New Republic
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Democrats Beware! Occupy Wall Street Could Sink Obama’s Re-Election
* Franklin Foer
* October 21, 2011 | 12:00 am
This article is a contribution to _‘Liberalism and Occupy Wall Street,’ A
TNR Symposium._
(http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/96296/liberalism-and-occupy-wall-street)
Occupy Wall Street is a carnival. Both detractors and supporters say so.
The most amusing part of the show is watching the rush to join it. When
Deepak Chopra and Suze Orman endorse the cause, you have to wonder about its
revolutionary bona fides. Democrats have also flung themselves in the
direction of Zuccotti Park—but in their pursuit of the movement they may
damage
themselves and hinder the protests’ potential to do tangible good.
The catastrophic misdeeds of bankers should have been political gold for
Democrats—the strongest case for a robust regulatory state one could make; an
opportunity to corner Republicans into defending banks that have inflicted
so much misery. But the Democrats’—or rather Obama’s—strategy strangely
didn’t point in that direction. At best, we can describe Dodd-Frank as a
marginal step in the direction of reform. And in the course of the ongoing
battle over implementing the law, the legislation will likely be reduced to a
marginal half step. When the Obama administration whispered that it had
some qualms with Wall Street’s behavior, the bankers acted as if they were
being led to the gallows—a response that spooked the administration into
refraining from any further forays into populist rhetoric and provoked it to
send envoy Valerie Jarrett on peace-making missions to Wall Street. It is,
indeed, maddening enough to make you rush to the barricades.
(http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-new-republic-for-ipad/id454525980?mt=8)
With just over a year until the election, Democrats have finally realized
that they have a major problem on their hands. Where the Republican base is
fired up and ready to go, liberals are despondent about the dissipation of
their messianic hopes. By failing to speak to the public’s anger, the
president has given ample space for Republicans to grab that fury and,
amazingly, turn it against Washington.
Or to pan wide on the scene: Obama has annoyed both his political base and
his donor base, while doing not enough of substantive value on the
underlying issue. The Democrats have aimlessly meandered into dire political
circumstances—so they are desperate for any cause for hope, no matter how
implausible.
Protests movements, with their outpourings of camaraderie and idealism,
often lead to lyrical writing and wishful thinking. Some Democratic
politicians and think tanks apparently now see a scenario for salvation in
Zuccotti
Park—a possibility that the protests could morph into the Democratic answer
to the Tea Party. Perhaps Washington operatives could descend on the
movement and drive it in that direction. But that seems like an awfully
daunting
task, given the scene on the ground and the ideological tendencies of
Occupy Wall Street—and it misreads the symbiotic relationship between liberals
and the left. Let’s say Occupy Wall Street can overcome its self-limiting
strategic philosophy, develop some concrete goals, and blossom into a
full-fledged social movement. Over the long-term, then, liberals will want to
position their reforms as the most reasonable mechanism for staving off the
radicals. That’s how FDR played it—“Liberalism becomes the protection for the
far-sighted conservative.” But you can’t triangulate against a social
movement if you fully embrace it.
On one level, the protests have already wildly succeeded. They have helped
remind the public of how blame for the crisis should be properly
apportioned. And when Eric Cantor mouths the words “income disparities,” you
know
the conversation has shifted. But as the protests drag on, will they continue
to be beneficial? To answer that, the protestors need to answer, at least
for themselves, the question: Will they work to actively undermine Barack
Obama’s reelection?
Under the best scenario, this moment emboldens Obama to rhetorically cudgel
Wall Street, lock arms with Elizabeth Warren, and make symbolically potent
appointments to his economic team. His turn towards populism reassures his
political base and helps him paint Mitt Romney as the tribune of the
economic royalists. While the movement continues to harp on Wall Street, and
maintains useful pressure on him to overcome his cautious instincts, it does
nothing to actively campaign against his reelection. This shift would set
the stage for a second term that would further financial reform and take
other measures against income inequality.
There is, however, another, plausible possibility: that Occupy Wall Street
is poorly timed. After all, there’s no legislative debate to usefully prod
at the present juncture, but there’s a chance to scupper the president’s
re-election. As _John Nichols_
(http://www.thenation.com/article/163942/99-percent-rise) cheers in The
Nation, the “movement might well develop into a
virtual primary challenge to Obama.” Even if Obama attempts to co-opt the
message of Occupy Wall Street, the movement will likely continue to harp on
his inadequacy. (Many of the complaints with Obama unfairly view him as a
central villain in the crisis, rather than a disappointingly ineffectual
foe of it.) Protests might erupt at the convention in Charlotte that
overshadow his case for reelection; all this further diminishes enthusiasm for
his
candidacy. Or worse, a third-party candidate emerges and we know how that
story goes. Indeed, much of the gripe with Obama reflects the canard that a
Republican president wouldn’t be worse. I hope the protesters are surrounded
by allies who remind them it actually can get much worse.
Franklin Foer is an editor-at-large for The New Republic and a Schwartz
fellow at the New America Foundation.
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