Why the Occupy Wall Street movement is important for NJ

by: the_promised_land

Thu Oct 06, 2011 at 02:05:04 PM EDT

As Bill Orr reported on the site yesterday, Occupy Wall Street has crossed the Hudson to Jersey City and Trenton. Watch for more reports on Blue Jersey in the coming days and weeks, including first-hand reporting. And if anyone new to Blue Jersey wants to write on what's happening in Jersey City or Trenton, efforts to form additional protests - this is a democratic site where anyone can post a diary so go for it!

Just a few words on why this movement (which just released its first statement, read by Keith Olbermann below at around the 2:30 mark) is important. Actually, mainly one data point:

Seventy-nine percent (79%) of Americans agree with the statement that the "The big banks got bailed but the middle class got left behind."

Where does that piece of data come from? Why, none other than Rasmussen Reports, a conservative polling firm that FiveThirtyEight has shown to be systemically biased towards conservatives.

79% is practically apple pie and puppies territory in the polling world. It's astonishing.

the_promised_land :: Why the Occupy Wall Street movement is important for NJ

That number is far more important than the other finding that Rasmussen trumpets: 33 percent approval rating for the protestors themselves. After all, the Tea Party is even less popular, and it has had a huge impact on politics.

Why? Because it taps into another popular theme - that the federal government is too big and bad - and relentlessly pushes it into the public debate. For the most part, the Tea Party people are the same people who have ALWAYS thought that - but they are now always in the news, with a catchy slogan and theme. And backed by big bucks.

But here's the interesting thing. There hasn't been a counterbalance to push the also wildly popular - in fact even more popular - idea that Wall Street has too much power. And so there has been little organized accountability for giveaways, bailouts, tax cut extensions for the wealthiest, etc.

Now, that might change. Might - because it's too early to see where this movement is going or if it will stay together in a way that demands change from public officials. But it certainly has attracted more attention than anyone else pushing this message, in a very short time.

And that might have an impact at home - on issues like sending hundreds of millions of tax dollars to a large company to build a megamall at the same time as devastating budget cuts to middle-class schools and women's health. Or maybe, just maybe, on the upcoming debate on the corporatization of New Jersey education. It's going to take a lot of work - but there is real potential here.

Occupy Wall Street might be seen as pushing too far by most Americans who believe that Wall Street, in its proper place, has an important role in job creation; much as most Americans see the Tea Party pushing too far because we believe in Medicare and Social Security, and other big government programs. But that's ok, because the underlying message resonates broadly. And if there is any lesson to learn from the civil rights movement, and in particular one of its greatest leaders, the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth who died yesterday, it is that if you don't have a significant group of people pushing hard - you end up with nothing.