Experts Expound

Is the Occupy movement the real deal? If so, what impact will it have on next year’s elections in California or nationwide?

Maybe they’ll nominate William Jennings Bryan for president and resurrect the Free Silver movement. But it is the real deal as far as facing the crushing truth that banks are more powerful than governments.

The anger behind the Occupy movement is real. Occupy itself won’t have much impact on the election, but the residual anger it represents will – if Democrats can harness it. No guarantee there, however.

The Occupy movement, to the extent that it persists, will be white noise for the election. Candidates will acknowledge the protestors’ right to demonstrate and then blame the other party for creating the conditions being protested.

Their greatest contribution has been fundamentally redefining the debate. They are rightly pointing out that the bottom 99 percent of us are worse off than ever because we are sacrificing our quality of life to subsidize tax cuts for the elite super-rich. That’s becoming the defining political issue for 2012.

No it isn’t – except that we are seeing a reflection of the resentment and resurgence of anti-Semitism in the culture that is more than a little troubling. I hope the people get to see their democratic candidates, including Obama and Pelosi, supporting this so-called movement. Where are our Black, Hispanic and Asian leaders not to mention our white elected on this resurgence of anti-Semitism and why are they not speaking up and loudly?

OWS makes great TV but has no impact on elections.  The people willing to ‘occupy’ don’t vote.

It’s real and Obama should be worried. He won’t lose Blue California, but, given the nation’s nagging recession, the timing of this kind of movement can capture the anger and resentment many of the ‘have nots’ have toward the ‘haves’ and it all may be taken out on him and other incumbents.

The Tea Party folks are mostly older taxpayers protesting that the federal government is too big and intrusive. They then got to work by altering the Congressional landscape. The Occupiers are mostly non-voting, younger tax receivers claiming lifelong entitlement to a government-paid standard of living they haven’t earned.

 Unless and until the Occupy folks trade their bongos, creepy masks and street violence for precinct maps, nothing will come of this movement in California or elsewhere except to royally piss off 99 percent of the country. It’s not Wall Street’s fault you went $150k in debt for a Gender Studies degree from Colombia and cant find a 6-figures-for-life job.

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