Republicans and conservatives are right to be scared by this movement, but Democrats and the traditional left are wrong to be encouraged by it, because both are part of a system that cannot stand. It is not sustainable and must be overthrown.
Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are part of the solution. Both are part of the problem.
The current system of money-backed electoral politics allows the United States to:
- put more young men of color in prison than in college
- pour trillions of dollars into meaningless wars
- bail out banks that are “too big to fail” while evicting homeowners too small to defend
- have the world’s most expensive but least effective health care
- give tax breaks to corporations for sending jobs overseas and exploiting child labor
- continue ignoring the peril of climate change
This is a system built for the benefit of a tiny few at the expense of everything else.
It is symbolic that the Occupy Wall Street protest is not actually taking place on Wall Street but in Zuccotti Park, several blocks away from the financial district. On the very first day of the event, city officials forcibly directed protesters to move far enough away so that effectively no one would be inconvenienced, most especially the Wall Street banksters.
Wall Street itself is not really occupied. Not yet.
But the significance of Occupy Wall Street is here to stay. Oh, I don’t mean that the people camping tonight in New York City will still be there a year from now or even six months from now. They might be, but chances are they will be gone. However, the movement they have begun, which was inspired in turn by the ‘Arab Spring’, is one that cannot be denied.
We should remember that it took Gandhi and the Indian resistance movement more than 20 years to overthrow imperial rule. It took King and the civil rights movement a decade to gain major victories. It took Wałęsa and the Solidarity movement 20 years to topple Soviet communism.
If the movement now beginning at Occupy Wall Street is to have any success, this will also take years to achieve. But do not be deceived that victory in this case looks like a standard win for one party over the other, or for one part of the system over another.
This is a fight against the whole system. It is a fundamental challenge to the status quo.
This is a fight against the whole system. It is a fundamental challenge to the status quo. I do not know what will replace the present system. I do know it will not be easy to change it. And I am certain the 1% will put up a vicious fight to retain their dominance.
My hope is that whatever comes next will retain the vigor and vitality of a market economy to drive innovation and reward productivity, but will guard against the imbalance of power and inherent injustice of US-style capitalism, and will value people more than profits.
Whether that outcome will look like democratic socialism, or perhaps like free market anarchism, or will be something entirely new, is impossible to know at this point.
This is a struggle that will take shape slowly and will evolve as it grows, but as it grows it will gain momentum and in time will become unstoppable. It is not a violent movement but it is an insistent one.
Change is in the air.