WASHINGTON — The media have gone to great lengths to convince us that Occupy Wall Street protesters are just like the rest of us. One columnist, for example, tells us they’ve “struck ... a nerve” with the American people. But the only thing Occupy Wall Street has struck is America’s gag reflex. The movement is decidedly outside the mainstream.
Challenge Occupy Wall Street protesters to some Jeff Foxworthy-style tests and see for yourself.
You might not be the 99 percent if, for example, you defecate in places other than toilets. One New York Occupy Wall Street protester was caught on camera using a police car as a Porta-John while police have repeatedly been forced to issue warnings against public urination and defecation to protesters in Los Angeles.
Or you might not be the 99 percent, if you take time off your job to protest that you have no job. One of the principal demands of Occupy Wall Street protesters has been for jobs. Yet, according to former Bill Clinton pollster Doug Shoen, 85 percent of the Occupy protesters in New York’s Zuccotti Park are currently employed.
And you probably aren’t among the 99 percent, if you blame Republicans alone for enriching Wall Street, banks and powerful corporations at the expense of everyone else. Both parties have done so and most Americans understand that. Even so, Democrats appear to be more culpable in recent years than Republicans.
Fifty-four percent of House Republicans voted against final passage of the Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP) legislation in 2008, while just 27 percent of Democrats voted against it. The following January, all but two Republicans in the House and all but six in the Senate voted to block $350 billion in TARP spending. That effort failed thanks to the nearly unified, pro-TARP opposition of Democrats.
Republicans also voted en masse against the $787 billion stimulus package that’s provided billions of dollars to such “start up” companies as General Electric. Not a single Republican House member and only three Republican senators voted for the legislation.
Nor might you be in the 99 percent, if you believe civil disobedience and violence are legitimate forms of political expression. According to pollster Shoen, 98 percent of those participating in the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York believe civil disobedience is an appropriate means of achieving their objectives and an astounding 31 percent support the use of violence.
You might not be the 99 percent, if you can’t tell the difference between exposing people to your views and exposing yourself. Occupy Seattle protester Jesse Drugge was charged with five counts of indecent exposure and three counts of second-degree child molestation after exposing himself to and engaging in lewd acts in front of children.
Occupy Wall Street in Madison, Wis., was reportedly denied renewal of its demonstration permit due to public ... um, let’s call it “self-gratification.” And reports of public sex at the New York protest have been rampant.
And you undoubtedly are not in the 99 percent, if you blame minorities for the nation’s problems. At the Occupy Wall Street protest in Zuccotti Park, one man carried a sign reading “Zionists Control Wall Street.” At a similar rally in Los Angeles, Occupier Patricia McAllister told Reason TV, “The Zionist Jews who are running these big banks and our Federal Reserve need to be run out of this country.”
And the New York Post reports that the American Nazi Party recently broke with its “rule against standing beside Communists” urging its members in the “pro-white” movement to join the Occupy Wall Streeters’ fight against the common enemy: “Judeo-capitalist banksters.”
In fact, unless you’re a sex-mad, anti-social, anti-Semitic exhibitionist with an appreciation for law-breaking, Occupy Wall Street is unlikely to be your cup of tea.
• Ridenour is president of the conservative National Center for Public Policy Research.
Comments (37)
Add commentWeak
What an incredibly weak letter, painting all the protesters as sex crazed, Jew hating, street pooping criminals.
Weak. Incredibly weak.
He obviously searched long and hard to find the fringe of the protesters. Chances are, if he searched a little within his republican members of congress, he'd find an equal number of sex crazed (Larry Craig, Herman Cain), Jew hating (Larry Taylor) criminals (the rest of them).
I'd expect nothing less from the National Center for Public Policy.
But, if what he says is correct, that 85% of the protesters have jobs, then I applaud them especially for taking time off of work, or working AND protesting on their time off. Not everyone has 9-5 jobs, David.
As for civil disobedience, sometimes that's the best way to get lawmakers' attention. It worked for Rosa Parks, and she started a civil rights movement.
Hopefully, so will the protesters.
