Wall Street protesters disgusted with both parties

[harvey007]

Source: Boston Globe

NEW YORK—Although their main concern is Wall Street practices and economic inequality, some demonstrators in New York and across the U.S. say politicians from both major parties are to blame for policies they say protect corporate America at the expense of the country's middle class.

Read more: http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2011/10/07/wall_street_protesters_disgusted_with_both_parties/

[RKP5637]

1. I fall in that category of disgusted with both parties. The 1% club certainly

isn't exclusively republican, and certainly we've seen some dems gobbling up any cash bestowed on them, and we see both sides of congress bought/bribed. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the Koch brothers, for example, have funded both D's and R's.

[ixion]

6. Yep, exactly.

And it's time for REAL change.

Note that even though Pelosi and Obama have 'praised' the protests, they haven't bothered to lift a finger to do anything about the rampant police brutality nationwide.

[No Elephants]

10. Don't know about Pelosi, but what I've read indicates that Obama and Biden

either have a lot to learn about the occupy movement vs the Teabaggers, or they are being disingenuous in their public statements.

This is about the kleptocracy as much as it is about the plutonomy. The two go hand in hand. The 1% could never have gotten where they have in 25 years, give or take, if our elected officials on local, state and federal levels had not sold out to them.

[ixion]

14. I agree.

When people ask me what the OWS wants, I say this: "To end corruption and collusion at both the corporate and governmental levels"

Because you're spot on. They could have never have gotten this far without the complicity of the Powers That Be.

[tblue]

26. Yep! The Dems have failed us too.

I am glad OWS is not affiliated with either party. This Dem party is not the answer!

[bdamomma]

32. oh for sure, and the higher ups do not like the idea

that the American public is waking up. The police should stand aside too, and let the protestors protest.

[Cal Carpenter]

44. The police should cross the line

and stand *with* the protesters.

They are part of the 99% and for the most part their job is to help protect and serve the 1%.

The day they cross over to the side of the protesters openly is the day we can start considering what the success of this movement could mean.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

66. Thankfully the LAPD has said they're not going to pepper spray and

bust heads like the cops here on the East Coast. (Though doing so has only given these protests more publicity.)

Edit: I'm disgusted with both parties too. That's what these protests are all about.

[Myrina]

9. +100

Wish more folks realized this is not a "Dem" vs. "Pub" problem. The system itself has been perverted and turned into a whore-fest for the highest bidders.

[No Elephants]

11. Yep. It's a brave new world and we need a new paradigm, as my sig line has been saying for a long

time. (I realize 90% is probably an underestimation, but I wanted to play it very safe.)

It's not about Republican v. Democrat anymore.

This is not your father's USA.

[RKP5637]

29. "This is not your father's USA." I think some of the populace coasts along unconsciously

assuming this is the old America not fully realizing the tremendous forces of corruption, manipulation and as you said earlier of kleptocracy as much as it is about the Plutonomy in today's gov. That is what makes it so dangerous today. I'm so pleased to see OWS highlighting this is dissatisfaction with both parties.

[krabigirl]

37. me too! they are both the same party..beholden to the 1%.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. But they will be compelled to answer the Third Way battle cry:

"Who the @#$% else ya gonna vote for, chumps? The Republicans? We can do anything short of vivisecting puppies on live TV and you'll vote for us!"

[RKP5637]

4. OWS reminds me of the old democratic party. n/t

[abelenkpe]

12. So true!

Honestly the thought of republicans regaining the white house, appointing more supreme court justices, enacting policy scares the crap out of me. At the same time The administration doesn't investigate war crimes,Doesn't do a damn thing to counter citizens united, doesn't end the war, doesn't prosecute wall street, and goes after pot shops in CA (cause we can't have anything that might actually improve the economy). Wtf?
There is a year until the next election and no other viable candidate yet visible. What to do?

[No Elephants]

15. Methinks they do not believe that, or they would not mention it.

It basically translates to "We suck and we know it, but we also know that you have no other option."

Which politician in his or her right mind would broadcast that message over and over or have "strategists" and "pundits" do so for them?

They are hoping it becomes a self fulfilling prophesy.

IMO, they say it over and over so that WE will believe it and manifest it.

[bbgrunt]

3. the kabuki good cop/bad cop theater curtain is coming down!

[No Elephants]

17. Pay no attention to that kleptocracy behind the curtain!

(Apologies to the author of the Wizard of Oz.)

[mother earth]

5. I am disgusted with the GOP, and disappointed in my party,

because they and my president have not come out swinging and fighting at the start after Obama's win. He squandered momentum & huge support & it cost all of us dearly. If he wants to turn that around, he'd better do so & take emergency measures to bring JOBS, JOBS, JOBS back to the backbone of this country, the middle class. All those Bush tax cuts are funding the outsourcing of our livelihoods & have been yet another swindle gutting the nation...they are purging the middle class to turn us into a 3rd world nation of beggars happy for their crumbs.

We have fear of terrorism dangled in front of us while the real enemy pillages & rapes. So many scams, and profiteering gone unfettered because we have allowed power to corporate interests and lobbyists. We are in dire need of campaign finance reform & securing the voting booths....but nary a word is spoken of these issues. We are forced into believing the boogieman is in the middle east, while here at home the true culprit is brazen and fat.

[deutsey]

7. I feel the same way n/t

[No Elephants]

18. Let's tell it like it is.

As of December 31, 2010, the Bush tax cuts expired. They could have been repealed before that, but no one bothered, so so they expired by their own terms.

We are now operating under the Obama tax cuts, which he claims he traded for one single extension of unemployment benefits. In making that trade, he pre-emmpted Congress.

However, we really don't know if Republicans would have risked their seats by refusing to extend unemployment.

What we do know: Republicans believe firmly that you NEVER raise ANY taxes during a recession and Obama's Secretary of Treasury is a Republican who changed his voter registration to independent shorty before Obama announced his nomination. And Bernanke is also a Republican. And the rest of Obama's economic team is DINO or Republican.

Do I think they advised Obama against allowing the tax cuts to expire? You bet. Do I think Obama could have gotten a lot more in exchange for the Obama tax cuts? You bet.

[mother earth]

50. Agreed, his choices are mind boggling. INSIDE JOB explains

it all well, and we are knee deep in the scourge. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures & OWS is the perhaps the only reason I now feel we are at the tipping point.

[RKP5637]

31. Exactly, well said. Also, I think Obama is going to be losing the cover of

"Bush did that." This is Obama and the dems prime time now, and the same has basically been going on since 2008. Terrorism is being used as camouflage for what is occurring here.

[AnneD]

41. When Obama selected.....

Tim Geitner, Larry Summers, and renewed Bernanke.....it became the Obama economic plan....not the Bush economic plan.

Not that it means anything, but we were predicting at DU's SWT that the country was about to be reamed steamed and dry cleaned. We kept hoping Obama would change but he showed his true nature.

WS backed him because they thought all these bills they wanted passed would pass easier if coming from a DEM. The country was so united in their hatred of Bush and the GOP that WS knew they couldn't swing another stolen election. They knew Obama would be the most divisive person they could elect. When the DEM's lost Kennedy's seat, people were try to send a message---the DLC did not hear or care to hear.

When people tried to break up some of these incumbents at the mid term, neither party got the true message. DEM's (rank and file) and GOP's (rank and file) are disgusted with our choiced and are refusing to vote for the lesser of two evils.

The people are starting to refuse to be played against each other. When I start talking to GOP's I know, they are starting to see that we have more in common than our differences, and some are starting to see that they have been played for chumps.

I am thrilled that there is no leadership now in the OWS. A leader makes a target to get rid of or buy off. The DEM voters got sold out. What Obama is seeing is his onetime base. He won't be able to control it this time and it isn't going away. The genie is out of the bottle.

[RKP5637]

42. In many ways I've been more frustrated since 2008, than during the Bush years,

because I knew we were screwed with Bush/Cheney ... but I kept hoping better days were coming. I even got republicans to vote for Obama/dems and the enthusiasm was great, because a lot of republicans felt they were getting screwed by Bush. Then comes Obama and does some of the same.

I've found the same, "When I start talking to GOP's I know, they are starting to see that we have more in common than our differences, and some are starting to see that they have been played for chumps."

I think the OWS sentiment is going to grow and grow. I think if Obama tries to get in front of it and say this is really what I'm about too, a lot of people are going to really get pissed. I'm waiting for someone/group to try to co-opt OWS and say this is about them too and vote for them. I don't think Obama can legitimately do that, he will look foolish.

2012 is going to be an amazing election time ...

[AnneD]

45. My friends and I ....

talked alot about the movement that got Obama elected. And mind you, it was a nascent movement. We were saying then that he had to ride the tiger or in the end the tiger would ride him. We really hoped he would rise to the occasion and take the mantle. But he sold his base out for a few coins.

Now the tiger will ride the politicians. Wither a leader emerges or not...the American tiger is waking up and starting to roar.

edited to add that even in fairly well off Houston, protests are alive. They were expecting 200 in front of the Chase Bank. Over 500 showed up and were there and in front of city hall well into the night.

