The Occupy Movement May be About to "Jump the Shark"

I've been dreading the moment when there would be a solid indication that the Occupy movement was beginning to be co-opted. That moment may well be approaching. At first, this report about a major protest in DC next week seemed like good news:

Roughly 3,000 unemployed workers from around the country are expected in the nation's capitol next week for four days of protests with labor, religious and social justice groups that say Congress cares more about America's wealthiest 1 percent than it does the masses of struggling middle-class families.

Union members march in New York. Next week's D.C. protests piggyback on the Occupy Wall Street movement. Piggybacking on the Occupy Wall Street movement, the three-day "Take Back the Capitol" protest will open Monday with construction of a "Peoples Camp" on the National Mall as a base of operations. On Tuesday, protesters will hit Capitol Hill to lobby members of Congress about extending federal unemployment benefits. The group walks to K Street on Wednesday to protest the political influence of corporate lobbyists.

But wait...what's this?

Protesters will call for passage of President Barack Obama's jobs bill and for continuing the 2 percentage point payroll tax cut for employees.

All right, here is where you guys can let me out of the car and go on ahead without me. There is no doubt that unemployment is one of the most dire challenges facing the country these days. But the way to combat it is NOT to borrow another few hundred billion dollars and spend it on wasteful, boondoggle government projects of the type that were funded in Obama's stimulus package, and it is CERTAINLY not advisable to hasten the day of Social Security's ultimate demise by extending the payroll tax cut. The only reason that you would advocate for the latter is because you want to goose the economy by encouraging people to buy more shit they don't need at the price of running up the federal deficit even further. That is the kind of myopic, spoiled, entitlement thinking that got us into this mess in the first place.

But this is the part that really galls me:

Supporters hope the growing activism of liberal groups will translate into Election Day victories in 2012.

So the "solution" to our problems is to elect more Democrats, then? Excuse me, but were you idiots NOT paying attention to how the Obama-led Democratic Party stood around with its thumbs up its ass from January 2009 to January 2011 despite having overwhelming control of both houses of Congress AND the White House? Exactly what the fuck do you think would change if the Democrats win next time around?

Maybe we need more "liberals" in office like the current mayors of Los Angeles and Oakland, who sicced their thug cops on the asses of the Occupy movements in those two cities. Or maybe some more "liberals" like Michigan Senator Carl Levin, who just authored the Senate measure that will allow any of you to be detained by the military indefinitely without trial as suspected "terrorists." Think that will work? Wake the fuck UP already.

The only hope I see in the article was contained in this paragraph:

Representatives from 15 Occupy protests from around the country will also take part, Borosage said, but the local Occupy DC isn't a sponsor, said Legba Carrefour, a spokesman for the group.

At least Occupy DC has it right. They need to keep this effort as far at arm's length as possible. Anyone who advocates electing more "liberals" as the solution for what ails us is simply NOT serious about effecting real change in this country.