I applaud the occupy protesters for their courage and for defending the rights of the people peaceably to assemble for a redress of grievances, no matter how many octogenarians or pregnant women the police pepper spray!
For once Jo, I mostly agree
For once Jo,
I mostly agree with you.
Yeah, interesting how Mr.
Yeah, interesting how Mr. Ridenour failed to mention the, ahem, questionable behavior of an increasing number of law enforcement officers against people who were doing absolutely nothing wrong.
The truth hurts.....
All he mentioned was facts about OWS. Not to mention the mountain of garbage left behind in LA. Compare OWS with the Tea Party rallies. No comparison.
Oh, but the protestors were
Oh, but the protestors were doing something wrong, hiker. You must be talking about the bratty, college kids that got pepper sprayed.
First rule when dealing with the cops - do what they tell you to do. Don't encircle them and then sit down and link arms. It won't end well.
Do you know why police use pepper spray for crowd control? Because the other option is to use batons and physical force and more people end up getting hurt and it puts the police in danger.
But we're all cops now, aren't we?
consider the source
When I consider the source I understand why the author uses his position to rationalize his views. By having such an eloquent name as the National Center for Public Policy Research you can be assured the author prefers to hide behind a spiffy name for an organization rather than openly admit what the organization represents.
Calypso?
I didn't make a comment Calypso. Is it common practice for you to start posts by saying, "Hiker you are wrong" without noting what I said or even if I said anything at all?
You could get a job as a reporter for Fox News. No sense of reality is needed.
Sorry hiker. I see
Sorry hiker. I see colorado14er and I think hiker. Not enough coffee? Relax...no need to get so defensive.
Definitely don't get
Definitely don't get defensive. Otherwise, in Calypso's worldview, the police are justified in pepper spraying you.
On the one hand, they get all pissy and insecure about government "overreach" in the form of giving out benefits (that you are free to refuse). On the other hand, they seem perfectly okay with police abuse, torture, military overreach, and the denial of constitutional rights to groups they don't like.
It's very interesting.
delete
delete
Bratty or not, wrong or not,
Bratty or not, wrong or not, it is not ok to pepper spray, beat with batons, or fire tear gas canisters and flash grenades at crowds who are exercising their 1st amendment rights and not being physically violent.
My point was that the article was completely one-sided and only cited the bad apples, plus left out the increasingly aggressive tactics of law enforcement. Some of those tactics are used by military personnel, and from what I've heard from friends in the military, they are tactics specifically designed to incite crowds, thus giving law enforcement better justification for using force.
I do agree about the comparison between OWS and Tea Party rallies, however.
If a person was given an order to vacate..
then they should vacate. I do not know the circumstances of why the police used pepperspray. And unless you were there, you do not know either. I believe MOST police officers do the right thing and do their job correctly and within the law.
@justlivin: you're an
@justlivin: you're an enabler, then. If I tell you to get out of my face, you don't, and I smack you upside the head, you still get to charge me with assault.
Until you turn a critical eye towards the things that go on in our society (and that means more than parroting party lines and talking points), you are allowing abuses to happen (which really is hypocritical when you rail against other supposed government abuses).
It is different if you are getting a lawful order from a
police officer. If a police officer sees you driving down the street and asks you pull over and you do not, you can be arrested. You may not have done anything wrong at all but he may have seen something you are not aware of. On the other hand if my wife gets pulled over in a dark area of town and does not feel safe, I expect her to drive(slowly) to a well lit area.
If we cannot rely on our police departments to uphold the law or if we decide that we do not want to listen to the police, we will have anarchy. I am not saying to blindly follow what the police say but if the OWS were told to leave because they were trespassing then they should leave. If they do not, then they will suffer the consequences.
BTW, If I get in your face and you smack me, then I would have to suffer the consequences.
Well, I at least know what my
Well, I at least know what my own eyes tell me, along with information passed on from military personnel, some of whom have been involved in some of the protests and are aghast at the way citizens of this country are being treated by state and local law enforcement.
What about the gentleman who was shot in the head at point blank range with a tear gas cannister, and when fellow protesters came to his aid as he was lying on the ground bleeding profusely from the head, they had a flash grenade purposely shot directly at them?
