On a beautiful afternoon in the early fall with the leaves turning colors and a hint of approaching winter in the air, conservative college students as well as those not particularly involved in politics are often drawn to the campus stadium to enjoy the day and root for their football team.
Their liberal counterparts have a different idea of fun. They like to protest for lefty causes — or just protest for the sake of protest. It can be gratifying, morally self-indulgent, give life meaning and it’s also a good way to hook up with liberal chicks (at least that was the case in the “free love,” turbulent 1960s.)
Last weekend, that latter group turned out in meager numbers in New York City as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement which has been limping along for a couple of weeks in the lower-Manhattan financial district. Having attracted little coverage, even from the sympathetic liberal media, the anti-Wall Streeters made a desperate attempt for attention. Emboldened by inspirational speakers such as Michael Moore and Susan Sarandon, in a coordinated maneuver, they engineered an eastward pivot in a daring attempt to “Take the (Brooklyn) bridge.” Well, that’s what they chanted when they got there. Hey, if they wanted it that badly, I’d have been happy to sell it to them. As it turned out, their mission was a bridge too far (left).
The NYPD, experienced in such matters, was ready for them, inviting the protesters to make their pilgrimage from Manhattan to Brooklyn over the bridge via the pedestrian walkway (or by taking the D train under the East River). Since that wouldn’t have gotten them their protester battle ribbon for getting ceremoniously “arrested,” they opted to block the vehicle traffic lanes, instead. OK, they weren’t actually arrested. Showered with chants of “The whole world is watching,” the cops carried those who wouldn’t move gently out of the thoroughfare, wrote them citations and let them go.
Incidentally, the whole world wasn’t really watching. Most of its 7 billion inhabitants from Greece to Africa to Libya to Detroit have more serious problems to deal with and don’t give a damn about these New York exhibitionists playing at repression.
A handful of copycat protesters also turned out in Denver and some other places, amid little more than yawns, to join the Wall Street occupiers in a smorgasbord of left-wing complaints. Among the things they’re against are the legacy of George W. Bush, corporations (especially financial institutions), greed, capitalism, the global economy, global warming, inequality, home foreclosures, unemployment, war, unfair treatment of Muslims — and did I say George W. Bush?
One Wall Street protester, Jackie Fellner from New York’s Westchester County, declared, “It’s about big money dictating which politicians get elected and what programs get funded.”
Really? I wonder if she’s looked at the components of the federal budget that are driving our massive deficits. Has big corporate money been responsible for the more than two-thirds of federal spending on a cornucopia of social programs these protesters no doubt support? Programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, welfare, food stamps, housing subsidies, public education, student loans, etc., along with the interest on the national debt to service the deficits these programs generate.
For the most part, the Occupy Wall Street exercise in political street theater is a group therapy session. These aren’t the kind of people who have a coherent understanding of what they’re for, much less practical remedies. So they don’t like capitalism or corporations.
What’s their alternative, socialism and government control of the means of production? Would they prefer that the U.S. Postal Service take over Apple? They don’t like investment houses or banks. So where would they have people put their savings, under their mattresses?
Freelance columnist Mike Rosen’s radio show airs weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon on 850-KOA.
