A friend asked me to predict how the Occupy Wall Street protest would turn out, and my guess was that it would all fade away soon enough. He was much more optimistic, screaming about a huge groundswell of momentum which would soon carry the movement to epic size. I hope he's right; I've made no secret of the fact that I want the protest to grow and spread, and attract attention. Yet I still think it will soon fade away...
The current crop of Republican Presidential candidates uniformly despises the protests, calling them "un-American", and heaven only knows what else.
Well, how surprising; conservatives uninterested in change. And that's what these protestors want: change.
The protestors, according to all the GOP candidates, should be directing their anger at President Obama, not Wall Street, not the political and economic system in general.
Its amazing that enyone could believe that, and deep down I doubt that anybody does.
Obama would have to be prehistorically ancient and all powerful to have created the greed and exploitation which underlies our societal mess. I think the Republicans find it convenient to blame Obama, but also, they seem to despise the thought that there might be anything fundamentally wrong with the status quo, with traditional institutions. That might give validity to liberalism and change.
People Against Protest (P.A.P.), particularly candidates for president, should bear in mind that the thousands of protestors have the agreement and empathy of millions more Americans. How and why?
Because milllions of Americans have recently lost their jobs and houses. Angry Americans is a large voting block.
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