Again my point was that the article was one-sided, and only used bad examples (or selective "facts") to paint a crappy and inaccurate picture.
I love it when the left
I love it when the left screams free speech for all the civil unrest they involve themselves in, yet other times they have no use for The Constitution. You know, that old fashioned bunch of words! Can't have it both ways, kids!
What part don't you all understand about it being illegal to camp in public parks or hanging off the edge of the sidewalk past 11pm or blocking streets?
Wait until the taxpayer bill comes due and see how many sympathizers step forward.
p, quit exaggerating with your torture talk and inflammatory rhetoric. That's not what conservatives believe.
@justlivin: if the police
@justlivin: if the police flash their lights and you don't pull over, you can be arrested but you can not be pepper sprayed. If the protestors were doing anything that would have warranted arrest, they should have been arrested (and I believe some of them were, and then later released). Pepper spraying, however, was out of line. As it was last month in New York City when the officer pepper sprayed the protestors who had already been placed under arrest.
And no, if you get in my face and I hit you, I am still in the wrong. There is rarely any excuse for violence. And there is never an excuse for responding to a nonviolent action with violence.
Calypso, you've defended torture, advocated taking away the constitutional rights of some people (muslims), and generally ignored any abuses targeted at people who don't agree with your worldview while harping on about how Social Security and Medicare are socialist plots to enslave us all. I'm not sure why I even continue to engage you. Probably because I'm a sap.
Well, 14er, tell us about
Well, 14er, tell us about some of the exemplary acts that have come out of OWS. I'll give you awhile to hunt some down because it won't be easy.
Don't use the military as your scapegoat to prop up the protestors either. First of all, I don't think the military has been much involved in crowd control and who are these military personnel that you're priviledged to be talking to?
I say again.... you do not know the circumstances of
the pepperspraying. You just see a little clip of it and jump to conclusions that the sprayees did nothing wrong to warrant getting sprayed.(I am not saying they did) Video does not always tell the entire story but people are ready to jump on the "police brutality wagon" at the drop of a hat without getting all of the facts.
Oh, also, police make mistakes, they are human. But what I see is the attitude that police are always wrong.
It is like how do I know BO is lying? Because his mouth is moving. Does BO lie all the time when he is speaking? Maybe not all the time. :)
"I'm a sap"! You use such a
"I'm a sap"! You use such a gentle sounding noun to label yourself, p. You engage me because you get to perfect all your leftist talking points and you think some people will buy them.
p, but what's the definition of torture? And if Muslims are American citizens, I'm not for taking away their constitutional rights. Social Security and Medicare aren't socialist plots to enslave us - they're programs that are not sustainable and have outlived their usefulness as written many years ago.
Sooooo, stop putting words in my mouth and spreading lies.
@justlivin: the kids were
@justlivin: the kids were sitting on the ground. Boy, gotta watch out for those college kids in the prone position! Never know what they might do!
Again, police brutality. Several studies have shown that the police are far too liberal in their use of pepper spray because of its perception as a temporary irritant (but anyone who's ever been sprayed--or accidentally sprayed themselves, say with bear mace--knows differently).
And Calypso, waterboarding has been torture since the Spanish Inquisition, you've advocated racial profiling and not allowing American Muslims (though the amendment just says "people"--which includes non-citizens) to express their 1st amendment rights (or have you forgotten your stance on the mosque near the 9/11 Ground Zero site?), and you constantly go on about how the socialist plot is to enslave us all. Or something. I'm not sure on the details because you never elaborate beyond whatever talking points and buzz words are popular on right-wing talk radio. You're like a 3 year old child who hears his dad swear, and starts to repeat the word over and over and over, without understanding it. Except in this case the dirty words come from Rush Limbaugh and his ilk.
So I'm supposed to cite
So I'm supposed to cite examples of things you can see and hear with your own eyes and ears? It's easy if you're paying attention and not relying only on "news" from selective sources. Remember the spitting and racial slur incidents involving Tea Party members and members of Congress that were grossly and deceptively mis-reported?
