Why Occupy Wall Street Has Not Received Comment on This Forum

Because It Doesn’t Yet Deserve Comment

The Occupy Wall Street movement has been taking place for several weeks now, and a fairly large number of citizens have been doing just that in New York, with similar actions in other cities.  The Press is starting to notice, and this may be something other than a venting of frustration.

The logical comparison to make with OWS is with the Tea Party.  That comparison is false.  The Tea Party did start out as a protest movement, but it quickly evolved into something else, a political movement.  The Tea Party joined other movements such as the Labor movement and the Civil Rights movement into channeling protest into action.  Like those movements, the Tea Party has taken its fight to the ballot box.  It is organized, funded and it works very hard to influence elections. 

The Civil Rights movement was not just about ideals, it was also about voting.  A central core of the movement was getting African Americans to register and vote, and vote their interests.  The Labor movement never became a political party, as it did in Britain, but its political actions fueled the election of candidates favorable to the labor movement for decades.

OWS so far has done nothing but mingle in the streets.  Whether or not it will do anything is yet to be seen.  The always astute Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal sums it up this way.

Occupy Wall Street is completely different. They mean to gain power and sway by going outside the political system. They are a critique of the political system. They went to the streets and stayed there.

They are not funneling their energy into the democratic process because there is no market for what they are selling: Capitalism should be overturned, I am angry that my college loan bills are so big, the government is bad, and the answer is more government. You can't win elections in America with that kind of message. So they will stay in the streets, where they can have an impact by stopping traffic, inconveniencing people going to and coming from work, and appearing to be an amorphous force that must be bowed to.

The difference between the occupiers and the tea party is the difference between acting out and taking part.

Ms. Noonan may be too harsh and she may be wrong, it is too early to tell,  But the onus is on the OWS movement, if they want to be taken seriously, they need to start acting seriously.  The election booth is where you do that sort of thing.