Discuss: The OWS Movement will hurt/help the Democrats in 2012.

I will cop out and say, "It's too soon to say."

We seriously need to wait 6 months until this tea steeps.

I suspect the OWS folks assume it will help the Democrats by mobilizing otherwise latent support they believe is out there. Conversley some Republicans assume that it will mobilize more opposition than supporters. I am inclined to believe the latter - i.e. that it will alienate far more Republicans and independents than it will supporters. However, I can't be sure. We will have to wait to see the reactions that unfold. I think it would be a mistake for Republicans to become too critical of the protesters - so far they have done a fairly good job of making asses of themselves.

I don 't think u r being fair to the NRA, Joe.
Both Clinton & Gore blamed us for Gore 's defeat. We did our best.





David

it's not only the republicans who've made asses of themselves, every politician and ardent political supporter is an ass

If Romney is the nominee,
I 'll truely have to hold my nose, when I vote.





David

The GOP is America 's conservative Party, representing the vu
of the Founders as set forth in the Constitution.

LEGALLY, TECHNICALLY, Romney is a Republican,
but in his philosophy, I 'm perplexed as to how he can be deemed to be one of us.





David

But...it will be fun to watch those politicians slam the very same people they schmooze and suck up to for campaign donations!

it certainly will be

The election was Gore's to lose. He had the most inept opponent one could imagine, but continually shot himself in the foot. True, the media gave Bush a pass, but that was not the deciding factor. Gore would have been a good president, in my opinion, but I can't recall a single thing he did right during his campaign. From the Clinton era on, too many Democrat leaders only give Democrat causes lip support, but they allow the Republicans to run rough shod over virtually every issue. I don't blame Nader for a thing.

But what about the effect of the OWS on this election?

They are now talking about having a general assembly in Philadelphia starting July 4th and lasting until October. Don't you think the GOP is salivating?

Joe(Nader is still a poopityhead.)Nation

I don't know that they will sit on their hands for the election. I think it's too early to predict something like that.

.

There has been a few incidents, but compared to how many people show up, I think on the whole the protesters have "done a fairly good job" of demonstrating peacefully.

I do know at some point there has to be some kind of objective at the end of the day for the protesters. I mean they have done a good job at spelling out their grievances which is something a lot of voters can relate to no matter what party they belong to, but they haven't spelled out their end game from what I can tell.

Occupy Wall Street: More popular than you think

I believe it is much too early to say how this will affect next year's election.

That makes two of us. I blame Nader and his huge ego also for Bush and our present screwed up government.

I'm not aware that the OWS movement has any unified agenda or accredited spokesmen, or that it has, by any means, expressed a coherent agenda or specific objectives. The occupation of the Park in New York is itself starting to become old (and tiresome) news. Together these factors don't suggest any positive (for them) political effect will ensue.

Thank you, Rabel. Actually it at least three of us if we include Michael Moore.

I've spent some time downtown at Zucotti Park and happened on the Upper East Side march last Thursday. The OWS or the 99%, if you prefer, are a pretty diverse bunch of people.

Yes, there are lot's of twenty-somethings, but there are a lot more, at least it seemed to me, guys wearing VietNam vet hats and women who seemed to know their way around a demon station along with a huge mass of faces appearing both middle age and middle class -- teachers, unionists, some musicians, a few fine fellows in ties (the FBI must have wised up by now so they couldn't be----right?) and a really angry blond woman with her shirt off.
(Okay, so it might be difficult to classify her.)

The thing that bothered me was I heard the same kind of babble that Nader and the Greens pushed about a third American Party.

There isn't time to run a third party candidate, you tell them, and their answer is "We'll vote None of the Above." which is fine, I tell them, but you do know SOMEBODY is going to be declared the winner, right? Then what? You'll have the satisfaction of knowing you didn't vote for them but they'll have the political power. They won't care if you stayed home., voted for Noneofthe Above or whatever.

Just like the present day GOP doesn't give a ratsass that 10 million fewer Democrats and Independents voted in the 2010 elections. They were hoping that would happen and it did.

We saddled Obama with a GOP House and then have the nerve to complain that he's having trouble getting OUR agenda through. !

Joe(cementheads)Nation

Didn't you mean to write Tea Party?

The plan now is to hold a National Assembly in Philadelphia next July attended by 870 elected delegates, two from each Congressional District, to decide what the agenda for change will need to be.

They have been purposeful in avoiding "accredited spokespersons". In New York at the GOP Convention, the first people arrested by the NYPD was anyone named as an organizer. (shocking, I know.)

They have been achieving their agenda every day, you just haven't noticed, people, people, not just the media, are talking about how we got to the state where a tiny group, 1% of the population, is able to hold almost 50% of the wealth of this nation.

That's been the result of the Reagan Revolution. Absolutely flat incomes and rising debt for 99% of the people and huge increases in income and wealth for those at the top.

And the current crop of Republicans say "Let's keep going, only we want to eviscerate any protections or assistance a regular guy might hope to get from his government so that he will be completely at the mercy of the people we like to call the Job Creators, but whom we know to be a bunch of maniacal, greedy, amoral hypocrites. As long as they send us those checks, we could give a ****."

Joe(and none of them will outlive their money)Nation

I would agree that the protests are already beginning to have a strong effect. Dunno if you've noticed, but Austerity and cost-cutting are out of the national conversation, and jobs are back in.

If the Dems take the protestors seriously, and work to achieve modest and well-supported gains (such as taking steps to limit risk from big bank failures) I think the Dems could profit from the OWS movement tremendously.

Cycloptichorn