A reader writes:
I don't see these protesters in the same dismissive way you seem to. Compare them to the Tea Party-ers. Yes, some of their tactics are theatrical, and their motive seems to be expression of rage without a whole lot of specific focus. It's pretty juvenile stuff. But at least they have identified an actual, real world object of well-deserved anger, not some misguided paranoid fantasy. It has baffled me that there has been so very little anger expressed by folks towards Wall Street in the last three years. I don't know what their end game is, but these protesters at least give me some hope that maybe the middle class is waking up and finding its voice.
Another writes:
I think the media are being willfully obtuse in interpreting the Occupy Wall Streeters intentions. They also have a huge list of greivances, found here. A simple and concise list:
1. Place fees on financial transactions and tax capital gains the same as income
2. End corporate personhood and overturn the flawed Citizens United decision
3. Get big money out of politics through substantive campaign finance reform
4. Jobs through investment in the public sector and infrastructure, not tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations
As a former Democratic Ward Chair, I can tell you that many of us are simply disgusted by the Democratic Party and now realize it is no more concerned with the fate of Working Americans as the biggest Corporate Whore in the Republican Party.
Sorry for the language but I need to be clear and emphatic on this point. In a very real sense the Democratic Party is much more disgusting than such a Republican because the Dems claim they care about the middle class when in fact they are just another arm of Wall Street and the Big Banks. "We" have all realized that the politicians are just bit players in a long running Kabuki Theater whose goal is to keep our eyes from the real basis of our problems, those that own and run the system – Corporate America.
None of us, including the Wall Street Protestors, know what to do next but we are sure of one thing – more of the same isn't going to fix anything. Both political parties are corrupt to their very core and the idea that they can solve any of our problems is beyond ludicrous. Please note I am not saying Democracy has failed – rather our implementation of democracy is in the process of failing and until we identify the root cause of the problem, in our case that is clear – it is money and the process that has lead to the ownership of the US Political Class by Corporate America, no solution is possible.
Sadly I can't help the brave few that are taking the fight to the core of the problem because I live way out west in New Mexico. But I deeply appreciate what they are doing since it is the first real step in the system's reform and finally is "Change we can believe in". Perhaps that is why they are treated so horribly by the New York Police – the protestors have gone to the core of the problem and the establishment has reacted accordingly. While the folks protesting on Wall Street haven't got a well-oiled PR machine behind them, they are a start.
Another impassioned reader digs deep:
I read Greenwald's criticisms. For the record, I love Glenn Greenwald. He basically represents my id in terms of the things that I believe within my heart vis a vis politics. If him and Paul Krugman had a baby, it would look a lot like my soul unfiltered by any sense of a need to be respected by the Cato institute.
That said, I disagreed expressly with the idea that this criticism is establishment criticism and petty. In the excerpt you quote, he's basically telling people to stop playing dumb. And in the article, he talks about professional left writers and the sort of criticism they're giving it comparing it to criticizing a three year old with the point being that it's still young and will still figure itself out.
It won't. My curiosity made me go to the website of Occupy Wall Street. Luckily, it's laid out like pretty much every other website in existence. So, I went to the about section, at which point they have a line that says they are occupying land now under their sovereign control. It's unclear if it's just a metaphor. I mean, it could be argued that eminent domain, for example, has been used as an extension of government cronyism.
But that didn't answer my question. Then I went to the forums and the article pages to find out what they were about. And guess what? They are trying to figure out what they're about, and what they're about is f*cking EVERYTHING. One of the ideas thrown out was disbanding the Fed. Another was of incorporating a flat tax. A third was off the removal of the Republican and Democratic Parties.
So, I'm going to say what I've wanted to say since Bush took office. This sh*t is the problem! I'm tired of going to protests about everything that are essentially just direct-democracy spit-balling because being about everything is being about nothing. I'm tired of hearing guys recite Kant and say Herman Cain looks great. But most of all what I'm tired about is openness. You know who is saying that stuff on those boards? People that want to disrupt the protest and muzzle the message. You know what the response is? Well, let's flag them when we disagree but not censor them.
