Adam
October 11th, 2011
8:36 am
And cut taxes, right Argh? Those fix EVRAYTHAN!