Why Occupy Wall Street Should Scare Republicans: Jonathan Alter

[hue]

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-06/why-occupy-wall-street-should-scare-republicans-jonathan-alter.html

Why Occupy Wall Street Should Scare Republicans: Jonathan Alter
October 06, 2011, 8:23 PM EDT
By Jonathan Alter

Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) -- In Florida this week, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was asked about the growing Occupy Wall Street movement. “I think it’s dangerous, this class warfare,” he said.

Romney’s right. It may be dangerous -- to his chances of being elected.

Occupy Wall Street, now almost three weeks old, isn’t like the anti-globalization demonstrations that disrupted summits in the 1990s or even the street actions at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York, though some of the same characters are probably in attendance. With unemployed young protesters planning to camp out all winter in Zuccotti Park (with bathrooms available only at a nearby McDonald’s), it’s more like a cross between a Hooverville and Woodstock -- the middle-class jobless of the 1930s and the hippie protesters of the 1960s.

With the help of unions and social networking, the movement has at least some chance of re-energizing Democrats in 2012 and pushing back against the phenomenal progress Republicans have made in suppressing voter turnout in several states.

Why? Because the tectonic plates of U.S. politics are shifting in ways we don’t yet fully understand. We don’t know whether Occupy Wall Street is a carnival party -- a piece of left-wing street theater that gets old fast -- or a nascent political party that revives a long-dormant tradition of class- based politics.

It’s possible that these demonstrations, which have now spread to about 150 cities and campuses, will be hijacked by extremists or dissipated by obnoxiousness; the American left has practice in committing suicide. The whole thing could fade as young people find a better way of hanging out offline.

Something Consequential

But my visits to Zuccotti Park made me think it’s the beginning of something consequential. So far it looks like a younger, lefty version of the early days of the Tea Party -- a leaderless, mostly organic movement with a catchy symbolic name that captures the public imagination by channeling anger against elites.

Like the Tea Party on the Republican side, Occupy Wall Street makes the party establishment nervous. It’s not just that Democratic candidates have done well fundraising on Wall Street in recent years. The bigger problem is getting the activists to draw a distinction between bringing specific greedheads to justice and mocking those parts of Wall Street that are blameless in the 2008 crash and do plenty to invest in the future of the country.

Directing Anger

But a healthy rebalancing of the national conversation is nonetheless under way. The Tea Party directed public anger against the federal government in general and President Barack Obama in particular; Occupy Wall Street directs that ire against Wall Street in general and -- inevitably -- Romney in particular.

This will have no effect on Romney in the Republican primaries, of course, but in a general election it could make him the poster boy of the big banks that many see as the cause of their woes. The specifics of his record running Bain Capital LLC will be subsumed in the image of his rationalizing the actions (resisting any tax increases) of the “1 percenters.”

The arguments I heard from the often-articulate protesters in the park were economic, not partisan. None of the posters depicted Romney, House Speaker John Boehner or any other Republicans. Instead they said things like “Top 1% Want Everything,” “Listen to the Drumming of the 99% Revolution,” “Stop Off-Shore Tax Evasion,” and “Protect Medicare, Not Billionaires.”

It’s easy to denigrate the movement for simplistic sentiments that lack a clear agenda. But as the Tea Party demonstrations showed in 2009, that very shapelessness is a huge asset (to use the Wall Street term). If “We’re the 99 percenters” catches on, and the crazies can be marginalized, then the challenge will be to move from the streets to the ballot box, as the Tea Party did in 2010.

Voting Barriers Multiply

Lack of enthusiasm for Obama would be one problem. But the young people brought into activism by Occupy Wall Street may face other impediments. Today’s Republican Party is not just anti-Democratic but anti-democratic. The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University just released a disturbing report showing that changes in state laws could make it much harder for more than 5 million eligible voters to cast ballots in 2012. Some states are putting barriers in the way of early voting and student voting, both of which are used heavily by the liberal base.

The most appalling laws make it almost impossible to vote without a driver’s license, which 11 percent of U.S. adults don’t have. College ID cards are not an acceptable substitute in several states. Texas Governor Rick Perry recently signed a bill saying you can vote with a concealed-handgun permit but not with identification from the University of Texas.

