OWS: Not a Matter of LIfe and Death

Image by david_shankbone via FlickrThe Occupy Wall Street movement has branched out as the seasons change and the weather turns colder.  There are chapters popping up all over the country like McDonalds franchises, with varying degrees of success.  The message remains the same:  fighting for economic justice against the Wall Street bankers and corporations who have (more or less) taken over our government and our way of life.

The public seems to be on OWS' side so far, with a number of polls indicating a good chunk of support among those willing to be interviewed.

One small victory has already been achieved:  Bank of America and other financial institutions have dropped its controversial monthly fees for debit cards, which doesn't mean they won't bring it back in some other form when nobody's looking.

However, the OWS movement is being threatened by how unruly it's becoming.  While most demonstrations have been peaceful, local officials' efforts to shut down the parks used by the Occupiers for health and safety reasons have resulted in arrests and violent clashes with police in some cities.  In other places, such as Minneapolis, the Occupiers' numbers are dwindling and are being routinely ignored.

Conservatives are doing their best to counter the Occupiers by charging them with anti-Semitism (did you know that most Wall Street financiers tend to be Jewish?), referring to them as spoiled brats who think they're entitled and don't have anything better to do, and predicting their ultimate doom.  Of course, that's what people said about the Tea Party, except for the racism part in which African-Americans are substituted for Jewish people.

President Barack Obama and the Democrats would love to embrace the Occupiers, but there's a small problem.  The Occupiers don't think much of either the Democrats or the Republicans, because both parties' inaction in Washington is what contributed to their taking to the streets in the first place.  Then there's the fact that both parties will need corporate cash to help fund their 2012 election campaigns.  And if there's a public backlash against the Occupiers, the GOP will take over Congress and the White House.

In a previous post, we said that the OWS protest are nothing like the ones in 1968.  Let us explain. 

Not being able to find a job is not the same as getting drafted into the army, then being told to kill as many North Vietnamese (who looked remarkably like the South Vietnamese they were trying to defend) as possible.  Having your home foreclosed and your car repossessed isn't the same as African-Americans who lived in the Jim Crow South, intimidated from voting and forced to use separate facilities from white people.  And not being able to pay off your credit cards or student loans is nothing compared to the threat of nuclear war.

In other words, folks, whatever the Occupiers on Wall Street or Podunk, Nebraska are protesting against is not a matter of life or death.  It's retaining some semblance of what we used to call the American Way of Life.