I think you're mistaking my pointing out that the article was one-sided and that some law enforcement have been doing unnacceptable things as me completely siding with OWS. Do I agree with all of their views and tactics? No. But the ones who are lawfully and peacefully protesting have an absolute right to not be treated barbarically.
And I'm not using the military as my scapegoat. I'm talking about numerous friends and a few family members (most of whom are as "conservative" as they come) who have returned from their tours in Iraq or Afghanistan and have taken part in or observed some of the protests.
So 14er, are you talking
So 14er, are you talking about the protest at the capital in Denver? Have you been down there?
I've not heard anything positive come out of this foolishness. But the left always takes to the streets - like a bunch of radical revolutionaries. Then they cry like babies when the authorities move in to clean it up.
If the TEA Party spitting stuff happened, how come no one came forward to claim the $100,000 reward that Breitbart put up? Cuz it never happened, but you'll believe what furthers your agenda.
My best guess is that there aren't many members of our military taking part in this occupy garbage. The kook that got a tear gas canister in his head had a discharge other than honorable from the Marines and he had a website called "I Hate The Marines". He wasn't your ordinary soldier.
blah blah blah......
Whatever.....
LOL@ Calypso
(imagine hilarious laughter here)
Oh, Calypso, bud, I LOVE it when conservatives wave the Constitution when it pleases them.
Tell me, if conservatives such as yourself love the Constitution so much, why are you always trying to amend it? (i.e., flag desecration, gay marriage ban, etc.) Liberals like it just the way it is.
There's more to the Constitution than the Second Amendment.
Denver, Seattle, and Oakland,
Denver, Seattle, and Oakland, among others. I was in Denver about a month ago. There were OWS elements that were peaceful and responsible, and others that were not.
Something positive will come out of this foolishness if they can focus their energy where it belongs (not against "captialism" but against the politicians who make the rules and the criminals who take advantage of the rules). A lot of the folks actually get it, but you wouldn't know if you only get your news from MSM sources (especially Fox News) because they are cherry picking the bad elements out of the whole group.
I didn't say the spitting incident happened. I said it was grossly and deceptively mis-reported. There was no evidence that it actually happened. See my point?
That kook that got a tear gas cannister to the head was a young boy who has every right to express his views (whether he hates the Marine Corps or not), and was doing nothing other than standing there, peacefully. The people who tried to help him were doing nothing other than trying to help him.
Personnally, I'm more partial to the Occupy the Fed folks. They get it. Repealing NAFTA, instituting term-limits and real campaign finance reform, and re-instituting Glass-Steagall would be a nice start. Oh, and actually upholding the rule of law.
http://occupythefednow.com/
http://www.alt-market.com/
Check out the articles about banks and their now record $707,568,901,000,000 in derivatives, or the one about abolishing property taxes in North Dakota.
Its sad that though I
Its sad that though I actually agree with some (and I said some) of the OWS sentiment they have attracted the worst of our society to their cause and lost any credibility long ago.
The OWS movement represents just one segment of our society to many people - naive societal failures. Its an opportunity lost to affect actual change by this group and the media has largely moved on to the next story they can hype.
This movement is being played by the very groups they seek to villify and those who support them for their own nefarious purposes are having it backfire (I am thinking BO may be regreting his support since they have now turned on him).
Come up with some concrete ideas instead of a nebulous "success is bad and life isnt fair" pablum and maybe they would gain some traction. As it is.....supporting them would be like supporting the Seahawks....they have promise but always disappoint.
Both sides
I've been on both sides. I worked for many years in the banking industry and watched it all fall apart in 2008. Yes, I'm all for calling out some of these thiefs on Wall Street. However, I lived in Seattle during WTO and what a total fiasco. First Amendment somehow equated to disrupting the public, looting, vandalism, burning, and thumbing their noses at police. A true state of anarchy. What saved the city? The police. Don't like laws, move to Mexico and see how things work out!
Shrike: Demands
1. Get money out of elections
2. Re-institute Glass Steagle
3. Amend Constitution to state 'Corporations are not Persons'
Got an issue with any of those?
Latitude58
The only thing I dont really agree with in your post is that I dont think we need a Constitutional amendment to determine that corporations arent persons (but I agree they are not and should not be considered such).