In considering the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protestors who’ve been camped out in New York City’s Zuccotti Park for more than a month now, we should consider the words of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black in New York Times Co. vs. Sullivan, (1964): “An unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs is what I consider to be the minimum guarantee of the First Amendment."
The OWS “movement,” if it can be called that, seems to have been initiated by young Americans justifiably disenchanted with the economic and political state of America, using a generic straw villain labeled “Wall Street” that has some catchy validity.
As a friend of my youth and a founder of Young Americans for Freedom, David Franke, wrote recently:
“Ordinary Americans sense that we have been screwed by Wall Street every bit as much as by Washington, D.C., but instead of fighting together we have fallen into the perennial Right vs. Left trap of letting the ruling establishment divide us. The conservatives say Washington caused our meltdown, the progressives say Wall Street caused our meltdown. Only the Ron Paul Revolution understands that they are one and the same, with the Federal Reserve representing and empowering both Washington and Wall Street against the people.”
Wrong Street, Wrong City
I think OWS protestors should broaden their targets to include all the true culprits - the White House and Capitol Hill politicians of both parties who, in league with those big, bailed out banks, major corporations and unions, form a ruling oligarchy whose only guiding principles are plundering our nation’s economy for their own personal gain and the preservation of their own political power.
These are the oligarchs who run that system of which “Wall Street” is only a part.
Then too, there is the despicable bi-partisan revolving door by which Wall Street moguls slip in and out of major federal government posts from Secretary of the Treasury (Geithner, Paulson, Snow, O’Neill, Summers, Rubin, Baker and Schulz among others) on down, using their Washington tenure to shape policy to benefit Wall Street at the expense of most Americans who are excluded from this exclusive inner circle of inbred wealth and power.
Americans Know
Only a small percentage of the 312,455,336 souls alive in America don’t know or believe that this once great country is in grave trouble today. We all know that because each of us is a witness to the rampant political and economic rot and inequality.
Most Americans feel trapped, they foresee their children’s fate as even worse off than they are, and they are justifiably angry. A Timemagazine poll this week found that by 54% to 23%, the public approves of protests on Wall Street and beyond.
Four million American homes are in foreclosure, the real unemployment rate is about 16%, George Bush, Barack Obama and a complicit U.S. Congress wasted 10 trillion of our tax dollars on business and bank bailouts, while Wall Street rewarded itself with an astounding $160 billion in bonuses the year after the global financial crisis they helped to create.
The OWS protesters’ actions inevitably will end but they have achieved an important goal: they have put the issue of income inequality on the national agenda. Huge gaps between the top 5% versus the other 95% have been growing as a political issue for a long time and now it is coming to a head.
Meanwhile, the political cynicism OWS is protesting continues unabated, led by the hypocrite in chief, Barack Obama. The Democratic Party openly admits it is looking for ways to capitalize on OWS to help them in the 2012 elections as the Tea Party has helped the Republicans.
Convenient Class Warfare
Suddenly Obama newly discovers his sympathy for the OWS anti-Wall Street campaign - he who has been deep in the pockets of Wall Street slavishly doing their bidding. For a shocking, eye opening compendium of facts about Obama and his multiple and lucrative Wall Street ties, I seriously urge you to read Glen Greenwald’s account of this sordid tale of political incest financed by American taxpayers.
Two years ago I urged readers of my blog to review two articles from Rolling Stone that laid out the facts about just one Wall Street powerhouse, Goldman Sachs. It’s worth going back and reading them now: The Great American Bubble Machine by Matt Taibbi, andObama's Big Sellout.
Fascinating reading, folks, and it will go a long way toward providing a better understanding of who owns Barack Obama and the U.S. government and what OWS opposes, whether it realizes it or not.
Obama made certain the big bankers knew he was and is their friend, even paling around with foreign bankers from the indicted Swiss UBS. His buddy system raked in millions in campaign funds from Wall Street and bankers, and in spite of some harsh words, the president has rewarded them handsomely - with billions in bailouts at the taxpayers' expense.
The Clock Is Ticking for America to
Solve Its Problems
What’s the solution? I wish I knew...
Since both political parties are deeply involved with and beholden to the system, it would seem the answer is a third party independent candidate who not only comprehends the enormous dimension of our problems, but has the courage to act to solve them, without regard to the financial powers that be. Another possibility is free market constitutional reforms to stop the current crony capitalism.
Among the current crop of preening political pygmies it seems to me only my old friend Ron Paul understands what needs to be done, but his age and some quirky ideas make him a punching bag for the liberal media and the Republican establishment.
Based on my close observation of the man and his beliefs, my candidate would be U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. But this dynamic young conservative is only 40 years old and by all calculations will not achieve national leader status for another 10 or 15 years.
Unfortunately, as Occupy Wall Street reminds us, America does not have that much time left to solve its problems. The need is immediate and acute.
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