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I don’t know what to think about Occupy Wall Street protests that began in New York’s financial district and have spread to a number of cities, including Philadelphia. I have no quibble with the movement’s right to peacefully protest.
The Philadelphia Daily News reported the protest outside of City Hall costs more than $32,000 a day in police overtime. Nobody said freedom comes cheap. I know friends and media columnists that I respect are strongly supporting Occupy. I need to know more before I jump aboard the bandwagon.
Occupy claims to represent the 99 percent of Americans who are getting screwed by the big banks and corporations. So far, so good. But once you get beyond the rather obvious message, the question is, where do we go from here? Occupy hasn’t yet gotten beyond the sloganeering.
Some on the left see Occupy as the antidote to the conservative Tea Party movement that is now playing a significant role in today’s Republican Party. If so, Occupy has a long way to go. What fueled the Tea Party’s success is its ability to go beyond street protests and become a full fledged political movement, fielding and electing some of its own candidates and supporting legislation favorable to its cause. More importantly, instead of becoming a third political party, the Tea Party became an arm of the Republicans and is now driving its anti-government agenda. I don’t agree it would necessarily be a good thing if Occupy became the Tea Party of liberals.
The Tea Party created a bogeyman out of the federal government. I don’t need a political movement on the left if it becomes intent on making a bogeyman of our business and banking institutions. Both positions are dangerously simplistic. In the Tea Party’s case, it has led to its being a strong impediment to reasonable compromise in Washington. Its radical anti-Washington credo led to the debt crisis. Any Republican in Congress caught compromising with the administration is targeted for defeat. Is there reason to fear Occupy could morph into a negative for the left?
Understand that some on the left are as adamantly opposed to compromise as the Tea Party, but for the opposite ideological reasons. They believe the president has been too willing to compromise. Like ultra-conservatives, they rail against bailing out banks and big corporations. They were against any health care bill that did not include a public option, even though the votes were not there to pass it. Some on the left believed the Affordable Health Care Act did not get passed without a public option. Admittedly there were flaws in the bailout and the Affordable Health Care Act , but in both cases, action was preferable to inaction. In both cases, the president and Congress have been given an opportunity to make improvements. Social Security was not perfect when it was originally passed either. If Occupy becomes a liberal Tea Party movement, I fear it could become another voice shouting “my way or the highway.”
The Tea Party has co-opted the Republican Party. It has been on display during the GOP presidential debates. Even moderates such as Mitt Romney and John Huntsman are being forced to take radical positions. In order to have a chance to win the nomination, Romney has even been forced to turn his back on his greatest single political achievement as governor of Massachusetts — health care. Massachusetts has the smallest percentage of uninsured citizens of any state in the Union. Romney’s health-care plan served as the model for the president’s own Affordable Health Care Act. But the strength of the Tea Party within the GOP has forced Romney to repudiate his own accomplishment. Whoever becomes the Republican nominee for president will emerge almost certainly carrying radical baggage that will make him or her less attractive in the general election. It is not far-fetched to peer into the future and see Occupy invoking liberal litmus tests for Democrats.
I believe the Tea Party labors are under the fantasy that America can return to the days of Jeffersonian small government. We are the most powerful nation on earth, not an agrarian society. I don’t want to see Occupy become a movement that operates under the left-wing fantasy that big business and corporations are inherently evil. We need an America where government as well as business and labor unions can come together for the common good. We need all of these elements working out their problems together to be competitive on the world stage. We need to be free from rigid ideology to be able do what works.
I wrote the Aug. 18 column, “ I hate Wall Street,” but I want reform not revolution. We need strong regulations because we shouldn’t expect our financial institutions to be altruistic. They are in the business of making money. Our government should be in the business of setting the rules to protect us from their abuses.
If Occupy is for reform, I am with them. But otherwise as The Beatles sang in “Revolution,” “we’d all love to see the plan.” SPR
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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