What's most amazing about OWS – and the support it's receiving – is not that it happened, but frankly why the hell it took so long

the article does a reasonably good job of presenting what i feel is a fair perspective on occupy wall street and the general mood in the u.s. today... the main theme of the piece, however, is to offer his thoughts on how ows might impact the upcoming 2012 election and in particular how it might affect democratic politics... since, at this point, i am almost completely disengaged from even caring about the u.s. political process, i left that part out...

michael cohen of the uk observer writes in the guardian's "comment is free"...

In a nutshell, Americans are ticked off. Millions are struggling financially; many are out of a job or are underemployed. They can't pay their bills. They are falling deeper into personal debt. They are losing hope that things will improve in the foreseeable future. Worst of all, while they are falling further behind a small minority appears to be leaping further ahead.

Wall Street and the big banks caused the market crash that cost millions of jobs and plunged the US economy into near-depression. Yet three years later, the country's financial elite continues to prosper while the other 99% suffers. Meanwhile, Washington, due mainly to the unceasing obstructionism of the Republican party, seems completely incapable of arresting America's decline.

In some ways, what's most amazing about OWS – and the support it's receiving – is not that it happened, but frankly why the hell it took so long.

[...]

OWS has arisen not because of the left's activism, but despite it. Focusing on electoral victories and legislative accomplishments, the left has failed to push an effective populist movement, focusing its energy more on social issues than economic ones. Democratic leaders have stayed at arm's length from the party's activist base for fear of being stained by their perceived political excesses (a position that has rightly alienated a generation of liberals). Considering these larger failures of the left, it seems almost appropriate that OWS has come about in such an organic and ad hoc manner.

i have been itching for many, many years for something like ows to come along... i was getting to the point where i honestly thought either all the like-minded people in my country were either comatose or that i was simply mentally deranged... i still haven't discounted the latter possibility...

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