Occupation, Revolution and the Righteous Indignation of the Ruling Class

The American dream of liberty and the pursuit of happiness, of a chicken in every pot, faded long ago, replaced by a nightmare of unemployment, staggering debt, lost opportunity, foreclosures and misery, with distractions and illusions lulling and sedating the proletariat so that order can be kept and the rich can drink champagne on balconies and count their growing piles of money safely behind their gates.


"One question about Occupy Wall Street: when was the last time someone at a Tea Party rally got pepper-sprayed?" ~ Andy Borowitz


I wrote almost two weeks ago about how people are rising up in New York in opposition to corporate greed and class warfare. On September 26, I expressed my respect for the people who began taking to the streets on September 17 to fight corruption and restore true democracy in America.

Little did I know that the demonstration would spread like the wildest of fires to other cities throughout the country and even beyond our borders. Daily Kos, the liberal website maligned by wingnuts almost as much as Bill Clinton and Moveon.org, posted a list and map of over 200 “solidarity events” and Facebook pages in support of OWS.

Something’s happening in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and 12 other New York locales in addition to the Big Apple. Our friends to the North are supporting the OWS demonstrators, too – at least in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan. (Man, I dig those Canadians.)

If I counted correctly, that’s all 50 states. Now I can see why the one percent is running scared and trying its damndest through its minions in the media to repress and discredit this growing tsunami.

In addition to objecting to class warfare, demonstrators have cited a number of specific grievances – including efforts to eliminate union rights, discrimination in the workplace, student debt, corporate personhood, and the unfair, excessive influence of big business on economic policymaking – yet have been accused by corporate media lackeys of not being willing or able to articulate what they’re protesting.

It’s interesting who’s on the side of the protestors. They include media baroness Arianna Huffington, who’s been tweeting her support; noted scholar, activist and Princeton professor Dr. Cornel West; actress Susan Sarandon, one of the first celebrities to make an appearance in New York; actors Tim Robbins and Mark Ruffalo; and author Naomi Klein, who said “the protesters are seeking change in the streets because it won’t come from the ballot box.”

It’s also noteworthy who’s chiding and deriding them. If his most recent column in the Detroit News is any indication, Frank Beckmann is so repulsed by the “incoherent” demonstrators that I can imagine him cursing and grumbling and snorting as he chomps on his cigar in his oak-paneled library, fireplace ablaze, and pours himself another scotch and whiskey while his faithful manservant looks on, awaiting his instructions.

Perennial presidential candidate Mitt Romney – who’s worth an estimated $250 million and gives me the creeps almost as much as Larry King and Ann Coulter – called the OWS events “dangerous” and “class warfare” and said, "I'm just trying to get myself to occupy the White House."

Fellow White House wannabe Herman Cain, who’s worth an estimated $18 million, called the whole thing “un-American.” (The pizza magnate must not be familiar with founding father Thomas Paine, who said, “It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government," or the philosopher Aristotle, no slouch in the intellect department, who said, “If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.”)

Congressman Paul Broun, Jr. (R-Georgia), whose net worth in 2009 was between $195,000 and $795,000 (elected officials don’t have to be precise on financial disclosure reports), claimed the protest was “an attack on freedom,” and NYC mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg, the 13th richest person in the country, said yesterday on his weekly radio show, “What [demonstrators are] trying to do is take away the jobs of people working in the city, take away the tax base that we have.”

Another mayor, Lansing’s Virg Bernero – who earned the title “America’s Angriest Mayor” for defending the domestic auto industry and union workers on Fox “News” in 2009 – posted this on Facebook yesterday:

This [OWS protest] is the real deal. Sit up and pay attention, folks. This just might be our chance to get our country back. It won't be easy and it won't be quick, but I ask you, is the America of your dreams worth fighting for?

Unlike the media-promoted Tea Party – which ostensibly emerged from grassroots dissatisfaction with out-of-control government spending but in reality is funded and advanced by right-wing and corporate interests who take advantage of the racism, ignorance and myopia that exist within large segments of the electorate – the OWS movement is organic and legitimate and real. The specious claims of Beckmann and others notwithstanding, this is clearly not confined street theatre produced by bored, disgruntled white college kids looking for a reason to skip class and show off their tats and dreadlocks, or a bunch of Obamabots trying to make the aristocrats in the Grand Old Party look bad.

People are tired of losing and suffering and paying more for less and getting kicked to the curb, figuratively and literally, by the upper class and its henchmen, and being used and abused by bankers, businessmen, politicians and others who already have enough but still want more.

I never thought I’d see genuine revolution in the streets in my lifetime. I’m kind of afraid that I’ll be seeing it now – and kind of afraid that I won’t.

Occupy Wall Street has a website and a Facebook page.