A USA Today/Gallup poll published this morning suggests that “most Americans blame Wall Street for the nation's economic predicament — but they blame Washington more.” Furthermore, when specifically asked who they blame most for the poor state of the economy, “64% of Americans name the federal government and 30% say big financial institutions.”
Conservatives have leaped onto findings like these to conclude that the Occupy Wall Street protests are out of step with average Americans and out of alignment with the roots of our economic problems, which they say rest on Pennsylvania Avenue, not Wall Street. Today's Heritage Foundation Morning Bell is thus headlined, “Wall Street Is the Wrong Place to Occupy.”
But the wisdom of the hive that is the Occupy movement is wise, indeed. It is not either Wall Street or Washington. It is Wall Street AND Washington. That's why there is an Occupy DC still going strong near the K Street lobbyists and the government agencies they are trying to influence, and why later today the organizers have invited Lawrence Lessig to speak to them about the corrupting influence of Wall Street on Washington.
Lessig, a Harvard University professor, recently launched an organization called Rootstrikers, an organization that promises to fight back against the “political bribery” by wealthy special interests that has corrupted both political parties.
Republic, Lost from Daniel Jones on Vimeo.
One of the core problems animating the Occupy movement around the country is the fact that when it comes to Washington, to paraphrase what former Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut said last year during the financial reform debate, corporations “own the place.” And they continue to pay big money to make Washington bend to their interests.
Consider what's on the list of the top five lobbyists in Washington. Here's what the Center for Responsive Politics is reporting so far in 2011:
1. U.S. Chamber of Commerce — $31.8 million
2. General Electric — $15.4 million
3. AT&T Inc. — $11.7 million
4. Blue Cross/Blue Shield — $11.1 million
5. Comcast Corporation — $10.7 million
Just the top two of those corporations have spent more money on lobbying so far this year than organized labor did in all of 2010. No wonder the voice of working people is drowned out in the halls of Capitol Hill by the golden microphones and oversized amplifiers of Wall Street lobbyists.
There is another point to remember whenever people say that the ire of the Occupy Wall Street protestors is better directed at Washington. The disenchantment with Washington does not rest solely with people aligned with the small-government ideology of Tea Party activists. As Terry Madonna, a political analyst and polling expert at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., told USA Today, some of the 64% who place primary blame on Washington fault it for too little government regulation, not too much.
Because USA Today has not posted the entire poll, we don't know the exact numbers behind Madonna's assertion. But we've seen that assertion backed up in other polls we've examined as part of our American Majority project.
The Occupy protestors around the country have it exactly right. To be mad at Washington is to be mad at Wall Street—and vice versa. We need to make both our economic system and our political system work for all of the people, not just for the wealthiest 1 percent.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy