President Obama on ABC News:
“I understand the frustrations being expressed in those protests,” Obama told ABC News senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper in the interview to air this evening on ABC News “Nightline” from Jamestown, N.C.
“In some ways, they’re not that different from some of the protests that we saw coming from the Tea Party. Both on the left and the right, I think people feel separated from their government. They feel that their institutions aren’t looking out for them,” he said.
It's great that our President finally understands that our side has frustrations of our own and feel government isn't working for us. What he seems to miss is that he is part of the problem and not the solution. All of this anger is not necessarily of his making, but he's contributed to it by being weak against those who've created the problem.
There's all kinds of psychology attributed to what has grown OWS. Personally, I don't understand the confusion. Our country is not working for the majority of us who've never used our voice because the narrative has been too vague for too many. Now, it's clear to all, and we know instinctually what's fueling the fire:
1. The Rich have been catered to exclusively for 13 years.
Sure. Policies in our country have steadily favored the wealthy over the middle and working classes since Reagan. You could say long before that. But since Bush's term and his efforts to brand democrats traitors to your country's way of life, that effort has increased twenty-fold. Say what you will about the Clinton administration, but our country was booming during Clinton and most felt it. When your working, saving and see a bright future, it's hard to complain. Once Bush took office, all of that changed. Every one of that little prick's policies were directed at enriching the top 1% and making a working class of everyone else - while distracting us with fear. While much of the 2000's were akin to a malaise where salaries stagnated for most of us while Wall Street, CEO's and Bush and Cheney's cronies took the lions share, the majority didn't have time to think about it. We were too busy working. Once those jobs were lost, thanks to these same fucking people, those folks who don't spend much time thinking about these inequities finally did. And they got angry.
2. Government's flagrant disregard of the masses who vote them has become overtly insulting.
This goes for the President as well. We no longer have a democracy, not when a majority of us favor tax increases on the rich and a majority of politicians, who can actually vote to do that, favor the opposite. What the fuck happened to having a representative in Washington. I remember being incensed over a decade ago when Fred Grandy, then a congressman for Iowa, had the gaul to vote against a few measures that his unified constituents wanted. His explanation of being voted in for his own judgment against that of the people's will was, to me, treasonous. If the majority of your people want you to vote in their favor, you fucking do it.
Politicians are far more concerned with their own internal battles and petty politics than they are with actually doing any good. Our own President has spent the majority of his term kissing up to the very people who want nothing more than to destroy him - at the expense of those who voted for him. In fact, his attitude toward US has soured over his term. Consider that level of disconnect.
3. The Right are so arrogantly wrong and too stupid to know it that doing nothing will lead us off a steeper cliff.
Most people recognize the insanity of the right these days and it's become a huge concern, even for those who have never paid attention to any of this. After years of coddling the religious right, the Keynesians, and the corporations, villifying education, selflessness and the mutual good, and empowering the media to play only in their corner, the right has created a multi-headed monster that it cannot tame. Finally, the majority has seen this for what it is and is reacting with horror at how divided we've really become.
Theres always more. Always other reasons. But the simple truth is that our country is no longer recognizable to us. People have said this for years, but today it's undeniably true. Even the most uninvolved of us sees it. And the anger at how it got to this place is justified and palpable. And, at long last, it's finall aimed at the right people.