When the bear eats you

You have to feel a little sympathy for the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protestors. They don’t even realize how misled and used they are.
“We represent the 99%,” is their slogan. But do they realize, that thanks to their American heritage they are financially in the one percent – worldwide. As “citizens of the world” doesn’t that make them the very people they are protesting?
One protester, as she was being led away by police, screamed at the camera that the First Amendment gave her the right to assemble anywhere and anytime she pleased. Maybe she should have stayed awake a little longer in her Constitutional Law class.
Or, maybe she had Kevin DeLuca as her professor. DeLuca, a professor in the Department of Communications at the University of Utah, wrote a 650 word blog for OWS (now prominently posted on their website) where he explains how the First Amendment protects the right to assemble. Somehow, he forgets to mention in all those words how that right might be limited by the rights of others. You would think that’s important. Just as the First Amendment does not protect your right to yell fire in a crowded theater; your right to peaceably assemble is tempered by the rights of society to have a safe and secure environment.
And doesn’t it strike any of these protestors as logically absurd that they are allowed to gather in a private park, tear the place up, annoy the neighbors by beating drums all night, advocate the destruction of our financial system, defecate on police cars and stomp on American flags, all in the name of peaceable assembly, and then complain over their lack of freedom?
As Ronald Reagan put it, “The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.”
It’s really too bad. Some OWS protesters have said some of their motives are similar to those of the TEA party. Maybe so, but don’t hold your breath waiting for Tea Partiers to align themselves with the socialism, violence, filthiness and immorality of the OWS, no matter what political cause they might throw in as bait.
The most tragic thing is that OWS has fallen, hook line and sinker, for the big lie of class warfare. They confuse the conflict between greed and charity for the unnecessary conflict between the rich and poor. The rich are not inherently evil and the poor are not inherently good. Some rich people donate millions to worthy charities, employ thousands in good paying jobs with fair benefits and pay lots of taxes. It is wrong and counter-productive to demonize financial success just for being successful.
Professor Frances Fox Piven, a popular socialist leader and active supporter of the movement disagrees. She recently told a rally in New York, “You’ve heard people say they’re greedy, and they are greedy. You’ve heard people say that they are thieves, and they are thieves. But they’re also cannibals, because they are eating their own.”
This over-the-top rhetoric against success not only spawns misguided protests but it is arguably one of the reasons for our current economic malaise.
Anne E. Kornblut, writing for the Washington Post, talks about how even former President Bill Clinton, in his new book, “Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy,” suggests that Obama’s criticism of Wall Street has been too harsh and counterproductive.
And Entrepreneur Steve Wynn, usually a Democratic supporter, puts it even more bluntly, “[T]his administration is the greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime. And I can prove it and I could spend the next three hours giving you examples of all of us in this marketplace that are frightened to death about all the new regulations … it makes you slow down and not invest your money.”
Maybe the good news is that the hijacked OWS movement, and the radical left’s support of it, will be the final straw needed to break the socialist camel’s back. Americans are not blind after all.
CNN reported last week, that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, speaking of the OWS movement said, “It would not have happened but for his [Obama’s] class warfare. And remember, as it gets worse and worse – because it’s going to get worse and worse – where it came from: Barack Obama…I believe this will be the millstone around Barack Obama’s neck that will take his presidency down.”
There is an old saying that if you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything. The OWS movement, in not announcing specific demands, thought they could avoid having to logical defend their ideas. After all, why ruin a good party?
But this tactic left them open to being used by other political causes. More and more far left kooks have embraced their protest. It seems a blank wall invites graffiti.
Liberal “intellectuals” will probably accuse me of using the same hijacking argument that was used against the anti-war protests during the sixties. And your right, that is exactly what I am doing. The anti-war movement of the sixties was also hijacked by the left and those who thought the answers to society’s woes were free love, free drugs, and communism – groups that alone could not have gathered enough support to fill up a liberal professors office – much less occupy Woodstock…or Wall Street.
So don’t feel too bad OWS, you’ve been duped by the best. As we say around here, sometimes you eat bear, sometimes the bear eats you.

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