NY Times Editorial: Protesters Against Wall Street

[markpkessinger]

Excellent editorial in the NY Times (and rather ironic in light of the dismissive tone of that paper's coverage of the protests!).

As the Occupy Wall Street protests spread from Lower Manhattan to Washington and other cities, the chattering classes keep complaining that the marchers lack a clear message and specific policy prescriptions. The message — and the solutions — should be obvious to anyone who has been paying attention since the economy went into a recession that continues to sock the middle class while the rich have recovered and prospered. The problem is that no one in Washington has been listening.

At this point, protest is the message: income inequality is grinding down that middle class, increasing the ranks of the poor, and threatening to create a permanent underclass of able, willing but jobless people. On one level, the protesters, most of them young, are giving voice to a generation of lost opportunity.

< . . . >

No wonder then that Occupy Wall Street has become a magnet for discontent. There are plenty of policy goals to address the grievances of the protesters — including lasting foreclosure relief, a financial transactions tax, greater legal protection for workers’ rights, and more progressive taxation. The country needs a shift in the emphasis of public policy from protecting the banks to fostering full employment, including public spending for job creation and development of a strong, long-term strategy to increase domestic manufacturing.

It is not the job of the protesters to draft legislation. That’s the job of the nation’s leaders, and if they had been doing it all along there might not be a need for these marches and rallies. Because they have not, the public airing of grievances is a legitimate and important end in itself. It is also the first line of defense against a return to the Wall Street ways that plunged the nation into an economic crisis from which it has yet to emerge.

Read full article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/opinion/sunday/protesters-against-wall-street.html

[highplainsdem]

1. K&R

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. K&R!

[Justpat]

3. K&R n/t

[seabeyond]

4. 'bout time someone in media said it. nt

[jaysunb]

5. Bravo !

The movement now has legs. Thank you NYT. :)

[moondust]

6. Good.

K/R

[ananda]

7. It's also not the job of the protesters to have a "message."

The movement itself is the message, showing heartless, soulless
corporate America what it means to be human and connected.

[jannyk]

8. Bravo! k&r

[gratuitous]

9. Color me shocked

I thought the Tea Baggers were supposed to set everything to right, with the new Republican majority in the House creating so many jobs that blow and hand would go out of business. What happened to that?

[Remember Me]

10. I'll be honest -- it almost scares me to have the NYT's support

That's NOT the way it traditionally happens. I'm a little perplexed, caught off guard here. I mean it's great, but just terribly unexpected.

[tama]

11. They are afraid

of a full scale revolution tsunami disposing the whole ancien regime and creating a new system of democratic self-management, so they are starting to preach making concessions to save what they can save of their status quo. Just like in Arab Spring revolutions. This is the phase and tactic called "hug them to death". It works wonders in multi-party parliamentary democracies where peoples discontent and opposition gets channeled in latest protest party, which then gets hugged to death by giving it minority position in government coalition. In "Big Tent" two-party system Koch Brothers and Republican party hugged Tea Party protest to death - what genuine grievances and grass roots movement it originally had, and it is expected and wished that the Democratic party does the same to OWS movement.

[stockholmer]

30. +100, very well put, lets hope OWS doesn't get the Democrat version of being "Koch-opted"

Operatives like Soros and Michael Moore sure are trying. Also, the further embedded into the Democrats that OWS is perceived to be, the less support it will get from people who do not subscribe to mainstream corporate Democratic party philosophy, and the more the bastards on the corporate right will attack it.

[Remember Me]

44. Don't be silly

Encouragement and even showing up to give an impromptu speech is HARDLY an attempt to co-opt anything.

[tallahasseedem]

33. +1

Great analysis! :)

[me b zola]

12. K&R

[chill_wind]

13. Wow.

Bookmark that one. K & R.

[flamingdem]

14. Good and getting better

It seems like a knife through butter to get support, things are changing.

[Dover]

15. ...and it will break the bank to keep the NYPD's attention on them.

True for other global protests as well...costly and disruptive. Chinese water torture...drip, drip, drip. It really doesn't require violence of any kind. Just patience and numbers and a quiet but firm unwillingness to go along with the status quo.

[nobodyspecial]

16. Good line

It is not the job of the protesters to draft legislation. That’s the job of the nation’s leaders, and if they had been doing it all along there might not be a need for these marches and rallies.

[Enthusiast]

23. I thought the same.

[B Calm]

17. Good article

[Corgigal]

18. my son and his college group

were interviewed yesterday by the New York Times (and Huffington Post) seems like most of the marchers yesterday understood the issues and projected what this nation needed in a manner that even the major press understood. Kudos to all.

[pangaia]

19. Can't be;ieve it !

The NYT finally came through with some intelligent.... OPINIONS.. :>))

[malaise]

20. Freaking wow!

Rec

[Le Taz Hot]

21. Really good article!

K & R

[Douglas Carpenter]

22. when the emperor's lap dog - like the NYT - starts hinting to the emperor that he has no clothes.

that is a pretty good sign that this is being taken seriously

[certainot]

24. NYT piece is rare because the left makes it easy for media to downplay OWS- by ignoring RW radio

, as it mocks OWS and everything progressive.

here's an example of limbaugh from about 30 min of listening over several days-

no doubt that the white house is behind it
rich white spoiled rotten jerks
parade of human debris
idiots, parasites, dumb, stupid

lightweight stuff but it's going to go on and on and on all day long from ALL RW radio shows, reaching 50 mil a week, and it will also be coordinated by the think tanks to specifically enable media and politicians to ignore any significant OWS gains in media.

get used to it until there is a congruent organized effort to finally challenge the corporatists best weapon.

