So..... remember Occupy Wall Street?

[retromike22]

Whatever happened to that? I agreed with many of their beliefs, but their tactics (or lack thereof)...

I think the Democratic Party missed out on a good chance to co-opt that, just like how the GOP rode the Tea Party wave.

But then again I'm sure some of the Occupy hippie folks wouldn't want to be associated with the Dems or vice versa.

So how did the Occupy movement die out? Did the economy just improve a lot more? Did people stop caring? Or was it just an extended liberal coffee break?

[Ban my account ffs!]

We approached the threshold in OWS but didnt make it.  The next crisis will be the trigger.

[© tweed]

the min wage and fast food organizing movement(s) wouldn't exist but for Occupy's legacy.  "inequality" has entered discourse to such a degree that the mainsteam Dems have co-opted small pieces of it, such as the official support for a $10.10 federal wage.  if Occupy hadn't put those issues on the radar I don't think this would have happened.

it's a good issue for the Dems because a) it's extremely popular and b) plenty of bourgeois economists believe it would be good for economic growth, yet c) it doesn't provide low-wage workers with any actual power, as would something like EFCA.

[IceSpear]

It didn't amount to much because:

a) They had no overarching purpose
b) Even if they did have a purpose, the group didn't channel their energy into political change by co-opting the Democratic Party like the Tea Party did to the GOP. If the Tea Party was just a bunch of old white people who protested but then did nothing afterwards to follow up, it would've had as much impact as OWS did

[dead0man]

Like the tea party, it was WAY TOO EASY to make them look like idiots.  Why?  Because they were/are full of idiots.  Upperclass, white, male idiots.  (sound familiar?)

I also like how we've had one Red Stater claim the GOP took over the tea party and another one say the exact opposite.  Which is it?

[IceSpear]

Like the tea party, it was WAY TOO EASY to make them look like idiots.  Why?  Because they were/are full of idiots.  Upperclass, white, male idiots.  (sound familiar?)

I also like how we've had one Red Stater claim the GOP took over the tea party and another one say the exact opposite.  Which is it?

The Republican Party leaders, against their own will, shut down the government because of a single temper tantrum from a Tea Party senator from Texas. The Republican leaders, against their own will, killed immigration reform because they were scared of getting Cantored. I think these facts speak for themselves about which group is truly in control and calling the shots.

[Joe Republic]

Bandit will have you believe that OWS is alive and well.  He might even post a video of himself and three or four other people hanging around a park in Louisville one afternoon as proof.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Bandit will have you believe that OWS is alive and well.  He might even post a video of himself and three or four other people hanging around a park in Louisville one afternoon as proof.

It's not dead.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/11/16/madison-homelessoccupy.html

[King]

Problem with the protests is nobody protesting was at all valuable to anyone on Wall Street. At least McDonalds employees striking are needed by McDonalds.

[AggregateDemand]

Democrats knew OWS was lashing out at the wrong people. The people who killed the lower middle class live in Washington, not NYC. At least the Tea Party was in the right place, blaming the right people, even if their proposed solutions were ridiculous. I'm Taxed Enough Already, but don't cut my SS and MED. Get real.

[justfollowingtheelections]

Democrats knew OWS was lashing out at the wrong people. The people who killed the lower middle class live in Washington, not NYC. At least the Tea Party was in the write place, blaming the right people, even if their proposed solutions were ridiculous. I'm Taxed Enough Already, but don't cut my SS and MED. Get real.

Huh?  Occupy was a worldwide movement with protests in pretty much every major city in the world and in more cities than you can even imagine in the U.S.

In some cities it was more successful than others and accomplished quite a lot.  In other cities it didn't.  What happened was the police.  When the Bloombergs of the world felt threatened by the movement, they had to stop it and since this was a peaceful movement, no one fought back.

What surprised me in a good way about the Occupy movement was how many people got involved.  I had read about it in Adbusters before it started and I don't think anyone expected it to be so big or last that long.  It was never going to get political in the U.S. (because it did in other countries such as Spain for example) because no party here wants to embrace left-wing politics, but it did change the conversation in many ways.

[King]

Democrats knew OWS was lashing out at the wrong people. The people who killed the lower middle class live in Washington, not NYC. At least the Tea Party was in the write place, blaming the right people, even if their proposed solutions were ridiculous. I'm Taxed Enough Already, but don't cut my SS and MED. Get real.

The people who killed the middle class live in Washington but their rent is paid by people living in New York City.

[Person Man]

Democrats knew OWS was lashing out at the wrong people. The people who killed the lower middle class live in Washington, not NYC. At least the Tea Party was in the write place, blaming the right people, even if their proposed solutions were ridiculous. I'm Taxed Enough Already, but don't cut my SS and MED. Get real.

The people who killed the middle class live in Washington but their rent is paid by people living in New York City.

This. I think that what happened with Democrats becoming disorganized and sidelined was the fact that Obama more or less spent all of his political capital. I think when there is another crisis and it is when the Republicans hold the marbles, it will be a "now or ever" period for progressives, the same way that 2006 was but more so.

[Mister Mets]

Occupy Wall Street had a few problems. The format of lengthy protests weeds out some of the less crazy people (IE- those with stable jobs.)

It's also more difficult to coopt a party when you're in the White House. The best bet for a left-wing answer to the tea party would be in reaction to a Republican President.

[Person Man]

Occupy Wall Street had a few problems. The format of lengthy protests weeds out some of the less crazy people (IE- those with stable jobs.)

It's also more difficult to coopt a party when you're in the White House. The best bet for a left-wing answer to the tea party would be in reaction to a Republican President.

This. And it can't be a "we just don't give a fu[inks]" period like it was between Bush's Bush v. Gore and 9/11 and the "muh 'Merca!" that occurred between then and Katrina/Mark Foley/Ted Haggard/Abramoff/yougetthepicture... and the period thereafter lasted the 3 years between that and "muh medicare!!" The period I am thinking of comes right after the Republicans just got their "mandate", not when they had it for a while. The election of a unabashedly liberal Federal Government when they were forced to make immediate hard choices was the perfect environment for nationalists, neoliberals, right-libertarians and other rightists to organize.

[AggregateDemand]

The people who killed the middle class live in Washington but their rent is paid by people living in New York City.

Perhaps. When Congress lets the upper middle classes rip off social security and medicare, Wall Street are the obvious beneficiaries because people withdraw less from their retirement accounts. Anyone familiar with financial adviser industry will tell you that the major mutual fund firms actively train seniors how to rip of social security by transferring their income-producing assets into capital gains assets (amongst other strategies).

However, it's only worthwhile to allege conspiracy if no other forces are at play. The reality is that old people vote in much higher quantities to divert the budget, which is possible because the US refuses defined-contribution public pension. Seemingly limitless political power; therefore, appears to be derived from transferring more money to the elderly and showing images of the opposition party dumping Grandma off of a cliff.

It's a tragic situation because no one is actually saving Grandma. Instead, they are protecting the "rights" of seniors, with a million dollars worth of tax-free or tax-subsidized portfolio and investment property income, to continue bilking the SSA.

Wall Street firms are merely reinforcing an existing culture.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I was one of the leading lights of Occupy Cincinnati. Our Occupy chapter was more or less gutted about a year ago when they started letting Tea Party types in to "understand" them. I warned Occupy about this, but they wouldn't listen.

But Occupy is still active in some other cities.