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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Gadi Dechter
While both protest movements give voice to a powerlessness increasingly felt by many Americans, the similarities pretty much end there. The Occupy Wall Street phenomenon is not inherently divisive like the
Consider the slogan each movement has adopted.
The Occupy Wall Street movement, on the other hand, immediately galvanized around the phrase "we are the 99 percent," emphasizing the shared and valid complaints of most Americans: rising income inequality, shrinking income mobility, a tax code that favors the wealthy, a democracy weakened by the influence of money, and a government blocked by those unwilling or unable to protect those in the middle class even as they bail out Wall Street.
Those legitimate concerns lend themselves to policy prescriptions that would benefit the bottom 99 percent of Americans: passing the American Jobs Act (which would create as many as 2 million jobs), implementing financial regulatory reform, eliminating wasteful spending through the tax code, and protecting retirement and healthcare programs.
The anti-government stance of the
Eviscerating essential federal protections is all good and well for the top 1 percent, who really can fend for themselves. But the other 99 percent of Americans -- and many of the ultra-wealthy, too -- actually want to live in a country where we take care of our neighbors as well as ourselves.
Maybe that's why Americans support the Occupy Wall Street protests by a 2-to-1 margin,
while they're more likely to oppose the
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Occupy Wall Street Less Likely to Be Co-Opted | Politics
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