Posted by RS on October 20, 2011 at 13:54:33:
In Reply to: Book aobut the occupy wall street movement posted by JimHK on October 18, 2011 at 12:30:24:
Your last question is the hardest to answer. How will it affect the upcoming elections. On the one hand, it brings attention to the fact that the system is corrupt (one sign held up by a protester said "The system isn't broken, it was designed to be the way it is"). That hurts the Republican party because it is the party of the rich and the part of big business. But it also hurts Obama and therefore the Democrats because many people will see the President as the one who is in power, so why doesn't he fix it? It doesn't matter how many times he says I didn't create these problems, I inherited them. The people will still expect him to fix it. They don't understand the limits of presidential power. The president has the power to conduct wars all over the place and assassinate anybody he wants to using hi-tech drones (as Nixon said, "If the President does it, it's not illegal"). But there is little he can do about getting us out of the financial mess Reagan/Bush deregulation got us into because the Republicans in congress will block any attempt to make the situation better because they believe a bad economy and people hurting helps their chances of getting in power (and in the end, that's what it is all about - power).
Bottom line: it's all too complicated for most people, so who knows how they will vote? It will probably come down to who is most effective at TV propaganda; in other words, who is most successful at laying the blame on their opponent.
: What do you all think of the occupy wall street movement (that has now spread far beyond New York)?
: Some questions:
: Will it help or hurt? Make a change or not? Is this deja vu all over again (the sixties)? How will it affect next year's elections?