O.W.S. MOVEMENT TERRIFIES REPUBLICANS

            At this writing, we are now in day 26 of the Occupy Wall Street movement and it shows no sign of waning.  In fact it is gaining momentum every day it seems.  There have now been over 250 protests in communities large and small across the nation.  One way you can tell for sure that this movement has legs is by watching and listening to the Republicans.  At first, they were dismissive and barely paid attention.  Then, it was obvious that they were becoming nervous about it and now they are terrified.  This is evidenced by their public comments:

            Peter King, Republican Congressman from New York and Chairman of Homeland Security Committee, called the protestors a “rag-tag mob” and “anarchists” and “anti-American”.  Additionally, he would rather that the media didn’t even cover them.  "[W]e have to be careful not to allow this to get any legitimacy," he warned. "I'm taking this seriously in that I'm old enough to remember what happened in the 1960s when the left-wing took to the streets and somehow the media glorified them and it ended up shaping policy," he said. "We can't allow that to happen."

            After all, the protests in the 60s against the Vietnam War that killed over 56,000 young (mostly poor & middle class, by the way) soldiers that eventually resulted in shaping policy that got us out of Vietnam has been proven to have been a major mistake, right?  And the Civil Rights protests of the 60s that shaped policy so that Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act has been nothing but a major disaster!  I mean, God forbid should we allow average Americans to unify, peaceably assemble and actually shape public policy—now that is REALLY un-American!   Besides, shaping policy is only to be done by the super-wealthy and big corporations.  [Sarcasm added.]

            Republican presidential hopeful, Herman Cain said it plainly enough:  "I don't have facts to back this up, but I happen to believe that these demonstrations are planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration," Cain said Wednesday to the Associated Press during a book signing event. "Don't blame Wall Street, don't blame the big banks, if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself!"

            However, the very best indicator that the 99% movement is real and is growing and that the Republicans are scared to death is the way that they are starting to sing a different song in just a matter of days…sometimes hours.  Read on.

            Eric Cantor, GOP House Majority Leader, on Friday said, “I for one am increasingly concerned about the growing mobs occupying Wall Street and the other cities across the country,” Cantor said on Friday. “And believe it or not, some in this town have actually condoned the pitting of Americans against Americans.”  A mere 4 days later, his tune had changed a bit.  “People are upset and justifiably frustrated.  They’re out of work.  The economy is not moving.  Their sense of security for the future is not clear at all.  People are afraid and I get it.”  (Source:  CNN)

            Then, there is Mitt Romney, who on Monday at 12:36 pm at a town hall in Milford, New Hampshire criticized the Wall Street protestors and defended the investment bankers.   “One of the things that has made America’s economy the most powerful in the world is that we have a very capable financial services sector that makes loans and allows businesses to start and thrive…finding a scapegoat, finding someone to blame is not the way to go…”

            Romney, who founded Bain Capital, a private investment equity firm and estimated to be worth over $250 million, then said exactly 6 hours later at another town hall meeting in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, “I don’t worry about the top one percent. I don’t stay up nights worrying about ‘gee we need to help them.’ I don’t worry about that. They’re doing just fine by themselves. I worry about the 99 percent in America. I want America, once again, to be the best place in the world to be middle-class. I want to have a strong and vibrant and prosperous middle-class. And so I look at what’s happening on Wall Street and my own view is, boy I understand how those people feel…The people in this country are upset.”

            Personally, I think what he really understands is that the polls show that now might not be the right time to be singing the praises of Wall Street big-wigs even if his most recent endorser is former New Hampshire senator, Judd Gregg, who is now an international advisor for Goldman Sachs.

            Sadly, the Republicans in the Senate led by our own Mitch “#1 goal is to defeat Obama” McConnell and the ever comical Rand Paul doesn’t yet get it.  Yesterday, every single Republican in the Senate and 2 Democrats voted to filibuster the American Jobs Act, thus preventing it from being passed with a simple majority.  This is an act which would have put thousands back to work re-building our infrastructure and educating our children and all of it would have been paid for by a sur-tax on the super wealthy—a tax that would have been placed on the 2nd million dollars and above they make—not the 1^st million.  That amounts to a tax on .1% of Americans—not 1%--POINT ONE PERCENT.

            If that doesn’t tell you where Mitch “#1 goal defeat Obama” McConnell and the rest of the Republicans stand where you and I and the other 99% are concerned, then I’m afraid you are beyond hope of ever understanding anything.