Mad as Hell and Not Taking It Anymore
Taking their cues from the #OccupyWallStreet movement, protesters in Hartford and New Haven will take to the streets today in opposition to corporate greed and wealth. The sentiment is nothing new in America.
After September 11, 2001, the noninterventionist sentiment that had animated a faction within the Republican Party for generations was largely tamped down by the national desire to get the bastards that pulled off the attack. The same attack transmogrified George W. Bush from the proponent of a “humble” foreign policy into a neoconservative bent on expanding freedom in all the world. The desire to return to the former was best espoused by fellow Texan Ron Paul during the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination contest.
In the wake of Barack Obama’s ascent to the Presidency in 2009, the anti-war protests that roiled much of the nation faded as a man perceived to be in line with their views took over as Commander-in-Chief, but largely haven’t returned though Guantanamo Bay remains open, the war in Afghanistan continues to rage, and a new “kinetic military action” occurred in Libya.
Conservatives disturbed by the President’s policies on bailouts of Wall Street, Detroit, stimulus spending, and health care reform became the rank-and-file of the Tea Party, the largely leaderless group resisting the Obama Administration though it was Bush who spent heavily on war efforts and initiated much of the bailout spending. Tea Party successes manifested themselves in November 2010 as Republicans regained the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and came within a whisker of doing so in the U.S. Senate.
Until Americans find someone with a viable plan to make the economy strong enough to overcome the ongoing global financial worries and begin creating American jobs again, this sentiment will continue to percolate. Polling suggests that people have lost faith in President Obama’s ability to confront the crisis – and here in Connecticut, so too for Gov. Dan Malloy.
At the moment, though, the Presidential contest doesn’t seem to inspire much hope in the opposition. People have seen the cowboy movie before and the corporate CEO schtick seems unlikely to work either. Americans are hungry for something different, something inspirational, hopeful. The regular reader of history knows that the question isn’t “Will it come?” because it always does. The better questions are when and how.
