I wandered over to the Occupy DC protest today. The first word that comes to mind to describe the protest is "small." There can't have been more than 300 people there when I got there, and there were fewer when I left. You can see pretty much the whole shebang in the picture above (click to enlarge). Almost everyone I saw looked like a habitué of protests, shabbily dressed and proudly far outside the mainstream. Whatever happened to protesting in suits and ties, like the Freedom Riders? There was nothing like the mass of ordinary people it would take to make any impact.
This guy captured the two main messages of the day, anti-war and anti-capitalist.
This foreclosure protest was, I thought, the most effective display. Clear message, made visceral by people sleeping in cardboard boxes.
Some of these leftists aren't cutting the President any slack.
There were a few protesters with their own agendas, including the LaRouchites and this guy with his gold standard sign. I saw two young Republicans with signs explaining how much rich people pay in taxes. I hope they weren't thinking of persuading anyone in this crowd, because they would only have been laughed at. But then what does any of this have to do with persuading anyone?
My favorite part was these mock drones, which I liked so much that I had my picture taken with them.
And these guys had some good signs, too.In a general way I support the Occupy Wall Street protest, of which this was a spin-off. I think there ought to be some push from the left to balance out the Tea Party push from the right, and I think the Wall Street guys who wrecked the world economy ought have been punished in some way. I share some causes with these protesters, like withdrawing our troops from the Middle East, national health insurance, more regulation of financial markets, and higher taxes on the rich.
But the whole business still leaves me queasy. I hate slogans, signs, chanting, and protest songs -- my approach to life is just too cerebral for any of that. Plus I have this idea that politics should emphasize the possible. If your idea of how to proceed is to impeach the most liberal President in 50 years, what chance do you have in America? America is a very strongly capitalist country -- consider the outpouring of love for arch-capitalist Steve Jobs, who probably has more fans than any of our political leaders. If you want to have an impact, leave your socialism at home. I have a feeling that millions of Americans would look at a gathering like this and say, "These people are gross, I'm voting for Mitt Romney."
I kind of liked this sign, especially after it occurred to me that it could equally well have been displayed at a Tea Party rally. Elected officials should be afraid for their jobs, constantly. They are not because most people pay no attention to what politicians are doing, and just vote either the party line or the economy. People who don't like what the government is doing need to get more involved. Twenty-four million people who voted in the 2008 Presidential election didn't bother to vote in 2010, and they were mainly young, poor, and liberal. Now they are mad that the President isn't doing more for them. Well? If protests and zombie street theater are the way to get people involved again, great. What liberals should really be doing, though, is mounting primary challenges to Democrats who get too cozy with corporate interests, copying the Tea Party's tactics. That is the way to make your voice heard.
It seems to me our elected officials ARE afraid for their jobs, constantly. This is why they're so cautious, and why they end up emphasizing the things they're against--against taxes, against changing Medicare, etc. And unelected officials are terrified of lawsuits and bad press. I think you were more on target when you pointed out during the debt ceiling debate that the government does a lot of what it does because a majority of the people want it to do those things. At a protest like this--and the same goes for the Tea Party--I think what the protesters are really saying is that they don't like most of their fellow Americans.
ReplyDeleteYou may be right about what the protesters are saying.
ReplyDeleteYes, politicians do what their constituents tell them to. But only about half of adult Americans bother to participate in the process. The half that does not is younger, poorer, and less white than the half that does, so the pressure politicians respond to does not necessarily reflect what the whole country wants. Just the ones who bother to show up.
Very true. Of course the Tea Partiers (and, so far as I can tell, the Occupiers) aren't addressing themselves much to the kinds of non-voters you're talking about.
ReplyDeleteWhat both the Tea Partiers and the Occupy demonstrators are selling are essentially paranoid conspiracy theories about evil cabals trying to take away their freedoms. It's their way of rationalizing the fact that most Americans do not support the things they hold most dear (yes, I bet a lot of Americans would like to see a few heads roll over the banking crisis; but I suspect most voters also support drone attacks and wouldn't be too enthused about major banking reform unless it brought instant prosperity).