I say “pretend to make a difference” because nothing has changed and nothing will change because of the street theater that has been going on. I can understand the frustration that is boiling over everywhere, with people unemployed, under employed, and the realization that what has been done by the federal government to remedy this situation is not working. People want to identify with anything that puts a voice to their frustration. But the sign-spoken remedies of “End Corporate Greed”, “Eat the Rich”, and “Down with Capitalism” that these people put forth are at best platitudes and at worst feloniously stupid.
The majority of people in America are still right of center on the political spectrum. They won’t always vote that way, but mainstream America is mostly conservative. The machinations and shouting of these protesters is not going to change that. It will actually work the other way. Mainstream America sees dirty, pot smoking, drum beating, protesters claiming to represent them. Those same OWS and OSD crowd demand free electricity, free WiFi, plus the right to deny the use of public property to others, so they can continue to waste the time and resources of the local authorities. All of that it in the name of nothing they can articulate clearly. Mainstream America is much more likely to shy away, rather than to support them. Assuming of course, that anyone not under the influence can figure out what the protesters want to have supported.
Think I’m wrong on that? Flashback to the late 1960s and 1970s. I grew up listening to the 5 o’clock news, with my folks. The news anchor would insinuate how important those protesters of the Vietnam War were, and how they were changing America. The protesters led the evening news as often as the war did. George McGovern, the Democratic presidential candidate, campaigned in 1972 to end the Vietnam War just as soon as he was elected. It was his big campaign promise. The vote was to choose between end-the-war McGovern and another four years of Richard Nixon. Nixon won in a landslide. The Vietnam War was not popular. People from all walks of life wanted it over. But those protesters were actually looked on as draft dodgers and anti-American by the majority of voters. They voiced their displeasure with the anti-American sentiment at the ballot box. The same is likely to happen to anyone who is foolish enough to openly support the OWS crowd, and their t-shirt fixes.