Occupy Wall Street has seized control of this year’s political debate
Occupy Wall Street’s rhetorical dominance of Democratic messaging fulfills one of the clear goals its followers articulated last October, when my firm, Douglas E. Schoen, LLC, conducted a survey of OWS protesters. At that time, a clear plurality (35 percent) of the Occupy Wall Street protesters interviewed said their top goal was for Occupy Wall Street to move the Democratic Party distinctly and boldly left.
They have largely succeeded.
President Obama has retooled his campaign message and has acted as an effective amplifier and advocate of Occupy Wall Street’s core messages since the beginning of 2012. His State of the Union address focused on the need for fairness and equality in American society and “an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules.”…
A new follow-up survey conducted recently by my firm on Occupy Wall Street goals and objectives shows that the movement has new and bolder aspirations to use the rhetorical influence it has already won to fundamentally alter government policy and change American politics and society in ways that were previously unimaginable.
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Really? Didn’t know that.
JellyToast on April 28, 2012 at 9:23 PM
Um, really?
thebrokenrattle on April 28, 2012 at 9:23 PM
lol
WeekendAtBernankes on April 28, 2012 at 9:23 PM
I thought the Dems were centrists and the GOP was farrrrrrrrrr over to the right?
thebrokenrattle on April 28, 2012 at 9:25 PM
America got their message: they are a bunch of spoiled, noisy, dirty children.
Blake on April 28, 2012 at 9:26 PM
What message would that be? How to take a dump on a cop car?
JPeterman on April 28, 2012 at 9:31 PM
So far the only “fix” Obama has offered to make it “fairer” is to tax people more. Obama has admitted his definition of fairness is more important than jobs.
CW on April 28, 2012 at 9:32 PM
I don’t like this notion of societal fair share. I’ll take the upstanding rich over drug addicts and overweight welfare recipients sitting on their couches eating pork rinds any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
Tea Partiers = those whom I want as neighbors.
OWSers = those who have me thinking about a gun purchase and support for stand-your-ground laws.
BuckeyeSam on April 28, 2012 at 9:33 PM
In Iran maybe. Not here.
Does Dougie really believe Obama has moved to the left? If he was any further left he would spin off into outer space.
fogw on April 28, 2012 at 9:34 PM
If you only just consider the media hypocrisy comparing their coverage of Tea Party events and OWS, those are in themselves proof enough that the US media is completely without virtue, honesty and certainly no honor.
After having been a liberal journalist, one would have to give free oral sexual massage therapy to winos in the alley behind the bus station to get any semblance of self-respect back.
hawkdriver on April 28, 2012 at 9:36 PM
What do they call they that? Wish casting?
Cindy Munford on April 28, 2012 at 9:36 PM
And that, my friend, is why Romney has a chance at winning.
Thank you, Occupy!
You comprise 99% of the losers!
Zombie on April 28, 2012 at 9:37 PM
Waiting for the spring/summer/election riots.
Me and the 12 gauge.
JimboHoffa on April 28, 2012 at 9:45 PM
There is no “Occupy Wall Street Movement.” It’s a political and media narrative. The only “success” this kabuki theater has had is branding. “Fair Share” and “One Percent” are now part of the lexicon for most Americans.
AYNBLAND on April 28, 2012 at 9:46 PM
Beatniks redux!
OldEnglish on April 28, 2012 at 9:57 PM
LOL that’s a laugher
WisCon on April 28, 2012 at 10:03 PM
That’s not possible. The debt ceiling deal changed the debate according to Republicans (including half of Hot Air).
elfman on April 28, 2012 at 10:07 PM
Occupy Wall Street is the second political movement that has claimed rape as part of its platform.
It may be a few years before they dethrone number one…the democrat party.
I recommend they put some ice on it.
tom daschle concerned on April 28, 2012 at 10:32 PM
Heh.
Silly people are funny.
Thinking that OWS drives 0bama & his co-conspirators, rather than the other way around.
