Obama Faces Occupy Wall Street

The Occupy Wall Street protests are starting to embarrass the Obama administration. Not only because a too forceful eviction of the protestors would taint the claim that the U.S. welcomes all non-violent and democratic protests worldwide, but also because this sudden media frenzy confirms the extent of the U.S. economic malaise and the growing alienation in public opinion against the president.

Indeed, the American left wing, coming from the anti-globalization circles and ‘’anarchists’’ who are leading Occupy Wall Street, doesn’t have much political clout. However, one year away from the presidential elections in November 2012, the Democratic Party is counting on all its constituents. Of the hundreds of protesters and the numerous people who support them, most probably voted for Barack Obama in 2008.

More dangerous for the Democratic Party, this heterogeneous opposition to the “Wall Street plutocrats” reinforces the impression that the president has neither succeeded in bringing the country out of the crisis nor in making those who are considered responsible (such as the banking and the financial industries) pay the price of the crisis.

So to some extent, this left wing protest is really adding to the right wing protests, which are much more impressive and were organized by the initiative of the tea party, “the kingmaker” of the Republican Party. Together, these two movements draw an image of an elitist Democratic administration that is removed from the “real country” and too close to the financial world. Both movements hoist the flag of Main Street — Lower America — against Wall Street.

Could this left wing protest revive the resentment of those wounded by the crisis who are listening to populist tea party speeches? Could this movement bring the president, who is anchored at the center of the Democratic Party, back to the progressive tones of Franklin Roosevelt, who managed in the 1930s to push Americans away from extremism by imposing the New Deal, a large public enterprise for social solidarity and putting America back to work?

Even analysts who were close to Barack Obama are skeptical, including Eric Alterman, author of the book, ”Kabuki Presidency”, which came out earlier this year and attributed Obama’s difficulties in part to the power of the system. His last column denotes a deep disaffection: “Is [Obama] a politician who, when faced with recalcitrant opposition, would rather switch than fight?”

The Occupy Wall Street protests come at a time when Ron Suskind, a highly respected journalist formerly with the Wall Street Journal, is publishing a book called “Confidence Men”, which reveals the close ties between Barack Obama and Wall Street. The author describes the concessions from the White House to those who, in the public opinion, appear not only to be responsible for the crisis, but also seem to be its indecent beneficiaries.

The protestors, those “hippies and the hipsters,” as Charles M. Blow called them in The New York Times, reflect a general weariness with regard to power and the Democratic president. According to a Gallup poll, 81 percent of Americans say they are unhappy with the way the country is managed. The mistrust of Congress and the institutions is reaching historic levels.

This hostility is bad news for the Democratic Party and for liberals, who are, in America, the ones who advocate for a bolder social policy and stronger regulation of the financial system.

A majority of the public opinion is skeptical or even hostile toward solutions that advocate a recovery policy orchestrated by the government or a more equitable redistribution of the wealth. The opinion seems to be more attracted to a libertarian philosophy, according to which the federal government is the source of all evil, than to a liberal approach that relies on an active state to enforce economic and social balances.

For liberals, who represent 20 percent of the electorate, these polls indicate that Barack Obama has discredited the progressive message by adopting the arguments of his opponents. If in the coming weeks the president doesn’t change course, they may well not mobilize enough for his campaign, as they are one of the most active groups within the party. “Another Gallup poll,” wrote Blow on Friday, “found that Democratic enthusiasm for voting in the 2012 election relative to Republican enthusiasm was at its lowest level in a decade.”

“Occupy Wall Street,” concluded the editorial of the great New York newspaper, “may be the beginning of something, or it may just fizzle as a September-October oddity. But there can be little doubt that there is a disaffected constituency that desperately wants something to rally around. People are impatiently awaiting their clarion call, a call they have given up on hearing from Washington.”