http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_occupy_windfall_20111017 If Democrats reap a political windfall from Occupy Wall Street, it will not be richly deserved. While it is true that they have been better than the Republicans on issues of economic fairness, that’s not saying much. Although Obama is disliked by many on Wall Street for his rhetoric about how “millionaires and billionaires” need to pay “their fair share” in taxes, the fact is that he decided not to seek fundamental reforms.
It is also a fact that Wall Street is a major source of campaign financing for both parties. At present, Wall Street donors are giving heavily to Romney—a money man by trade who once headed Bain Capital. In July, however, the Center for Responsive Politics reported that of the $35 million that had been collected this year by Obama’s top-tier fundraisers, one-third came from the financial industry. Apparently, animosity is no match for self-interest.
You could replace the top hats in the cartoon with our D millionaire "Representatives" and it would be just as relevant. And anyone with a single functioning brain cell knows it.
http://www.alternet.org/story/152761/occupy_wall_street_is_a_movement_too_big_to_fail/?page=entire There is no danger that the protesters who have occupied squares, parks and plazas across the nation in defiance of the corporate state will be co-opted by the Democratic Party or groups like MoveOn. The faux liberal reformers, whose abject failure to stand up for the rights of the poor and the working class, have signed on to this movement because they fear becoming irrelevant. Union leaders, who pull down salaries five times that of the rank and file as they bargain away rights and benefits, know the foundations are shaking. So do Democratic politicians from Barack Obama to Nancy Pelosi. So do the array of “liberal” groups and institutions, including the press, that have worked to funnel discontented voters back into the swamp of electoral politics and mocked those who called for profound structural reform.
I sure hope Chris Hedges is right - that there is no danger of co-option. Unions, Ds, can join OWS - OWS can't join them and retain any legitimacy. And the Ds can't "join" OWS without giving up their ties to the Corporatocrcacy and uber-rich. Which I can't see them doing. I would love to be pleasantly surprised, but am not holding my breath with "hope."