Reply to Does anyone still support these Occupy DC thugs?

Forum Index » Political Discussion

Reply to "Does anyone still support these Occupy DC thugs?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous]
BTW this isn't the first reference Obama has made to the wealth of the wealthiest. He's made several references over the years - it has noting to do with the occupy movement. Don't delude yourself into inflating their worth as a cause.[/quote]

Obama's speech was clearly influenced by the narrative OWS has injected into the national discourse. In November, Politico reported:

"A quick search of the news--including print articles, web stories and broadcast transcripts--via Nexis reveals a significant rise in the use of the term “income inequality,” from less than 91 instances in the week before the occupation started to almost 500 instances last week."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1111/Occupy_Wall_Street_is_winning.html

Without that sea change, Obama wouldn't have given the same speech. Look at this coverage in today's New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/07/us/politics/obama-strikes-populist-chord-with-speech-in-heartland.html?_r=1&hp

"Infusing his speech with the moralistic language that has emerged in the Occupy protests around the nation, Mr. Obama warned that growing income inequality meant that the United States was undermining its middle class..."

"At one point, he noted that the average income of the top 1 percent — adopting the marker that has been the focus of the Occupy movement — has gone up by more than 250 percent, to $1.2 million a year."

Ezra Klein makes the same argument I'm making here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/wonkbook-occupy-wall-street-occupies-obamas-2012-campaign/2011/12/07/gIQAZVN0bO_blog.html

"But perhaps the most obvious thing to say about it is that this isn't Obama's narrative. It's Occupy Wall Street's narrative. The speech is substantially about inequality."

"Inequality has not been a major theme in Obama's economic addresses over the last year. But it looks like it will be the major theme in his reelection campaign. And it's hard to believe that's not in response to Occupy Wall Street's success in turning the national conversation towards inequality."

So, OWS gave "income inequity" media prominence and Obama adopted their rhetoric as a central theme of his campaign. Like I said above, not bad for a bunch of thugs.
 [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics