Occupy Clashes Show Risks to Democrats in Embracing Protesters in Cities

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-27/occupy-clashes-show-risks-to-democrats.html

Clashes between members of the Occupy Wall Street movement in Atlanta and Oakland with police followed by dozens of arrests underscore the hazards for Democrats in embracing the burgeoning movement.

“With any nascent movement like this, there are always going to be risks because they haven’t clarified what they stand for,” said Glenn Totten, a Democratic political consultant in Alexandria, Virginia. “Anytime you take to the streets there’s an inherent sense that you are somehow rabble-rousers.”

The demonstrations, which began in New York on Sept. 17, are aimed at the financial industry and driven by the nation’s growing wealth gap. The top 1 percent of earners saw their inflation-adjusted, after-tax earnings grow by 275 percent between 1979 and 2007, while those with incomes in the bottom 20 percent saw an 18 percent increase, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

In Atlanta, police arrested 53 people early yesterday as they cleared a park that had been occupied by protesters for more than two weeks, according to the Atlanta Journal- Constitution. Police lobbed tear gas at protesters in Oakland Oct. 25 as they dismantled a two-week-old encampment and made more than 100 arrests, according to the Oakland Tribune. Police said protesters threw rocks and bottles at them.



***i loathe centrists in the democratic party.
because they aren't -- centrist.

[Nostradammit]

1. Say, who owns this "Bloomberg.com" anyway?

Are they suggesting that rousing the rabble is a bad thing?

A roused rabble is precisely what we need at this time.

[vi5]

2. Loathing centrists in the democratic party....

I agree. The thing is....is there anyone who isn't a raging, full on "centrist" in the Democratic party? Other than say Dennis. Maybe Al Franken....kinda? And of course the blue dogs and Conservadems in the Senate who as you pointed out aren't centrists but are right wingers.

The problem isn't as much that the centrists are actually right wing, it's that the supposed liberals (almost everyone else) are actually centrists.

[Laelth]

3. OWS doesn't want to be embraced by Democrats.

No more than it wants to be embraced by Republicans. It is non-partisan and needs to stay that way.

-Laelth

[swilton]

6. +++++

[leveymg]

4. The greatest danger to Democrats is increasing police violence and the escalation of conflict

The Democratic leadership needs to reign in the police before there's a polarizing Chicago '68 or Kent State type event that tears the party apart.

[Scuba]

5. More like the clashes show risk of Republicans condemning the protesters. n/t

[JohnWxy]

7. yeah, real risky siding with the 99%, Especially when their fucking right!

Democrats have, as far as I know, just said these people have a point in objecting to corporations having too much power in our government. I guess to Bloomberg that constitutes full endorsement or 'siding with them' since the Repugs have been calling them 'a mob'.

and of course 'clashes with police' are of course the Occupiers fault. In other words the police actions were automatically taken to be justified.

who is this ass-hole Trotten “Anytime you take to the streets there’s an inherent sense that you are somehow rabble-rousers.”.... yeah, that's why in a couple polls over 50% of the nation sides with those 'rabble rousers'.



RABBLE ROUSER



RABBLE ROUSER



THREATENING CHARACTER