@Joe Nation,
Thanks Joe (You made my day) Nation, the thought that OWS might hurt the Democrats in 2012 hadn't even crossed my mind.
Unless what is now the "OWS Movement" organizes political activism around a relatively limited and coherent set of principles, it won't be of any value to Democrats in 2012, but it also won't present a risk for a 3rd party candidate.
It could be a detriment if its national news persona remains either the sloganeering Marxist or the slacker hippie, and it is able to continue to receive media attention through occasional scuffles with police or the "human interest" stories involving protestors freezing in their wool blanket tents.
It's not going to make it into the winter months though.
There is already growing tension between the protestors and city governments due to the simple fact that the demonstrations are disruptive of conventional city life, and beginning to tax their resources.
I wonder if those of you who look so approvingly on this movement appreciates the extent of disruption it has caused and which must be resulting in thousands of complaints to the city governments on a daily basis.
I saw a woman on TV this weekend who identified herself as the owner of a small cafe near Zuccotti Park who has found her business fall by about 40% since the OWS movement began. She claims she was sympathetic to the protestors’ arguments at first, but they have become a real problem for her.
Apparently a large number of them use her bathrooms without purchasing anything, and "use" extends to sink baths as well as the more typical activity. When she put signs on the bathroom doors that announced they were for the use of paying customers only, she found a young woman standing on one of her chairs ripping the signs to shreds and delivering a long lecture on the evils of capitalism and how she and her comrades had taken to the streets to protect the very people who were denying them basic human rights of hygiene.
Others have "occupied" booths and hold them all day while they spend maybe $5 on coffee and English muffins. One couple, she claimed, was using one of her booths as their office in connection with the thriving business they apparently had in terms of signs, t-shirts, ball caps etc.
Whether this cafe owner's tales are common to the area, I can't say but to the extent that they are at all prevalent you can imagine how tensions will rise.
Interesting enough, one of the self-professed organizers of OWS (can't recall his name but would recognize it) followed the cafe owner and did a poor but recognizable job of dodging the issue of the impact OWS was having on this woman's business.
He didn't deny her claims, but incessantly argued that the protestor were well received in the community, and that OWS has some sort of community relations committee that would be getting in touch with the woman. When pressed on the fact that the woman was losing a substantial chunk of her business the fellow suggested no recourse other than talking to the committee. You could tell that he wanted to suggest her losses were collateral damage, but either had too much savvy or too little honesty to go there.
At some point the city governments are going to have to negotiate OWS withdrawals or press the issue harder. In the event of the latter there's a good chance that violence will result. Unfortunately for OWS, I don't think municipal police departments are seen in quite the same light as the internal security forces of Middle eastern despots, and unless it is clear and unequivocal, the American people aren't going to assume that NYC cops have been looking to break heads all along.
Their Occupation stage has come to its end and they need to move on voluntarily and with grace (cleaning up after themselves). If they do this their public image will get a boost and will be less of potential stain on the Democrats.
