OWS...PROTESTING AGAINST THE WRONG TARGET

2012

A few thoughts about OWS

It has been interesting to watch the OWS (Occupy Wall Street) movement over the past several months. Like many of you, I allowed my early opinions to be shaped mainly by the media. Early on I concluded that these folks were a motley crew of mainly younger people who had no rational idea of how the country or economy actually work and who is to blame for all of our problems. They know our country is in trouble, but they demand outcomes with no suggestions about how to rationally get to these endpoints. What I really found particularly distasteful then and now is their notion of the 99 vs the 1...meaning that the 1% of the wealthiest Americans are the enemy and the cause of all the financial problems for the rest of our population.

I’m still unsure of the genesis of this movement. Was it truly a spontaneous occurrence?  Who actually funded the start? it seemed to have attracted a lot of money mainly from the liberal powers and media. They also seemed to have attracted a wide variety of ordinary Americans from all walks of life and ages as the movement expanded. In our own town of Hendersonville, I happened to know a few of the “protesters” and can say without reservation that these are decent and ordinary Americans. They represent the courageous vocal minority of Americans who clearly see the danger our country is in and don’t know how else or where else to stand up and shout a warning to the rest of us...who as expected...go about our lives hoping that somehow our elected leaders will unify to save the day. This latter thinking is simply delusional since we see absolutely no evidence of that happening.

The more I see the events unfold around the OWS movement the more I felt compelled to make a few observations. The folks who named the movement and planned the target location strategy really don’t get it. They are protesting against the wrong organizations and in the wrong locations. Blaming Wall Street and the rest of the financial institutions for being greedy beyond the pale is like blaming a lion for being a carnivore. It is simply the nature of the beast. Their sole reason for being is to make a profit any way they can...legally. Of course that last word is where our real problem begins. If our elected leaders can be persuaded to change the laws and regulations to allow them to make more money more easily...that is worth a lot of campaign contributions. Since staying in power is a stronger driver than doing what is best for our country and citizenry...we the people lose every time. Thus the culprits who should be the target of all of our protests every day until we get their attention are those whom we have elected to represent us in Washington. I am, of course, talking about members of both congressional houses and whomever happens to be our President. Our federally elected from both parties have for several decades, under the influence of the the lobbies for the special interests of all types (including but not limited to Wall Street),  allowed them to bend the economy in their favor. We the people have been the suckers. We see the danger and we even know that our elected are to blame...the 8% approval rating for congress proves that. Then what do we do? We re-elect them at a rate of over 90% cycle after cycle. Any wonder that they no longer listen to our complaints? Should we have any reasonable expectations that they will unless we take tangible action? If I could give one significant piece of advice to OWS it would be to change your name, strategy, and locations. rename yourselves OW (Occupy Washington) and go there now. I suspect that they would gather an amazing amount of support and actually force our elected to take pause before continuing to lead our country deeper into danger.

I have been, for many months, advocating for all of us to change our voter registration to Independent as soon as possible as a way of sending a signal to our elected that we are no longer willing to tolerate politics as usual. My second belief is that we must vote all incumbents out of office over the next three election cycles. My greatest fear is that this will be too little too late. I am beginning to think that protesting broadly might be the right steps to take immediately to make sure our elected begin to change behavior before it’s too late.

The organization that Lee Goldman and I have co-founded; Citizens Against Politics As Usual has finally gotten its website online at www.capau.org (pronounced Kapow). I hope you will take a few minutes to go there and let your friends know about it. We also value your feedback.

These are my opinions. What do you think?

Mike Tower

Hendersonville, NC

Please visit:

Lee's Political Opinion
http:leespoliticalopinion.blogspot.com

Citizens Against Politics As Usual

http://capau.org