[SalviaBlue]

25. I don't think Rush is relevant anymore. Hate radio plays

to very few, the rest of us sought alternative methods to enlighten ourselves. If they want to continue to spew thier garbage,"F" em. We can get our info elsewhere. (Ditto TV "news").

[certainot]

29. 1000 think tank-coordinated radio stations reaching 50 mil/week is why we're in this disaster

they can create the kind of buzz madison ave would kill for and have been able message over everything the left or dems or obama have been trying to do for 20 years.

talk radio kicks internet ass and ignoring it is why we've been going backwards.

limbaugh is just the starter, they're all getting similar talking points and that medium is that only one that can that can do the unchallenged repetition necessary to create the reality that the teabaggers are coming from. fox is a tick on limbaugh's ass, mostly just providing visual reinforcement of what's being pounded into 100 million earholes a week.

and limbaugh's trophy room is full swiftboated progressives and dems whose 'supporters' thought they were supporting but had no clue of the lies and distortions being screamed all day from the local RW megastation.

[SalviaBlue]

38. I understand the grip they have on the airways... I just think

don't think they have the influence they once did. There are other ways to get info. The only people I know who listen to rush are 80+ years old.

[certainot]

40. on the coasts where there are alternatives 80 yrs old may be the avg listener age but most of the US

land mass is dominated by RW radio - there are few or no free easy alternatives for politics if you're driving or working in most of the rest of the country, even in large cities and towns.

RW radio can still dominate messaging in the US and it is well coordinated by the RW think tanks.

[Ikonoklast]

41. But one of the problems is, Limbaugh is telling many who have been fucked over

by the banks and Limbaugh's buddies, are now starting to think that he's full of shit.

Anecdotal, but one guy I know that lost his job in contracting and listens to Limbaugh told me, "He's got nothing to worry about, he's a millionaire sticking up for other millionaires, and I got thrown out of work because the bankers killed my industry."

People are starting to wake up and see what the reality of the situation is, because they are being forced to deal with it.

[certainot]

43. i hope they wake up in enough numbers ASAP. global warming won't wait for legislative fixes. but

i'm not counting on it. all they need is a national emergency and those stations will be first resort for a lot of people. and he can rationalize anything.

i recently heard him go through a long list of examples of conflicts of interest that were supposed to make light of the clarence thomas conflicts of interest. with no one to call in to tell him he's full of shit it works for a lot of people - millions- and it will help keep clarence thomas on the supreme court. just as his work was critical for swiftboating anita hill and get him confirmed in the first place. those kinds of functions for RW talk radio may continue to short circuit our democratic feedback mechanisms, appealing to the racism and fear and ignorance and hate, for years more. that's why i think it's important not to count on it just fading away.

i would love it if the stations started dropping him because they can't subsidize it anymore, but they have a lot of angles to play first. one of the local talkers, sold as a moderate, gave me the old song and dance in a recent radio 'conversation' about limbaugh dominating because that's what americans want on talk radio.

and unfortunately, as has been the case for many years, he and his parroting think tank-scripted wannabes are the dominant political talk in most towns in the US if you want free politics while driving or working.

[nineteen50]

26. Don't forget

The right to privacy (4th amendment), due process and habeas
corpus

[Autumn Colors]

27. Just in time for Festivus

"Because they have not, the public airing of grievances is a legitimate and important end in itself."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festivus

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

[sce56]

28. K, R & FB'd

[renate]

31. excellent editorial, and check this "Occupy Poor Street" cartoon out:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/10/08/opinion/sunday/20111008_McFadden_Cartoon.html

It's awesome to see these things in the NY Times!

[tallahasseedem]

32. The last part is priceless...

I'm getting really sick and tired of pundits claiming that the protesters don't have a clear message.

[FourScore]

34. BRAVO!!!

:) B-) :party: :toast: :bounce: :beer: :thumbsup: :hi: :kick: :hug: :grouphug: :pals: :fistbump: :headbang: :yourock: :woohoo: :applause: :popcorn: :patriot:

[beachbumbob]

35. when will Homeland Security be sic'd on the protestors?

a matter of time i suspect when the protest start to be put down hard. Can't have the people actually upset the corporate money machine that has ripped off the american future.

[nadinbrzezinski]

36. Worm is starting to turn

It is not the job of the protesters to draft legislation. That’s the job of the nation’s leaders, and if they had been doing it all along there might not be a need for these marches and rallies. Because they have not, the public airing of grievances is a legitimate and important end in itself. It is also the first line of defense against a return to the Wall Street ways that plunged the nation into an economic crisis from which it has yet to emerge.

------------------

Faster than the 1930s, but this was the same kind of editorial commentary back then.

[Stuart G]

37. k & r thanks for posting...nt

[MissDeeds]

39. Very well stated

K&R

[ooglymoogly]

42. Kr nt