Why Do America's Two Parties Treat Wall Street Demonstration Differently?

Called “Occupy Wall Street” or “Day of Rage,” the series of demonstrations in New York that have been going on since September 17 have lasted more than half a month and have expanded from New York to Boston, Chicago, Tampa Bay, San Francisco, Baltimore, Auckland, etc., and even overseas. In addition, after experiencing large scale police arrests and the People’s Parade on October 5, the demonstrations are already losing their artistic color, and turning into an unavoidable mass movement.

What’s interesting is that Democratic and Republican parties have different attitudes toward this movement.

On the Democratic side, many officials have implicitly or directly expressed their understanding and sympathy for the motivation of the Occupy Wall Street participants, including Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the House John Larsson and House Representatives Raul,* Gerry Giovanni, Gert Slough and Casey Ellison, etc. Even Obama publicly stated that the demonstrators’ anger is understandable because the American people know that not everybody observes the rules and Wall Street was the typical transgressor.

On the contrary, Republicans, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, publicly criticized the demonstrators for being mobs that violated public order. Additionally, New York Mayor Bloomberg claimed that since demonstrations were carried out in the name of “employment,” the demonstrators should go to work instead of wandering around Zuccotti Park yelling at the wrong target.

Why do the two parties have opposite views about the same demonstration? The background of the movement is the still-high unemployment rate, increasingly spreading poverty and the polarization of rich and poor. According to demonstrators, Wall Street’s financial moguls who monopolized American politics and economics are the culprits of all the misfortunes in America, illustrated with cries of “1 percent of corruptors make 99 percent of Americans suffer.”* They are questioning the government about why the new employment stimulus plan kept sending money to Wall Street after they made such trouble.

Next year is the big election year; the U.S. will choose a president and a third of the senators and representatives will be replaced as well. Demonstrators don’t want to miss such a great opportunity to show their strength. Even though organizers claimed online that they were imitating the Arab Spring and mass movements in Greece and named themselves the New York Spring, by nature the train of this movement is much more similar to the tea party movement, which has quite a stand against it. The logic behind the movement hopes to force one of the political parties and politicians to yield to the demonstrators’ political appeals through the means of populism — and their major target is the Democratic Party.

If we look closely, many of the slogans the demonstrators shouted are what Obama wants to say but doesn’t dare to say or do because he has been contained by Congress and Republicans. They call to “Increase taxes on the rich,” “Make Wall Street wear a halter,”* enhance the president and government’s power to interfere in the economy, etc. They even suggested Obama establish a presidential committee outside Congress to contain the relationship between senators and the Wall Street moguls who donate money. Because of the economic depression, the support for Obama and the Democrats has decreased; the latest polls indicate that their election situation next year is worrisome. The populists of the Occupy Wall Street movement give them some hope, since before last year’s midterm election, the right-wing tea party movement brought the Republicans miraculously back to life and regained control of the House. Now if left-wing populists were used properly, certain controversial motions could be forcefully put forward. If Republicans say no again, they could be accused of resisting the will of the people, increasing the flame of the anger.

In recent days, representatives of 15 different labor unions, including some big names like the Public Service Employees Union, the Transport Workers Union and the United Federation of Teachers, walked through Zuccotti Park and other demonstration sites. Many unions even walked in front of the demonstration procession, which revealed the Democratic sentiment that Obama would not have been president without the labor unions’ support.

On the contrary, the fundamental supporters among Republicans are entrepreneurs, bourgeoisie and business people. From their point of view, increasing taxes on the rich will compromise America’s competitiveness, and the blazing left-wing populists will promote the realization of the “currency manipulation bill,” which will lead to a war in global trade. Therefore, Republicans’ outlook on the left-wing populists is that they are “politically playing with fire.”* Bloomberg criticized the labor unions as being in “dangerous waters.”*

Based on the recent situation, this time populism is obviously unfavorable to Republicans. Although there is a mix of good and bad in the demonstrators, what they have in common is fear of economic crisis and discontent with Wall Street; the Republicans’ defense of business people and the rich will surely bring trouble. Typical examples are the online “gang fights” over Bloomberg by demonstrators. However, Obama and the Democrats may not get their wish, either.

On the one hand, the appeal of Occupy Wall Street is increasing and participants are shifting from discontent with Wall Street magnates to anti-war sentiments, anti-Guantanamo prisoner abuse, building a fair and sustainable world, etc. The themes are diversified; many people are not satisfied with Obama and the Democrats and more people are turning from Obama supporters to dissenters. Like one demonstrator said, with commitment after commitment, renege after renege, they feel disappointed and betrayed by Obama.

On the other hand, many people don’t agree with the “prescription” written by America’s Day of Rage organization about big government and the welfare state because it is the opposite of the American Dream and of the natural American tendency to reject taxation. Even though the economy is no good, supporters of the protesters (made up of many members of the middle class) are quite a few. However, few agree with their theories and practice. America has a population of over 100 million and New York is a metropolis with over 10 million people, but the number of demonstrators is limited — the biggest People Parade actually had only 2,000 participants, according to non-partisan statistics —and the mainstream media is disinterested in the demonstrations.

Because of the lack of supporters, Obama dares not to show public support for the demonstrators, even though he did reluctantly express his sympathy. Many Democratic politicians, led by Vice President Biden, have also been very cautious and kept their distance from the demonstrators. No one knows that what kind of accident the loosely organized movement could cause. More importantly, being considered close to Occupy Wall Street may reinforce voter support, but it could also scare away those important middle-class voters. That’s not even mentioning the urgent economic stimulus plan, which cannot live without Wall Street’s support.

*Editor’s Note: These quotations and names, accurately translated could not be verified.