[RKP5637]

46. Yep, I think OWS was the catalyst needed to wake up the American tiger. n/t

[mother earth]

53. Self-delete, duplicated message.

Edited..duplicate, please remove.

[mother earth]

52. We've all reached the tipping point, may it be so, that

we will no longer tolerate injustice. :grouphug:

[mother earth]

55. Amen to that.

[mother earth]

51. Agreed.

:toast: And that's a damn I need a drink toast, not celebratory. :grr: :cry: :banghead:

[bdamomma]

33. well said.

:thumbsup:

[myrna minx]

8. I'm mortified and appalled by the Republicans and disappointed and disgusted with the Democrats.

I like my Rep, Keith Ellison, but the corporate "Third Way" who has taken over the Democratic Party doesn't represent me in any way.

[No Elephants]

20. If you think Third Way is bad, check into No Labels.

[Hubert Flottz]

13. They are right about that...

The corporate cash has screwed the country into a corner.

[No Elephants]

21. Not by itself. Politicians had to be willing to sell out to corporate cash.

[Hubert Flottz]

35. Weak politicians go back to the cradle of politics.

There's a difference between a patriot and a politician. Most politicians are always honking their own horns about how their goal in life is to serve the country, while in reality their real purpose is to serve themselves or the people who helped them buy their job. Greed is what motivates today's "patriots" in Washington and in every state house, court house and city hall in America. The web of corruption has stifled our democracy and broken every dream the founders had of a, "Great Nation, by the people and for the people." Greed is the killer of empires and that is what America has become. The founders fought the empire for Independence and now it is our turn to fight, if our Independence is ever to be recovered. The American people have suffered long enough from the acute misery, divisiveness and hatred wielded by the forces of intense corporate greed. A tipping point has to come. America is like a putrid, festering, corporate boil, let the lancing and draining of the corruption and the healing begin.

[Le Taz Hot]

16. This is a crucial part of the movement . . .

not aligning with ANY political party or politician. It holds all elected "representatives" accountable and they can't hide behind party affiliation. If they're not on the reform train they need to be replaced by people who are willing to challenge the one-sided corporate status quo.

[offmybrain]

19. Wouldn't our protest be more effective in Washington?

Wall Street has made our representatives extremely rich.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/insider-trading-halls-congress

[No Elephants]

22. Occupation of D.C. began yesterday. www.october2011.org

It was planned before the occupation of Wall Street began.

And occupations are going on around the country, in solidarity with either occupy wall street or the occupation of Freedom Square in D.C.

[LiberalEsto]

23. Noooooooo kidding

It took them long enough to figure that out.

[Javaman]

24. this is why the 1% is paying attention...

the 99%ers have no party affiliation.

this is going against all the efforts of the 1% to divide and conquer.

[onpatrol98]

25. +1

This is really awesome!

[RKP5637]

34. +1000 +++ That, is the key, no party affiliation, no automatically voting for any

one party!

[bhikkhu]

27. The usual "both parties are to blame" drivel the media pushes

"some demonstrators say"...

When the repugs refuse to even consider passing a jobs bill, and would rather crash the economy than raise the debt limit, just to extort more concessions from the 99% - then the media has this apparent taboo about ever saying that the repugs are the cause of anything.

[OHdem10]

28. These are savy protestors. We know there are Pro-Business

Conservadems if put to the test and must choose
between helping Middle Class and Poor or help
Business Interests, they throw the Middle Class
under the bus and vote with Business.

The New Jobs Plan is the Perfect Example.
There are Democrats on the Hill not willing
to raise taxes on the 1%. Will not vote
to get rid of GWB Tax cuts.

THIS DOES NOT MEAN THE PROTESTORS are any less
left in their thinking. It means they are
disgusted with both parties who do not look
out for American People's interests.

[ChillbertKChesterton]

30. I hope the protesters put A LOT of pressure on the Democratic Party

If you want to take someone seriously you must criticize them relentlessly when they deserve it.

I would hate to see the Democrats try to co-opt these protests and make them into a simple Obama-reelection campaign like the Tea Party was for the Republicans.

Everyone knows the Tea Party was nothing more than a Republican event meant to rouse their base and get out the vote, this cannot be what OWS is about.

[bvar22]

36. How many "Obama 2012" signs have YOU seen at the protests?

?


You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.

Solidarity99!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[PufPuf23]

57. I have not noted a single Obama 2012 sign on internet nor TV.

My fervent wish is that POTUS Obama will have an LBJ moment and we can have a real Democratic primary.

Then create jobs, stop wars, and tax rich and strengthen the social safety net.

Put the neoliberals and neoconservatives in zoos as relics of failed policies counter to USA and world peace

The policies that have harmed and destroyed lives, hope, and rule of law.