Discipline Needed

It isn’t hard to see what Republican-controlled legislatures are trying to do. They want to make sure that the kind of free-floating anger expressed by Occupy Wall Street doesn’t end up helping Obama’s reelection. The claim that the purpose of the new election laws is to prevent voter fraud is itself a fraud, given that there’s no widespread evidence of ballots cast under assumed identities.

To make something lasting of this movement, the left must move from legitimate moral outrage to a disciplined approach for electing candidates who want to make Wall Street more answerable for the mess we’re in. Even as they’re outspent by the Koch brothers and their corporate ilk, the 99 percenters will make 2012 a helluva lot more compelling.

(Jonathan Alter, a Bloomberg View columnist, is the author of “The Promise: President Obama, Year One.” The opinions expressed are his own.)

--Editors: Timothy Lavin, Stacey Shick.

Click on “Send Comment” in the sidebar display to send a letter to the editor.

To contact the writer of this article: Jonathan Alter at [e-mail].

To contact the editor responsible for this article: Timothy Lavin at [e-mail].

[liberalhistorian]

1. I'm getting really tired of the GOP's tired complaints and

accusations of "class warfare." WTF do they think they've been declaring on and carrying out against the vast majority of us for damn near THIRTY years now, if not longer???? But I guess that doesn't matter to them, since it's against the "right" people. Bleh. They just don't seem to realize that WE HAVE NOTHING LEFT TO GIVE ANYMORE.

[hue]

2. I don't think they conceptualize the common folk as HUMAN or

in their own league. They look down on the workers. Indeed the other 99% have been pushed/used/scapegoated/demeaned for just too long.
Something is going to break, and maybe its their fantasy world that's going down.

[Tutankhamun]

12. Nothing left is why they're going for Social Security

And Medicare. It's why they're trying to reinstate slave labor (for all races, but particularly non-whites). Loot the treasury, take SS, Medicare. Take everything and exploit the masses as slaves.

[DainBramaged]

3. " the American left has practice in committing suicide"

Which is why the Tea Bagger protests had such impact, they were backed by business and a compliant media, and the occupiers have NO coherent message or spokes person.


When the snow comes the streets will be empty, and I am ashamed we won't be strong enough like we were in the 60's and 70's.

[Bosso 63]

4. A cold front is moving in, but I'm only predicting a change in the

weather. Beyond that, all bets are off.

[Orlandodem]

5. OWS needs to prep for the cold weather. If they brave the cold, this thing will

indeed capture the hearts and minds of millions of disaffected Americans. We need this to continue and it just may do that.

That said, the TeaTards didn't stand in the cold. They aren't out right now. They have organized via social media and we on the Left will do the same.

[tartan2]

8. Wisconsin

Wisconsin showed us last winter that us northern folk are made of damn sturdy stock! We know how to handle ourselves in cold weather. Yes,zero degrees is rough but we know this! And we,truth be told,actually embrace it!

[Doctor_J]

10. The WI protests were pretty much of a failure

hopefully this will turn out better

[Populist_Prole]

6. What I don't understand is why this isn't the ultimate wedge issue of the working class

This is about the working class' very survival. How anyone NOT in the top 20 percent is able to sweep aside the corporatization of this country's public policy over stupid small potato bullshit like religion, race, and especially idiotic partisan identity politics, is truly beyond me. Hypnotism?

[HoosierCowboy]

7. Why OSW won't fold like the left of the 60's

The war faded along with any reason to protest about your own situation in life. We had jobs and a future without debt.
The people of OWS have debt without any chance of relief.
There's no place to go back to.

[Merlot]

9. They have nothing to loose. Sad but true.

Though I disagree with your premise that the left "folded" in the 60's. The administration of the early 70's did a lot to disfranchise the left. Remember there was a gas crisis, inflation, price freezes, etc. There was a lot of financial instability and other social factors that forced them into finding jobs...jobs that no longer are an option for these new occupiers.

[Mosaic]

11. Stopping Romney is Just the Beginning

We must stop the evil wars, the evil stealing, the evil rigged system. For starters.

We must create direct democracy too, that is vital.