The so-called "centrist" think tank Third Way just published a report recommending that Democratic lawmakers shouldn’t embrace the 99% Movement, the thousands of Americans of all stripes who are calling for economic justice in dozens of cities.
Third Way said it polled 800 Obama 2008 voters, 400 "droppers" of whom didn’t show up to the polls in 2010, and 400 "switchers" who voted for the Republicans. The report says the "droppers" are already back with the Democrats because they’re disgusted with the 2011 GOP’s anti-jobs, pro-nonsense agenda, but that the "switchers" will become permanent Republican voters if Democratic lawmakers embrace the 99% Movement that’s sweeping the country.
It’s déjà vu all over again – just days ago Karl Rove wrote in the very "serious" Wall Street Journal that working class Americans have nothing in common with Occupy Wall Street.
Earlier today, in that same paper, Fox News analyst Doug Schoen wrote about poll he had done analyzing a "systematic random sample" of the Occupy protestors. His column said the poll showed the protestors are sharply out of step with most of America, and “bound by a deep commitment to radical left-wing policies.” Within hours, a New York journalist got ahold of Schoen’s actual poll results, which show what Working America already knew: that the Occupy protestors hold fairly similar beliefs as many of the 20,000 working class Americans we talk to every week.
Even though Doug Schoen is being ruthlessly criticized and embarrassed by many fellow pollsters for misrepresenting his own poll results, I swear there’s going to be another piece in the Wall Street Journal tomorrow about how the Occupy protestors are crazy, weird, radical, and above all, different from you. And another corporate-backed think tank will show very "serious" research that Democrats should stay away from them. And CNN will do yet another segment on their clothes, or piercings, or take quotes out of context to make them seem strange.
It’s classic "divide and conquer." Despite where we live and what we look like, we all understand that our country is on the wrong economic and political path. If we focus on our common values, this movement will be unstoppable; Karl Rove and his friends know that all too well.
Don’t be fooled, folks. The One Percent and their allies are spooked at what you - the 99 Percent - are saying in city parks, in the streets, and online as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
They don’t want you to think of yourselves as the 99 Percent, a great majority with strength in numbers calling for change. They would rather you think of yourselves the way Karl Rove sees you: pawns of various sizes, colors, and beliefs, just waiting to be pitted against each other over meaningless rabble while the Wall Street bailouts and unjust inequality fade from your memory.