LegendHasIt on April 28, 2012 at 10:35 PM
i concur, the entire premise of his article is wrong,the democratic leadership including Obama and the various soros funded think tanks that staff the white house are all hard left ideologues, Obama himself is a marxist, so the OWS dirty hippie commies are simply doing their bidding, Obamaa’s proxy army so to speak
golembythehudson on April 28, 2012 at 10:53 PM
Desperation….
Libs just keep throwing things against the wall, hoping something will stick.
Heck, they even tried throwing things against the side of a police car.
OWS has become a joke (not that it wasn’t one to begin with) as it tries, and fails, to emulate the counter culture revolution of the 60s. And they picked the wrong target.
OWS wants to feel important. They feel self important. But the reality is they are childish and unimportant.
ProfShadow on April 28, 2012 at 11:08 PM
Schoen is correct. I don’t know if the Occupy degenerates are the reason, but the Democrats have definitely lurched into increasingly radical leftism.
I suspect the Group W Bench that is Occupy and the radicalism of the establishment Democrats has the same cause – the manifest failure of progressive bullcrap.
Shovel ready invest we much.
forest on April 28, 2012 at 11:32 PM
Does anybody at the dailybeast recognize reality for what it is?
What a load of cowflop masquerading as an article.
OWS is an Axelrod operation. It’s only purpose is to give leftist reporters a place to weave their biases and blast them out on the airwaves. They figure if 1% of the viewers believe the crap, they’ve won.
platypus on April 28, 2012 at 11:47 PM
No, but they have left their mark on many a police blotter!
PattyJ on April 29, 2012 at 12:37 AM
There is no debate. With Obama, it’s “my way or the highway”.
And it’s going to be the highway–for Teh Won . . .
smellthecoffee on April 29, 2012 at 12:45 AM
When all you’ve got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I wonder how much money Douglas E. Schoen, LLC, donated to the Obama campaign. I’ve got a new slogan for his company–”Douglas E. Schoen, LLC, echo chambers that make the Grand Canyon blush.”
smellthecoffee on April 29, 2012 at 12:47 AM
And with the elimination of the Blue Dogs they can now become the LSD Party (Liberal, Socialist, Democrat)
redridinghood on April 29, 2012 at 1:01 AM
Schoen has done yeoman’s work trying to gin up a third party to split the conservatives to give barry a little boost. And, who knows, maybe someone like Jon Huntsman will deliver the big one for barry and run on Schoen’s ticket
but, he’s been a lifelong dem pollster so if he says something it is probably not entirely true
but, since i just watched the Dan Savage vid, i think i can say without contradiction that these people are snakes. Savage is one pos. The line about ‘yet Calista lives’ shows that he doesn’t even understand the verse he quotes.
But beyond that is the vacuous cheering of the non-Christian HS students in the room…i.e. all but a few. Bully’s love gangs. Gangstas love to bully.
r keller on April 29, 2012 at 1:01 AM
What planet do these people live on?
logis on April 29, 2012 at 1:04 AM
Yup, totally moderate mainstream politics there.
Transpo on April 29, 2012 at 1:38 AM
Take a failure by the libs then repackage it as a success.
albill on April 29, 2012 at 7:25 AM
Seriously, if the OWS regime comes to power, the massively unproductive up-twinkles crowd won’t be nessessary and, alongside conservative dissidents, they will be systematically cleansed by the regime, and the whole world won’t be watching.
Greek Fire on April 29, 2012 at 7:53 AM
Which came first, chicken or egg?
OWS is a tool of the WH, with support from unions/Soros/CPUSA, and such.
petefrt on April 29, 2012 at 7:55 AM
The activists we interviewed made it clear that they oppose American-style capitalism (53 percent), and believe in massive redistribution of wealth (71 percent), dramatically higher taxes (85 percent), and greater government regulation and control over the economy (79 percent).
From the article and all you really need to know. These are the proxies of the Democratic party. The campaign ad for this writes itself. America wont want to have anything to do with this sort of agenda, ironically its Obama’s agenda, lightly veiled.
OpportunityCost on April 29, 2012 at 9:22 AM