Bullsh*t! Censor them. All they're doing is trying to undercut you. They're not there for honest discussion. They're over there to f*ck with you and make you look bad and make actual progressives think you might not actually be progressive and don't know what you're talking about.
Here's my problem and I saw this in Portland and Seattle and all across the country for years. You have protestors and they have no sense of stopping. They want everyone to have input and be treated fairly. That's great on moral terms, but it sucks in terms of having a demonstration. It sucks in terms of gaining traction. It sucks in terms of beating the machine.
It's so disappointing to see the same people make the same mistakes. You know why we're not winning? Because we're not them. We're not bullies. We're not crazy. But at times, I do wonder if we're just a bunch of college kids trying to get laid, because we're not willing to be cut-throats. We're not willing to send messages the way they send messages. We're not willing to learn from them and beat them at their own game which is the only way we can win because they own everything.
Here are specific proposals: stop pressuring the NY attorney general to stop criminal and civil prosecution of bank and lenders, raise corporate tax rates, raise the top marginal income tax rate, put a moratorium on all foreclosures by US banks on American homes. You may agree with those or you may not. Those may be attainable or those may not. But I need to be able to go to your website and find out what you want. I need to hear you say what you stand for. I need to see a list of things you support.
I'm tired of "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." Because that's not geared at anything. It never has been. And frankly, it's unconvincing. As soon as I saw Cornel West, I started seeing the reality. There's not going to be substance there. There's going to be talk of caring for the poor. There's going to be talk against war. There's going to be turns of phrase talking about how much we spend on one and how much we don't spend on the other. And most of all, there's going to be the same congratulatory back-patting and people saying "yeah, I've been reading a lot of books lately, and I've been preaching this gospel for the longest. I'm glad people are finally coming around."
Glenn, James Fallows, Coates and Paul Krugman make more difference in a day of putting forward their arguments than anything these protests will manage. The only chance they even have is if god forbid violence against them continues. All Wall Street and the cops literally have to do is nothing and they're fine. Fortunately for the protestors, cops and Wall street aren't exactly good at restraint. It's just disappointing. Glenn's error here is he assumes this is the beginning. This is an extension of what has been happening for years. It was happening since 2002. It's part of why the Iraq War protests weren't more successful.
When you can't answer what you're for and against and you want everyone else to fill in the blanks and you do nothing to keep your message from getting muddled by the very people you're opposing and it happens every time, then maybe you should get out of the protesting game altogether. Oh, and by the way, presentation matters. Nader's Raiders knew that. They knew you had to get your haircut, wear nice pants and a nice shirt. You needed to look sharp and respectable and unquestionable on issues of adult-hood. Guess what, wearing a camo-wife beater doesn't make you an individual. It makes you someone who won't make basic changes for a cause.
It's simple: dress better. Stop with cardboard signs. Have a specific message. Have goals both attainable and not. Refuse to move. Participate in active, targeted civil disobedience. Censor those from outside of the movement who are seeking to confuse it. I know you're uncomfortable with all of that, but I'm uncomfortable with having our dear corporate masters be able to point to white college kids with dread-locks, and sleeveless shirts as evidence of these 'godd*mn hippies.' We need to be unimpeachable in terms of character and approach. And we're not. We're just waiting to be co-opted by men like Cornel West who just want to be part of a moment.
But this isn't about moments. If you want something done, you can get something done. But you have to be willing to do that. You have to be willing to drop philosophy. You have to be willing to shave and cut your hair and wear a shirt and pants and shoes. If you want this to work, then a Midwestern mom has to look on her television and see young kids, nice kids and adults that aren't all too different from them in terms of attire or temper with a clear message. Every interview they give should be about a kid whose mom and dad lost their house to a bank foreclosure that was put forward illegally on a house that had a loan on it that was evaluated at sub-prime rates even though they qualified for something better. Every interview should be the saddest, most direct story and it should reinforce that these are people with families and a stake.
If that doesn't happen, then in two weeks this will be just like the protests in Portland and Seattle in the Bush years. Forgotten and pointless.
(Photo by Paul Stein)
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