No Occupancy
Michael Kazin opines on why the Occupy movement fizzled:
[T]he Occupy movement gave American leftists a chance to appeal to millions of their fellow citizens who care about the same crisis they do and were willing to listen to egalitarian solutions. But the open-ended nature of the movement and, to paraphrase Marx, the incubus of failed ideas and strategies on the left still weighs heavily on its fortunes.
I disagree. I stated last October:
A real problem with the OWS protests seems to be the nature of the political support behind it. When the Tea Party had far less groundswell (especially protests not paid for or otherwise supported by billionaires), they wielded incredible political influence. This was because the conservative establishment immediately picked up on the influence they represented and made the most of it. Fox put their full weight behind them, and the conservative political force responded strongly to it, took full advantage of a popular protest.
In the case of OWS, there is no “liberal media” (outside of a few MSNBC shows) to rally behind it (while Fox has spent all their time vilifying and/or mocking it), and Democrats seem to be unsure of what to do. Obama even seems to be ignoring them for the most part–all in character, of course. As a result, we see this huge movement which seems to be running in place, getting nothing at all accomplished.
If a movement has no political arm and no political party gets behind it, isn’t it kind of obvious that nothing will happen? All Wall Street had to do was walk by them every day and wait them out.
“liberal media” LOL.
Well, actually, cry.
Money owns this place. Maybe ol’ Carlin was right, voting for the lesser evil isn’t going to really change anything.
I don’t think so, but with so many idiots running around here, hoping the electorate doesn’t choose to slit its throat again seems a lost cause.
Japan held out “hope” in 2008 too that “change” was in the works, but, man, what a trainwreck Japanese politics is. Seems worse than 1993-1994.
I was eligible for internet renewal of my license, but I decided to go in today to give me another 15 years before I have to step foot in a DMV again.