[Lorien]

58. Not a one, but I've seen plenty that are critical of his policies.

The people aren't as clueless as the 1% would like to believe they are.

[kimsarah]

64. Nor as divided as they'd like us to be

[krabigirl]

38. fire all of the politicians that got us into this mess and are continuing it.

[piratefish08]

39. GOOD!

as they should be.

they are different sides of the same fucking coin.....

[bobthedrummer]

40. I am a human being, corporations are not-and I' ll never change that view. I'm not opposed to

American Socialism either.

K&R

[RKP5637]

43. What we get today with the R's and the D's is the SOS over and over again, and

we go nowhere, just muddling around and treading water, and the R's dragging out the same old tired divisive wedges to split and antagonize the citizenry. And both parties bought, bribed and corrupted by hoards of money.

[Fire Walk With Me]

47. Yes!

[blindpig]

48. Both parties are parties of Capitalism.

eom

[coalition_unwilling]

75. Ding, ding, ding -- we have a winner! - n/t

[Kurovski]

49. K&R. (nt)

[kentuck]

54. It's the money.

Both parties are beholden to the money changers. The Democratic Party has been mostly timid since the days of Reagan. Mondale and Dukakis did not want to be labeled as "liberals". They compromised their message in attempts to be Republican Lite. Eventually, money became the ruler of all.

[Bonobo]

56. Yes, and those who feel that the Tea Party should be snubbed are just snobs and don't get it,

The Tea Party did not start as you see it, One must look beyond, towards the broad feeling of dissatisfaction and disenfranchisement, if one is to really "get it".

They would be a powerful force to align with in this battle of 99% vs. 1%.

The issues where there are disagreements are, in many cases, intentional roadblocks thrown in the way in order to keep the 99% divided.

[Enthusiast]

59. It's true.

The Democratic Party has betrayed the American people. The Republican Party, however, is far worse in every single regard. The Democratic Party might be salvageable, the Republican Party is beyond hope.

[donheld]

60. Both parties are the 1%

[chill_wind]

61. Yes. Just look at the Top Ten Wealthiest

in Congress alone. Seven of them Dems, in fact.

Descriptions of the top 50's wealth backgrounds. If you don't have time to scroll through all 50, here's just the TOP TEN, seven of them Dems. Ranging from $287 to $44.4 million, in descending order.

McCaul
Issa
Kerry
Rockefeller
Warner
Polis
Lautenberg
Blumenthal
Feinstein
Buchanan


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x626149

They and their friends make the rules for all the rest of us.

[kimsarah]

65. And we are the 99 percent

[sce56]

62. Well they are right!

And I've said it here before, many times before.

[NICO9000]

63. As we all should be at this point

There is no choice in a two party system. Choosing between the less smellier pile of shit does not a democracy make.

[RBInMaine]

67. They will get NOWHERE without translating their ideas into actual legislation. So they had better

start getting real, getting organized, form a legislative agenda, and support Democrats. There is no alternative. Marching and chanting feels good, but it amounts to no more than that unless it has a way to become real policy change. Just look at any other successful movement from suffrage to civil rights. They had better wake up and get real.

[myrna minx]

69. They're doing just fine. this is organic- it' just beginning -

with people coming together finding common ground and interests. People of different backgrounds discovering commonality. The system is broken. The politicians we elected aren't working for us. The OWS folks are doing just fine -they don't need to submit to your demands and timeline. People in a thread you posted have explained why going in the direction that you're demanding won't work for this movement.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2078137

[Le Taz Hot]

70. Man, is THAT a great word to use re OWS!

Organic! That's exactly it. You know I'm stealing that, right? ;-)

[B Calm]

68. Well too bad, because the republicans have already labeled them.

[Le Taz Hot]

71. Who cares?

Both major political parties are becoming more and more irrelevant. They can either evolve or die off as far as I'm concerned.

[myrna minx]

73. OWS is just taking the President's lead by being "post partisan" *and*

blaming both parties for the current mess. :D

It's funny - politicos and the media don't know how to function when things aren't being organized through and analyzed through a right wing frame. Even some Dems here can't wrap their heads around a true grass roots movement that's not headed by a top-down political party. I think it's a thing of genius and beauty.

[B Calm]

74. This is a democratic website. . .

[LatteLibertine]

72. Generally speaking, I am too

however I'd never vote for a Republican. They're far worse than most Democrats.

The GOP doesn't even try to obfuscate the fact they completely serve the upper 1%.

The problem is we've a system where it's much too easy to >buy< our Congress. Until that changes, we're going to stay bent over.

I hope the OWS movement continues.