Republican Porridge

One guy won in Iowa. Another won in New Hampshire. A third won in South Carolina. The guy who won in New Hampshire has more money and a better ground operation than the guy who won in South Carolina.

I think I just decided Barack Obama does not need my help in his re-election bid. The opposition is in major disarray. I never doubted the possibility of a second term for Barack Obama, but now I am doubly sure.

I am going to take it easy. Or maybe not. The Occupy movement will herald an American Spring. Let winter pass. The Occupy movement is an unprecedented opportunity to enact a muscular progressive agenda, in this country and across the world. You ain't seen nothing yet. Let winter pass.

The Democratic Party will have a choice to make. Almost all Mayors that expressed physical hostility to the Occupiers across the country were Democratic. That is just a shame.

What the Occupy movement needs is red carpet treatment. You should be able to - come spring - provide a public space in your city where 100-200 Occupiers can camp out 24/7. It is for the Democratic Mayors to arrange for toilets, and public wifi, and police protection. It is for them to pick up the garbage. If not there is going to be rebellion in the ranks.

Occupy was the word of 2011. The Occupier was Time magazine's Person Of The Year. Liverpool had the Beatles. New York City has the Occupiers. Mayor Bloomberg is going to have to measure up. His entire legacy is at stake, come spring.

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Occupy Zuccotti: The Eviction

Image by david_shankbone via Flickr(1) I am not alarmed.
(2) The operation was well done, well executed.
(3) It was the wrong thing to do.
(4) New York City should take pride in the fact that something that started in a small park in this city has spread across the world. Liverpool takes pride in The Beatles.
(5) There will be a regrouping.
(6) The eviction was top news on Google News for an entire day. It probably still is. The Occupy people could not have thought of a better way to spread their message around the country, around the world. An operationally well executed plan was a political defeat, if the purpose was to calm down the Occupy movement.
(7) The movement has to rethink, regroup, and do one better.

(8) It is not within this or any other mayor's power to address the concerns of the movement. The mayor does not have a political solution. The movement is above the mayor's pay scale. The movement is not asking the mayor for the solution. No city official can address.
(9) This movement is out of the box thinking. It is stepping out. It is saying the entire system is dysfunctional. Something fundamental is not working.
(10) The movement can sleep outdoors if it wants to. Why not? The right to peaceful assembly does not end when the sun sets.

(11) The movement has to go through some introspection.
(12) Public acts are important. 200 people in 200 basements hammering away on social media sites could not have had one millionth the impact. Of course Zuccotti Park mattered. That 24/7 character has to be brought back. (Occupy Wall Street Could Legitimately Go Indoors)
(13) Nonviolence is the only option.
(14) My favorite part of the movement so far has been individuals writing out on placards explaining what makes them part of the 99%. That has to be magnified.

(15) Mass actions like literally shutting down Wall Street and crossing the Brooklyn Bridge in ways that disrupt traffic might be great ways to get old media attention and magnify the message, but they go beyond my personal comfort level for now.
(16) But then financial bad behavior on Wall Street over the past decade was not exactly within your comfort level either.
(17) I wish the movement worked harder to achieve more sophisticated levels of organization.
(18) Isolated incidents of possible criminal behavior, or in one case suicide, would be a lame excuse to shut down the movement. There are murders taking place in New York City every day. Should the city be shut down?

(19) Message.
(20) Organization.
(21) The movement will take a few months to take both of those to the next level. The mayor wants debates. There will be debates.

The Occupy movement is not a mirror image of the Tea Party. To say it is to suggest Charlie Rangel is a modern day MLK. The Occupy movement competes with acts by MLK. It is a modern day movement, completely crowd sourced.

Occupy The World
Occupy Wall Street Could Legitimately Go Indoors
Occupy
The Conversation Is The Revolution
Tahrir Square In America

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