COLUMN: Occupy Wall Street does have unified message
The Occupy Wall Street movement has been met with contempt by many of my politically progressive or liberal friends.
To them, their lack of a unified message makes them illegitimate. They are wrong on many levels.
For those living under a rock, Occupy Wall Street is a movement dedicated to holding the largest financial institutions in the world accountable for collapsing the world economy in 2008.
As it currently stands, not a single person from Wall Street has been arrested for what was done. Yet the rest of us have to deal with the worst recession since the Great Depression.
The assertion that Occupy Wall Street lacks a message is simply untrue. I spent this weekend at the Occupy Lansing solidarity protest, so I have a little perspective on this. People were upset about Wall Street money infecting politics, that CEOs get bank bailouts and tax breaks, but average Americans have to make deep sacrifices in their lives.
I will graduate from CMU with $30,000 in student loan debt, and I will be held accountable to pay back every penny.
Bankers destroyed the global economy, and not only did they get a massive bailout of $700 billion, but not a single one will face jail time for the fraud, corruption and investor manipulation that occurred.
Skeptical progressives seem to be on board thus far. It is easy to be angry at the big banks, as they were the ones that singlehandedly caused the economic mess we are still suffering after three full years. Protesting is not the way that will be resolved, progressives fire back. The only way to make real change is to “occupy the voting booths,” as seems to be the big talking point now.
Except voting has proven to not work.
Granted, Democrats and progressive-leaning independents largely stayed home in 2010, but let's go back to the 2008 election. Then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama promised change and transparency. On the other hand, Obama's largest campaign contributors were from those large Wall Street financial institutions.
Fast forward to today, and President Obama has had an incredibly friendly administration for financial institutions.
One top banker even called Timothy Geithner, President Obama's treasury secretary, “our man in Washington.”
Dare I say that until money gets out of politics, simply voting will never affect serious change in America?
That is why Occupy Wall Street is protesting. They voted in 2008 and were promptly sold out. They stayed home in 2010 and things only got worse. The only option left is to take their frustration to the American public at large. If recent polling is correct, a plurality of Americans are quite receptive to the message of holding Wall Street accountable.
So should you.
Politicians only respond to two things, by and large: fear and money. The middle class has none of the latter, so it is time to make politicians terrified they are going to get thrown out of office for being bought and paid for by Wall Street.
After all, what else is there left to do?
