Mere income inequality could never sustain a protest movement in the United States what has changed is the perception - obviously accurately in my view - is that these inequalities are no longer just and meritorious and deserved and the byproduct of hard work, that instead it is the byproduct of cheating. Of co-opting political and legal institutions to enable ill-gotten gains to be shielded and enhanced.
That essentially this inequality and the institutions that support them are now illegitimate because we no longer have the anchor of the rule of law to render them fair and just and that more than anything is what is fueling the movement because when essentially you want to effectuate political change you have one of two ways you go about doing that:
You can work within political and legal institutions; you can support candidates, donate money to political parties, try and elect new leaders - but when people perceive those institutions are completely captive to corrupt interests, that they are illegitimate to their core, then the only alternative, the only viable alternative to effectuating change in a meaningful way is to engage in protest outside the system, to protest the system itself, to signal to people who wield power that citizens banning together no longer are willing to tolerate the status quo. That there will be unrest and disruption if that status quo continues. And unrest and disruption on a mass scale is something that nobody should want to see because it is unpredictable and volatile and can potentially be dangerous.
But I think the reason so many people support that movement - I know the reason I do - is because the way things are now the status quo is infinitely more volatile and infinitely more dangerous and the reason in my view for that is that the people who wield power are no longer constrained in any way because we have exempted them from the ultimate constraint that was supposed to bind them which is the rule of law.
Probably the best analysis yet of why thousands of people were willing to be pepper sprayed and beaten by police. Especially in light of
The Man From MERS and the rest of the DOJ flunkies
refusing once again to make cases against Banksters despite
clear evidence.
The political system is clearly broken and lacks the trust of the governed. Will it soon also lose the people's consent?