A recent poll has shown that far more people are in agreement with the Occupy Wall Street movement than are opposed to it, even though it remains, going into its fourth week on October 14, a vaguely unfocused and amorphous demonstration against a number of things wrong with America and its government. In fact, according to the Time poll, the protest movement has a favorable rating of 54 percent (as opposed to a 23 percent unfavorable rating). However, even though a majority of Americans agree with those holding signs saying “We Are The 99%” and many of its positions — such as prosecuting corporate executives responsible for the financial meltdown and raising taxes on millionaires — 56 percent of the poll’s respondents said they believe that the demonstrations will have little impact on American politics in general.
In short, most believe that, although the movement is viewed primarily as a positive entity, its impact will be marginal at best. The government — and Wall Street — will continue unabated, as it were. As they were.
That should be even more reason for those who are part of the 99 percent — ostensibly, those whose income is less than a million dollars per year and the greater part of Occupy Wall Street — to stand with those that are already demonstrating. The status quo remains static due to inaction and continued silence, and a populist movement is only as powerful as the sum of its individual components and their message. The organizers of Occupy Wall Street are fully aware of this — as are their opposers.
Since its inception in late September, Occupy Wall Street has grown from a small protest in New York to a nationwide movement, with other “Occupy” protests springing up from Boston to Dallas, Tampa to San Francisco. And as the movement’s message of being fed up with government inactivity that favors the rich and powerful, a stagnant economy with a limited jobs market, and a top-down economic system that has exaggerated the gap between the haves and the have-nots over the past couple decades, resonated with more and more individuals, the idea has developed to take the message global on October 15.
At the same time, most corporate controlled media ignored the small protest at first, but as the number of protesters grew (as did their list of grievances) and the demonstrations spread across the country, not only did major media begin covering their individual and collective stories, but those opposed to their message began to sound off as well. Fox News Channel, which had been instrumental in the national organization and rapid dissemination of the (so-called grassroots) tea party’s conservative message, painted Occupy Wall Street as a disorganized bunch of anti-capitalists and author Ann Coulter compared them to “Nazis.” Rush Limbaugh called them “commies,” a White House-driven liberal conspiracy. Even Eric Cantor, Republican House Majority Leader, echoed the Fox New charge and called the protesters a “mob.”
Needless to say, Fox News (whose shows are produced, owned, and operated by millionaires) and Limbaugh (a multi-millionaire world unto himself) and Cantor (a multi-millionaire representative from the state of Virginia) see the status quo as a good thing. They are part of the 1 percent that Occupy Wall Street sees as holding too much money and power at the expense of the other 99 percent of the people.
The truth of the matter is: The demands of the protesters would do little to affect the lives of the 1 percent, even if they managed to have a major impact on future legislation solving wage disparities and social inequalities. In the end, the demands are being made to alter the system that relegates the 99 percent to forever being 99 percent or living an existence just a couple of paychecks short of being homeless or without the basic necessities of life. The rich will remain rich, regardless. In the nation with perhaps the highest standard of living in the world, the fact that so many are out of work or working underpaying jobs or working two or three jobs to make ends meet is a shame unto itself. That so many feel the need to rise up and say something about is indicative that laws, regulations, and conditions will have to improve to make the plight and the number of opportunities for upward mobility of the 99 percent improve as well.
But resistance to those improvements is guaranteed. Unfortunately, so is the idea that all the efforts of the protesters will go for naught, the status quo unshaken. And the most troubling aspect of it all: The idea that millions of individuals working in popular concert attempting to eliminate the socioeconomic and sociopolitical disparities that now exist within the American way of life will have little effect.
That 56 percent of Americans believe that the movement will have little impact is a sad testament to how ingrained the the idea of the intractableness of the government and inertia within prevailing socioeconomic systems have become. And if that number does not add resolve to the populist movement to endure until they effect positive change in the lives of the millions of people who comprise the 1 percent, then that same 56 percent will assuredly be correct about the impact of the 99 percent.