Occupy Miami and Occupy Wall Street: what next? by gimleteye

Listening last night to NPR's Marketplace, I was curious about comments / suggestions from business and political professionals about the Occupy Wall Street movement. Grover Norquist, arguably the most powerful person in Washington, slyly suggested that the OWS'ers follow the Tea Party that gained popular support by advocating for limited government. Norquist is one of the main architects of "government-designed-to-fail". The OWS'ers have a different agenda, although the question-- what is that agenda?-- occupied other commenters, who one by one criticized the fuzzy "branding" of the protests.

I came of age in the 60's through the politics coursing through campuses and streets. What we know, today, is that the populist movement of that time energized and focused a conservative movement that eventually cemented the power of leaders like Norquist. Their target--overreaching government--grew from the fear and paranoia of wealthy business interests. So much has changed since then. For one, the false promises of globalization had yet to materialize. In the 1960's, the great middle class was swept along by the military draft and the Vietnam war. 

It is a vastly different landscape today. Most Americans are fed up with paying for wars waged to secure oil supplies, costing billions of dollars per week. The economy has passed through profound structural changes. Only the aspirations of citizens in China, Asia and India seem immune to the ratcheting down of expectations. 

What is similar is the energy of young protesters. The higher pitched calls to "smash the system" are part of the amped up hormones we ought to recognize from our earlier selves. Here are two observations: first, removing the OWS'ers from their encampments across the country was a lousy idea. What the mayors of American cities have done is to take away an escape valve for public pressure. It will express itself, one way or another. As a parent, I never expected my children to always behave like angels and I was always more pleased to have them and their friends at home where I could see and hear them than out somewhere, where I couldn't.

The Tea Party started out in a populist direction but was quickly usurped by a corporate agenda and funding by business interests advocating the Grover Norquist line of limited government. The OWS'ers have been adopted by the unions and shell-shocked opposition to the conservative wave that capitalizes on fear and greed. This gets a second observation; the point of a simplified message.

Last Sunday CBS 60 Minutes broadcast an investigation that exposed how members of Congress are permitted by law to trade on inside information of stocks and industries members regulate. Add to this, news that Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich received millions in fees from Freddie Mac, a key corporate player in the debt crisis that is swallowing the US economy.

 

The OWS'ers need to focus on the role of corporations in elections and reform the campaign finance system. I have been on the front lines of the 40 Year War Against the Environment-- one of the gauges of the health of our democracy-- for more than two decades. We are not making headway. Florida Governor Rick Scott set back environmental protection by generations. Corporations are too powerful. Corporations dominate elections. Change the campaign finance system and there is a chance that democracy can right itself. 

Keep it simple. Keep the pressure on. Don't give up.