Wall Street Journal
In interviews, protesters show that they are leftists out of step with most American voters. Yet Democrats are embracing them anyway.
President Obama and the Democratic leadership are making a critical error in embracing the Occupy Wall Street movement—and it may cost them the 2012 election.
Last week, senior White House adviser David Plouffe said that "the protests you're seeing are the same conversations people are having in living rooms and kitchens all across America. . . . People are frustrated by an economy that does not reward hard work and responsibility, where Wall Street and Main Street don't seem to play by the same set of rules." Nancy Pelosi and others have echoed the message.
Yet the Occupy Wall Street movement reflects values that are dangerously out of touch with the broad mass of the American people—and particularly with swing voters who are largely independent and have been trending away from the president since the debate over health-care reform.
The protesters have a distinct ideology and are bound by a deep commitment to radical left-wing policies. On Oct. 10 and 11, Arielle Alter Confino, a senior researcher at my polling firm, interviewed nearly 200 protesters in New York's Zuccotti Park. Our findings probably represent the first systematic random sample of Occupy Wall Street opinion.
Our research shows clearly that the movement doesn't represent unemployed America and is not ideologically diverse. Rather, it comprises an unrepresentative segment of the electorate that believes in radical redistribution of wealth, civil disobedience and, in some instances, violence. Half (52%) have participated in a political movement before, virtually all (98%) say they would support civil disobedience to achieve their goals, and nearly one-third (31%) would support violence to advance their agenda.
The vast majority of demonstrators are actually employed, and the proportion of protesters unemployed (15%) is within single digits of the national unemployment rate (9.1%).
President Obama and the Democratic leadership are making a critical error in embracing the Occupy Wall Street movement—and it may cost them the 2012 election.
Last week, senior White House adviser David Plouffe said that "the protests you're seeing are the same conversations people are having in living rooms and kitchens all across America. . . . People are frustrated by an economy that does not reward hard work and responsibility, where Wall Street and Main Street don't seem to play by the same set of rules." Nancy Pelosi and others have echoed the message.
Yet the Occupy Wall Street movement reflects values that are dangerously out of touch with the broad mass of the American people—and particularly with swing voters who are largely independent and have been trending away from the president since the debate over health-care reform.
The protesters have a distinct ideology and are bound by a deep commitment to radical left-wing policies. On Oct. 10 and 11, Arielle Alter Confino, a senior researcher at my polling firm, interviewed nearly 200 protesters in New York's Zuccotti Park. Our findings probably represent the first systematic random sample of Occupy Wall Street opinion.Our research shows clearly that the movement doesn't represent unemployed America and is not ideologically diverse. Rather, it comprises an unrepresentative segment of the electorate that believes in radical redistribution of wealth, civil disobedience and, in some instances, violence. Half (52%) have participated in a political movement before, virtually all (98%) say they would support civil disobedience to achieve their goals, and nearly one-third (31%) would support violence to advance their agenda.
The vast majority of demonstrators are actually employed, and the proportion of protesters unemployed (15%) is within single digits of the national unemployment rate (9.1%).
Those 31% are going to be in for a surprise when they figure out who the targets of the violence they desire are....
ReplyDeleteSpoiled children playing in their sandbox.
ReplyDeleteYeah? Well...guess what, hippie? I'm OK with violence too, and I bet I'm better at it than you are. Come on wiff yo bad seff...
ReplyDeleteI bet I'm better at it than you are.
ReplyDelete:)Hey, I'll bet on you, but don't guess I'll get any takers.:)
Like Blue said...they don't really understand what they are messing with. Yet. They think the older curmudgeonly vets and others with a warrior/patriot spirit are just going to roll over for them.
ReplyDeleteThey don't get it that many will not initiate the violence, but many are salivating at the opportunity to righteously counter attack.
many are salivating at the opportunity to righteously counter attack.
ReplyDeleteWe are certainly seeing enough of this, but they pale in comparison to those quietly biding their time, preparing.
They have no concept of what the beginning of violence will open.
ReplyDeleteThese brats have not had to work for anything. hey have been indoctrinated by their parents, schools and the radical left.
Once Pandora's box is cracked open, they will be/are cannon fodder for the trans-nationalist who are manipulating them.
These brats have not had to work for anything. hey have been indoctrinated by their parents, schools and the radical left.
ReplyDeleteSixties all over again, and again and again.......