Occupy Wall Street has changed the national conversation
Arianna Huffington
January 4, 2012
In 2012, Americans will go to the polls and vote for who they want to represent them in Washington. But, as 2011 showed, the real political momentum is not to be found in Washington. Our institutions have let us down, not only by failing to prevent the biggest financial crisis since the Depression, but also by only producing suboptimal solutions at best to the multiple problems we're facing.
In fact, the crisis itself was more of a symptom than a cause. The trends had been in motion for decades: the decline of the middle class, growing inequality and downward mobility. But, in 2011, with the credibility of our political system in tatters, something happened. People said "enough," and decided to take matters into their own hands. Time magazine captured the moment by making the protester its Person of the Year for 2011.
The message of OWS was broad: the status quo is broken, the economic system rigged to unfairly help those who least need it, and we desperately need change. Some criticized the movement for not immediately having tangible, concrete goals. But, in fact, the simplicity of the message was part of what fueled its growth. Its appeal crossed party lines, generational lines and even class lines.
Suddenly, three years after the financial crisis plunged the country into recession, Americans were coming together to protest, echoing Frederick Douglass' truism that "power concedes nothing without a demand; it never did and it never will." By the time President Obama, at a December speech in Osawatomie, Kan., identified inequality as "the defining issue of our time," he was not leading the charge, but joining the chorus - the Occupy Wall Street protesters had been saying the same thing for nearly three months.
edited to add link
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/sns-201201041800--tms--ahuffcoltq--m-a20120104jan04,0,6073728.column
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