By TIM CAVANAUGH, Reason.com
Can the Occupy movement survive
an onslaught of bandwagon-joining politicians?
Yesterday, the Los Angeles City Council approved a resolution
supporting the Occupy L.A. tent city that has sprung up around City
Hall. Yet this lethal stamp of mainstream approval was generally
applauded by the Occupation forces.
People we spoke with during coverage of the Council vote and the
reaction to it (among those Occupiers who were even aware of it)
indicate something uniquely laid-back and Californian about Occupy
L.A.:
Where Occupy
Wall Street got its original burst of energy thanks to
opposition from Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York Police
Department; Occupy D.C. has a notably prickly
relationship with former Marines; and Occupy Atlanta’s greatest
traction has come from the admirable-but-oddly-handled
decision not
to let a U.S. congressman speak, most of the folks we spoke
with at Occupy L.A. think government — including the corrupt and
embarrassing government of Los Angeles — is A-OK.
The Occupiers have settled in for a long stay, with an
encampment that includes a first-aid station, a food tent, a
circulating library, and a full complement of mainstream media
attendants.
—————————————————————————–
What explains the cozy relationship between some of America’s
most mediocre politicians and a politically eclectic movement that
is at least in part functioning as a challenge to politics as
usual?
Part of it might be that state power has so far been exercised
with a light touch. While the early part of the local occupation
involved some
now-forgotten arrests, the police are clearly taking it easy.
So are the politicians. We heard quite a few compliments for the
Los Angeles Police Department from the scrufty
Occupiers. Thanks to some last-minute maneuvering by Council
Member Bernard Parks, the support-Occupy-L.A. resolution was
decoupled from a measure that would have involved some new
regulation of banks, so pols could vote for it without having to
make any commitment.
In fact, given the airy nature of the Occupiers’ goals, it’s
surprising that they are getting any resistance at all.
Representatives of local banks and the Chamber of Commerce showed
up to speak to the Council, arguing that banks are big local
charitable givers, generate a lot of tax revenue, blah blah blah.
Why bother making the argument when the people on the other side
are holding out to, as one Occupier told me, “arrest all of Wall
Street and put them in jail”? That sounds menacing but it’s pretty
unlikely. Since I was a child I have been hearing that the United
States is a republic in its death throes and perpetually ten
minutes away from Kristallnacht, but I just don’t see a massive
roundup of stock brokers in our future.
———————————————————————————
Since Occupy Wall Street heated up, journalists have been trying
to discern the movement’s “demands” (an open-minded approach that I
just can’t recall seeing in the media back when the Tea Party was
in the streets). The consistent desire of Occupy L.A. seems to be
for “change,” but a form of change that is not political in nature.
They’re looking for a change in people’s hearts, and this being
Southern California, there’s a dose of impulse-buy spiritualism in
the mix. This, I think, is the fallacy of trying to discern
political content in what is essentially a chance to go camping
without having to leave town.
So far, the Occupy LA people seem as clueless as Los Angeles voters. They hobnob with the Bankers’ Best Friend Eric Garcetti who has directed way over $1 Billion to the banks to fund the atrocious CRA projects which have left the city broke.
The tea baggers were KnowNothings and the LA Occupier are Clueless. Maybe they will smarten up LOL
Right on, Rick! You, me and Bill Maher will keep calling them “teabaggers” for as long as they’re around with their whackadoodle ideas and consistently voting against themselves economically. I guess for them that “ole time religion” is more important to them than a chicken in every pot…or a job.
As long as Occupy LA thinks that the bankers’ best friend Eric Garcetti is a “friend of the people,” Angelenos should shy away from them. The tea baggers had reason to be upset, but due to their KnowNothingism they made matters much worse. As Rick said, there is nothing wrong with requiring Occupy LA to know the difference between the Liberal and corrupt banker. Garcetti has presided over the city’s doling out of more than $1.5 B BILLION to bankers, and Occupy LA thinks that he is their friend?!?
Speaking of the 12.7% unemployed, it’s pretty hard to laugh between 4:00 and 5:00 a.m., but that what happened this morning while listening to Don Imus and waiting for another show to come on.
The queen of Republican nonsense spin, Mary Matlin herself, was a guest doing her best Marie Antoinette imitation.
“What’s with all these people hanging out in parks? Where aren’t they getting jobs?”
They’re out of work. They can’t find jobs, therefore by her logic — let them eat cake while they’re looking for jobs that aren’t there.
If Mary is so concerned about the park inhabitants’ job status, perhaps she should open an employment agency. If she can’t find jobs for them here, maybe she can find them jobs with her wealthy corporate Republican friends in New Delhi, Hong Kong or Tiawan.
Sorry Missy, there are jobs out there but they are not in LA. Don’t like? Go protest to Villar and garcetti and co.
We do not need only unemployment numbers. We need a way to know how many jobs are actually out there. That would stop these KnowNothing fools who only can blame the victims.
It takes an idiot to think that people prefer to loose their homes and be on the street with the children with no medical care. Yeah, right. All the jobless love watching TV and drinking beer until the bank kicks them out of their dream home.
There are NO JOBS and when there is a job and 100 applicants, many employers refuse to consider people who are unemployed. Thus, unemployment numbers stay the same. People switch jobs, but the unemployed stay unemployed.
There is a significant number of people in this country who sadistically beat up on anyone who is down and out and justify their immoral behavior by saying, “It’s their fault that they are jobless, or homeless, or ill.” We heard this despicable attitude when the tea baggers shouted out to let the uninsured man die!
“We have found the enemy an the enemy is us.”
When this first started in New York, one spokesman was quoted as saying that “they” were against the Corporate Bailouts of 2008. That struck me as odd.
Both parties were involved in Corporate bailouts. In fact the President was just quoted on how he was “vindicated” by his decision to bailout GM.
There are plenty of jobs here 1,000 miles north from LA. So this blanket statement that there are no jobs is false.
People need to be flexible and also recognize how badly LA politicos destroyed the jobs base in LA.
Here is the data:
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/unemployment/metros/
You people should have seen the writing on the wall — LA jobs situation is not good. Your cheese has moved and your politicians dont give a damn.
Any prudent person would see this even before the financial crisis in 2008. Definitely last year. But if you think the weather is better here, this is YOUR choice to stay.
Gotta hand it to the unions and Council. They knew that if they joined in, they’d be free from being targets and protect their interests in the process. The protesters don’t seem to get that the unions are as much of a problem as those evil wealthy folks that purchase their subsidies through campaign donations. Hey OccupyLA-doncha know? The unions also buy their favors and their members (the workers) have to give up a portion of their pay check so their “leaders” can pick and chose the candidate they can buy off. Has it occurred to anyone that our water rates will not go back to the “pre-drought” days? You will continue to be penalized if you go over your allotment. Why? (hint: think “Union” and “City Council”)
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hotel-protest-20111015,0,2139686.story
In another city, I heard they called out for Socialism and violence.
http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/10/11/occupy-l-a-speaker-violence-will-be-necessary-to-achieve-our-goals/
That’s what you get when you have a group of clueless and myopic symptom chasers. I wish they did their homework-they could have actually accomplished something. Too bad.