Some comment on the utter futility, lawlessness and lunacy of those occupying a park near Wall Street and the nearly countless others across the nation and around the world who claim to be the forgotten “99 percent,” left behind by 1 percent whom they view as having corralled the majority of wealth and privilege. Laissez-faire capitalism, the unbridled exercise of control over assets, is viewed by many as the single most important characteristic of Western Civilization. And those who are seen to apparently question this notion are demonized as socialists or communists, and certainly as misguided fools. But are they?
Many complain of how Wall Street banks appeared to have precipitated our current economic crisis after carelessly if not criminally foisting on a greedy crowd of would be investors assets of grossly understated risk and hence of less than dubious value. How was that so significantly different from Black Tuesday, the original Wall Street scandal which precipitated the Great Depression? And where we were all sold a bill of goods packaged in an argument that interstate and international banking, unfettered by local regulation, was needed to keep American banks competitive with foreign banking giants, don’t we have regrets now that we bought into that argument? Now it’s those overseas banks and the countries who are having to bail them out who are complain the loudest about the US banking industry.
Perhaps the 99% are too disorganized to see the light. Sure, they may be too naïve and too diffuse to find any unifying theme. But politicians are not. There may be more money backing Wall Street than Main Street. But surely some political figures will emerge after realizing that with 60% of the nation sympathetic to the “99 percent,” they can get themselves elected on themes like returning banking to state regulation. After all it was Federal Regulation that sent Arizonan Charles Keating to the Keating Five in Washington, D.C., crying for help to save him from defeat and jail. And John McCain was dragged into that fracas.
So how about it, Tea Partiers? Why not jump on the theme of smaller federal government and increased local regulation of capital markets and banking? Perhaps you’ll win over some of the “99 percent?” Oh, I know why not. The Koch Brothers will not stand for any such action! So your hands are tied!
• Dale Whiting is a Chandler resident.
RationalHuman posted at 4:54 pm on Tue, Oct 18, 2011.
Oh well...as always, Dale resorts to the same infantile, cowardly tactics he so often accuses others of.
While those accusations may be accurate, stooping to their level (Koch brothers, ugh) just shows how truly inept you are.
Always disappointed, never surprised.
samkat posted at 6:12 pm on Tue, Oct 18, 2011.
Maybe Dale missed his calling. He could run for Congress. :-)
chatmandu002 posted at 11:26 am on Wed, Oct 19, 2011.
For the 99%ers to get their way they would have to shred the constitution. And us 53%ers would not let that happen.
Just proves the more the government gives away the more the recipients demand.
Accuracy posted at 11:25 am on Thu, Oct 20, 2011.
Dale Whiting’s question: “So how about it, Tea Partiers? Why not jump on the theme of smaller federal government and increased local regulation of capital markets and banking?”
----------------------------------
Occupy Wall Street protester’s movement is largely a Democratic, far-Left, media, union creation whose design is to move the political spectrum far enough to the Left to make Barack Obama look like a centrist and mainstream his political agenda. So it is Obama and Democrats that are aligning themselves with the movement at their extreme peril. And the Tea Party is NOT.
Occupy Wall Street is a movement, whose slogan may be “We are the 99 percent,” are unlike the Tea Party, which grew out of anger at big government and big national debt.
Furthermore, at the protesters moment, stealing is the biggest problem . . . and all the Occupy Wall Street protesters have to fear is each other. These large scale protest demonstrations could become the scene of violence and tragedy.