Whose brainchild was this? Protesters Stage March to Obama's Des Moines Office
Nearly 100 people marched Saturday to President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign headquarters in downtown Des Moines.
One by one, members of Occupy Iowa denounced the president for what they called his failure to protect the vast majority of Americans from home foreclosures, rising health care costs and student loan debt.
Others faulted Obama for deporting more than 1 million immigrants, and extending the nation’s military presence to countries such as Somalia and Yemen.
I have been very supportive of Occupy Wall Street, but seeing this really gives me pause. President Obama has fallen short of many people's expectations, but he is the last person that OWS should be denouncing. Why isn't Occupy Iowa protesting at Chuck Grassley's office? He's the one who just voted against President Obama's jobs bill. He will continue to vote against every piece of it while at the same time insisting that the one percent's taxes cannot be raised a penny.
One of the best parts of OWS is that people are finally directing their anger about the economy against the appropriate target -- the Wall Street financiers who brought down the economy in the first place. Blaming Obama for somehow not fixing everything that Wall Street and Congressional Republicans blew up is ludicrous. As a case in point, here's a message delivered
by David Goodner, 30, of Des Moines, who placed a heap of blame squarely at the president’s feet for the nation’s financial woes.
If Obama’s signature health care legislation were effective, then Wellmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield would not have proposed earlier in the week to raise premiums by 9.35 percent on Iowans, he said.
“Obama is the president of the United States. The buck stops with him,” Goodner said. “We will not blame Republicans. We will not blame Congress.”
The Affordable Care Act hasn't even gone into effect yet and this guy is blaming a rise in premiums on President Obama! Moreover, President Obama cannot wave a magic wand and make unemployment go away. Congress has to pass his jobs bill in order for anything to happen. In case this Occupy Iowa protester hasn't noticed, Republicans in Congress have unanimously blocked anything that would help the economy recover.
If OWS protesters want to lessen economic inequality, tearing down President Obama is not a productive use of their energy or voice. Why not demand accountability from the party that has spent the last 2 1/2 years trying to protect the rich and screw everyone else?