Some thoughts on the upcoming ignominious end to Occupy Wall Street:
…the value of the sword of Damocles is that it hangs, not that it falls. Obama told Wall Street that he was the only thing standing between them and the pitchforks. That scared them into line for a while. But now Wall Street’s sick of him, and doesn’t care. They’re not playing ball like they used to.
So he unleashed the pitchforks and what we got was the #occupy movement, a pathetic, and totally non-scary, embarrassment for the Democrats. Republicans are now hoping they’ll stay in place until November of 2012.
That Alinsky stuff just doesn’t work like it used to.
“Anytime the president sermonizes about civility and the need to curb partisan rhetoric, this is a telltale sign that in a few days a savage partisan attack will surely follow.”
Doug Mohney has picked up the story. I’ll probably have something up at Pajamas Media tomorrow. If anyone cared about space, or how much money Congress forces NASA to waste, this would be a big story.
I imagine that napalming one’s political opponents may be, in certain respects, therapeutic. It undoubtedly makes liberals feel morally superior to conservatives. But it won’t win over any converts– and it will probably alienate precisely those voters (independents and moderates) they need. No matter. They are engaged in a rhetorical auto-da-fe, and nothing, certainly not good manners, basic civility, or a sense of respect for those with whom they disagree with, will rein them in.
It’s all very ugly, very discouraging, and very counterproductive. I should add that it would be helpful if the man who based his campaign on unifying Red and Blue America–who promised to listen to us, “especially when we disagree”–would try to calm passions instead of stoke the embers of anger. But Barack Obama has chosen a different, lower road on the path to re-election.