By Rob Janicki
Looking at the news from Tuesday, I was somewhat surprised by the lack of substantial protests around the country for the high holy day of liberal secularism. Now how's that for an oxymoron? Anyway, there seemed to be far less intensity exhibited on Tuesday than what appeared last November at the high point of OWS violence.
This May 1st seemed to exhibit a fragmentation of purpose by a multitude of disparate groups with their own provincial purposes. There were groups representing those seeking liberalization on immigration reform; job creation; free or highly subsidized higher education; the destruction of the free market capitalism and all the institutions that support capitalism; and finally the anarchists free of the encumbrance of rational thought.
All that said, what drew my attention was the prevailing sense that many of these protesters were highly critical of President Obama. What? Highly critical of The One? Yep! And that's what made the May Day protests interesting, if not quite notable and thus rather unique.
The Washington Free Beacon reported from the scene in New York City.
[...] Numerous protesters at yesterday’s Occupy Wall Street rally in New York City viciously blasted President Obama as a horrible failure, signaling a major break from a liberal base that once celebrated Obama’s lofty rhetoric of hope and change. [...]
[...] The growing dissatisfaction among the president’s most liberal supporters could make November’s election more competitive, as former Obama diehards stay home instead of casting a ballot in his favor. [...]
[...] Other Occupy protesters—who spent the majority of Tuesday cluttering city streets in a series of disorganized mass demonstrations celebrating May Day—accused the president of behaving like a “Nazi,” a charge that could be found particularly offensive in light of accusations that a cohort of Occupy sympathizers are anti-Semitic. [...]
[...] The growing dissatisfaction among the president’s most liberal supporters could make November’s election more competitive, as former Obama diehards stay home instead of casting a ballot in his favor. [...]
[...] Other Occupy protesters—who spent the majority of Tuesday cluttering city streets in a series of disorganized mass demonstrations celebrating May Day—accused the president of behaving like a “Nazi,” a charge that could be found particularly offensive in light of accusations that a cohort of Occupy sympathizers are anti-Semitic. [...]
Another note of interest concerns the role of unions in the planning of these Occupy Absurdity protests across the nation. SEIU ( Service Employees International Union) was the most prominent of the unions actively planning, preparing logistically and training participants for May 1st events around the nation. The failure of all the protests, without exception, to make an impact on the national scene, has to be seen as diminution of the influence of unions across the country.
The next test of this hypothesis will occur on June 6th in Wisconsin, where unions across the country have gone all in to destroy Governor Scott Walker (R) in an election to recall him from office because of his reforms to limit public sector unions collective bargaining essentially to wages, while increasing union member's contributions to their own retirement and health insurance plans.
I have often wondered if there was going to be a crack in that group, and when. The unsatisfieds probably were the ones who did not get paid by SEIU and joined because they was a chance to vocally point out their grievances, and do a 70s thing.
ReplyDeleteThe Left Coast all the way from No Cal to WA was active. LA was quiet, which means they're either saving their resources for later, or the black /Hispanic communities consider this a white issue. I'm trying to think of who is currently in High Power in Central Jail that will need a demonstration later.