They say it's your birthday
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They say it's your birthday
I'm sure all Attytood readers will want to join me in wishing a very happy one-year birthday to Occupy Wall Street. Here's my piece in today's Daily News:
In a world where political movements and fads rise and fall faster than you can say "Hula-Hoop," the Occupy movement that started on Wall Street on Sept. 17, 2011, has been a shooting star - one that burned brightly for a brief American autumn, its trail now still faintly visible in the evening sky.
The left-leaning protest movement injected the term "the 1 Percent" and a much-needed debate about income inequality into the national conversation, but there didn't seem to be a Plan B after police shut down the original encampments as last winter arrived. Or, arguably, there were a slew of Plan Bs, none of which took hold - May Day marches, a July 4 quasi-convention here in Philadelphia, smallish protests at the recent political conventions that were dwarfed by law enforcement's helmet-clad armies.
The list of reasons for Occupy's sputtering malaise in 2012 is almost as long as its roster of underwhelming protests. In addition to burnout, there's the failure to focus on one or two core issues, its leaderless style, its penchant for endless meetings, its shunning of electoral politics in a presidential election year and an increasingly confrontational tone with police, including worries about violence on the fringe.
But while experts on the movement tend to agree with most or all of those criticisms, they also stress that another reason some of the movement's less-committed backers have drifted away is success. Occupy caught on with traditional liberals who were frustrated that no one in either party or in the news media was talking about the income gap or issues like student debt. Since then, President Obama and some Democrats have talked the talk - even as action in gridlocked Washington remains elusive.
The article kind of speaks for itself...so read it.
This comment has been deleted.— bil,l atkins
Comment removed.- @sharkymachine: So you sit behind your computer all day and whine about conservatives, Romney, and Republicans, and then complain about someone sitting behind a computer all day complaining about liberals and Democrats. Hello pot, meet kettle. — Commentdant_Klink
- Adults whining about fairness. I wouldn't even expect that from my kids.— RG
- Wow, OWS really, really changed the world. Things are so different now.— Comrade Noodlehead
- Comment removed.
- Comment removed.
- Sorry, sharky, but a person speaking to himself is not a dialogue. If your puerile attempt at a reply is all OWS has, it would be better of the whole affair were forgotten as soon as possible. — DonQ
- happy birthday occupy. thanks for raising awareness about lack of wall street reforms. unfortunately yall got a lot of abuse for exercising your right to speak freely.
- They the have right to speak, but there is obligation that they be listened to. Nor is there an obligation that they not be heckled, derided or "abused". Conservatives have been enduring that on campus for ages. Grow up.
— georgel - Occupy Wall Street -- A lesson in irrelevancy.— Lttim76(2)
- Success is one reason, of course. But their is another...the concern by many of creating a Ralph Nader effect. As much as the movement is against many of the the policies of President Obama, aiding in the election of Romney and Ryan would be even worse. It would demonstrate a real dysfunction in the movement.
OWS will be back. After Obama is re-elected, his feet, and that of other Dems will be held to the fire - but don't expect tent camps and people whirling and chanting.
Will, you didn't like the DNC love-fest in Charlotte, but I did. It was very telling.— Hamlet - This comment has been deleted.— bil,l atkins
- your boy had parole violations. if i were you i would say something about how you support criminals but that would be petty.
- Hamlet...that's laughable. You still don't get it. OWS IS Obama and other Dems. Will they hold their own feet to the fire? Get a clue.— MilesLong1
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