The Silver Lining of the Occupy Wall Street Movement
Yesterday the Occupy San Francisco Movement attempted to block shoppers from going to sales on Black Friday. This worked about as well as one would expect -- the naivete they demonstrated in trying to prevent Black Friday sales from happening is hilarious in and of itself. But they did manage to get Union Square, and by extension the upscale stores on that Square, shut down. Which probably cost the stores millions of dollars in sales, and didn't do San Francisco as a whole any good.
I do see something good coming from the Occupy movement, though it's the exact opposite of what the Occupiers intend. The Occupiers are really angering the many people who have to deal with them when commuting or shopping. Many of the people they are angering are Independents or even Democrats. They are not really happy with their municipal governments, who refuse to shut the Occupations down, and they will not be happy with the Democratic Party if the Democrats race to embrace and coddle the Occupiers -- as the Democrats probably will.
Consider that most of the people who run and work at the shops around Union Square -- or for that matter the business-districts in most of the areas the Occupiers are Occupying -- are liberals and Democrats. They are perfectly ok with semi-violent demonstrations on college campuses, where they perceive its effects as mostly being fun for the younger set, and they reflexively oppose efforts to enforce the law on such demonstrators, as long as the demonstrators claim to be supporting a Left cause.
But the Occupiers are committing the unpardonable sin of messing with those very same rich, intellectually-lazy liberals. They are having to deal with ranting, threatening, smelly mobs when they commute to and from work, or step down from their offices to have expensive business-paid two-hour long lunches with their similarly rich and liberal clients. This is intolerable: it's supposed to be the grubby little petit bourgeoise shopkeepers in college towns and poor kids who really need college educations who suffer in these riots, not their own Very Important Personages.
And the municipal administrations whom those very same rich liberals bankrolled into office on the promise that they would govern with a weather eye on the New York Times and Washington Post are doing exactly what they promised to do: govern as liberals, which means refusing to let the police enforce existing law and disperse the rioters. And the national Democratic Party whom the rich liberals also bankroll are hurrying to run to the Left and assure the Occupiers of their warmest sympathies -- and of course the liberal President who was so friendly to them when it was a trade of contributions for bailout isn't doing anything on a national scale to shut down the Occupation, far from it!
All this translates to at least a reduced Democratic turnout in 2012, to a lot of independents voting Republican that year, and possibly even to some Democrats switching parties. They have got to be less enthusiastic about the Democratic Party, now that they are the victims of Left wrath. I well remember the Dinkins Mayoral Administration in New York City in the early 1990's, and how its tolerance of riot led to his utter defeat by Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani in the 1993 elections.
If a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality, it is quite likely that in 2012 a lot of Republican votes will come from ex-Independents and Democrats who have been impeded by the Occupation.
I do see something good coming from the Occupy movement, though it's the exact opposite of what the Occupiers intend. The Occupiers are really angering the many people who have to deal with them when commuting or shopping. Many of the people they are angering are Independents or even Democrats. They are not really happy with their municipal governments, who refuse to shut the Occupations down, and they will not be happy with the Democratic Party if the Democrats race to embrace and coddle the Occupiers -- as the Democrats probably will.
Consider that most of the people who run and work at the shops around Union Square -- or for that matter the business-districts in most of the areas the Occupiers are Occupying -- are liberals and Democrats. They are perfectly ok with semi-violent demonstrations on college campuses, where they perceive its effects as mostly being fun for the younger set, and they reflexively oppose efforts to enforce the law on such demonstrators, as long as the demonstrators claim to be supporting a Left cause.
But the Occupiers are committing the unpardonable sin of messing with those very same rich, intellectually-lazy liberals. They are having to deal with ranting, threatening, smelly mobs when they commute to and from work, or step down from their offices to have expensive business-paid two-hour long lunches with their similarly rich and liberal clients. This is intolerable: it's supposed to be the grubby little petit bourgeoise shopkeepers in college towns and poor kids who really need college educations who suffer in these riots, not their own Very Important Personages.
And the municipal administrations whom those very same rich liberals bankrolled into office on the promise that they would govern with a weather eye on the New York Times and Washington Post are doing exactly what they promised to do: govern as liberals, which means refusing to let the police enforce existing law and disperse the rioters. And the national Democratic Party whom the rich liberals also bankroll are hurrying to run to the Left and assure the Occupiers of their warmest sympathies -- and of course the liberal President who was so friendly to them when it was a trade of contributions for bailout isn't doing anything on a national scale to shut down the Occupation, far from it!
All this translates to at least a reduced Democratic turnout in 2012, to a lot of independents voting Republican that year, and possibly even to some Democrats switching parties. They have got to be less enthusiastic about the Democratic Party, now that they are the victims of Left wrath. I well remember the Dinkins Mayoral Administration in New York City in the early 1990's, and how its tolerance of riot led to his utter defeat by Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani in the 1993 elections.
If a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality, it is quite likely that in 2012 a lot of Republican votes will come from ex-Independents and Democrats who have been impeded by the Occupation.