Republicans begin attacking Occupy Wall Street and growing protests, warning of a return to the Sixties and 'Mob Rule'
The Republicans are lining up to denounce the "Occupy" movement and warn of the dire consequences of returning to the "Sixties" and "Mob Rule." So it's worth a minute, before we move forward to turn back some of the official brainwashing about the differences between the "Greatest Generation" of the 1940s and 1950s and the protesting generation of the 1960s and 1970s. This is important, because if we allow the right wing to dominate the past, they will force us into their version of the future. First lesson, the "Greatest Generation" wasn't (really), and they would be first to admit it. By the end of the brutal realities of World War II ("won" by the "Greatest Generation"), the United States still had massive segregation, a huge lack of women's rights, rampant homophobia, and, let's not forget when the "Thanks Yous" are going around — a military draft for all guys once they hit 18. The "Greatest Generation" got the USA into a series of imperialist wars, most of them small affairs, and finally — VIETNAM. It took the work of the next generation (mine) to slowly end Jim Crow, the main pillars of male chauvinism and male supremacy, the crazy homophobia that had ruled in the USA throughout history, and, of course, the War in Vietnam and the draft. To name just a couple of things the "Greatest Generation" left behind for us to do.
Rep Peter King is one of the radical right wingers who has begun the public attack on the "Occupy" movement in a desperate attempt to hold on to the false realities and false history that corporate America have produced over the past quarter century.So... When the right wingers who are trying to keep hold desperately of their narrative begin screaming, let's enjoy the show. And keep building the mass movements that will wrest wealth and power back from the one percent who have once again brought the world to the brink of disaster and restore the march towards democracy and freedom for the majority of the planet's people. And perhaps in some ways, for the planet itself.
Rep. Peter King Calls Occupy Wall Street Protesters 'Ragtag Mob,' 'Anarchists'
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) joined Herman Cain among the ranks of Republican pols who are unimpressed with the Occupy Wall Street protesters and their nationwide counterparts, calling them a "ragtag mob" and "anarchists" on the Laura Ingraham radio show Friday.
"The fact is these people are anarchists. They have no idea what they're doing out there," King said. "They have no sense of purpose other than a basically anti-American tone and anti-capitalist. It's a ragtag mob basically."
King, whose Long Island district includes many Wall Street commuters, dismissed the demonstrators as "a bunch of angry 1960s do-overs" trying "to create chaos and take away the focus on the Obama record."
The congressman's comments echo those offered by other leading GOPers, including former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain, who told the protesters that they had no one else to blame for their lot in life.
"I don't have facts to back this up, but I happen to believe that these demonstrations are planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration," Cain said Wednesday to the Associated Press during a book signing event. "Don't blame Wall Street, don't blame the big banks, if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself!"
Democrats have, by and large, been much more sympathetic to the protesters. During his press conference on Thursday, President Obama said they demonstrated "the frustrations that the American people feel that we had the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression....you’re still seeing some of the same folks who acted irresponsibly trying to fight efforts to crack down on abusive practices that got us into this problem in the first place."
Despite chastizing the "mob" that had descended on downtown Manhattan, King spent much of the Ingraham interview arguing that the protesters didn't deserve the attention they were getting.
"[W]e have to be careful not to allow this to get any legitimacy," he warned. "I'm taking this seriously in that I'm old enough to remember what happened in the 1960s when the left-wing took to the streets and somehow the media glorified them and it ended up shaping policy," he said. "We can't allow that to happen."
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