Forum Post: Occupy Pennsylvania Avenue

In considering the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protestors who’ve been camped out in New York City’s Zuccotti Park for more than a month now, we should consider the words of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black in New York Times Co. vs. Sullivan, (1964): “An unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs is what I consider to be the minimum guarantee of the First Amendment."

The OWS “movement,” if it can be called that, seems to have been initiated by young Americans justifiably disenchanted with the economic and political state of America, using a generic straw villain labeled “Wall Street” that has some catchy validity.

As a friend of my youth and a founder of Young Americans for Freedom, David Franke, wrote recently:

“Ordinary Americans sense that we have been screwed by Wall Street every bit as much as by Washington, D.C., but instead of fighting together we have fallen into the perennial Right vs. Left trap of letting the ruling establishment divide us. The conservatives say Washington caused our meltdown, the progressives say Wall Street caused our meltdown. Only the Ron Lawl Revolution understands that they are one and the same, with the Federal Reserve representing and empowering both Washington and Wall Street against the people.”

I think OWS protestors should broaden their targets to include all the true culprits - the White House and Capitol Hill politicians of both parties who, in league with those big, bailed out banks, major corporations and unions, form a ruling oligarchy whose only guiding principles are plundering our nation’s economy for their own personal gain and the preservation of their own political power.

These are the oligarchs who run that system of which “Wall Street” is only a part.

Then too, there is the despicable bi-partisan revolving door by which Wall Street moguls slip in and out of major federal government posts from Secretary of the Treasury (Geithner, Paulson, Snow, O’Neill, Summers, Rubin, Baker and Schulz among others) on down, using their Washington tenure to shape policy to benefit Wall Street at the expense of most Americans who are excluded from this exclusive inner circle of inbred wealth and power.

The OWS protesters’ actions inevitably will end but they have achieved an important goal: they have put the issue of income inequality on the national agenda. Huge gaps between the top 5% versus the other 95% have been growing as a political issue for a long time and now it is coming to a head.

Suddenly Obama newly discovers his sympathy for the OWS anti-Wall Street campaign - he who has been deep in the pockets of Wall Street slavishly doing their bidding. For a shocking, eye opening compendium of facts about Obama and his multiple and lucrative Wall Street ties, I seriously urge you to read Glen Greenwald’s account of this sordid tale of political incest financed by American taxpayers. Two years ago I urged readers of my blog to review two articles from Rolling Stone that laid out the facts about just one Wall Street powerhouse, Goldman Sachs. It’s worth going back and reading them now: The Great American Bubble Machine by Matt Taibbi, and Obama's Big Sellout.

Obama made certain the big bankers knew he was and is their friend, even paling around with foreign bankers from the indicted Swiss UBS. His buddy system raked in millions in campaign funds from Wall Street and bankers, and in spite of some harsh words, the president has rewarded them handsomely - with billions in bailouts at the taxpayers' expense.

What’s the solution? I wish I knew...

Since both political parties are deeply involved with and beholden to the system, it would seem the answer is a third party independent candidate who not only comprehends the enormous dimension of our problems, but has the courage to act to solve them, without regard to the financial powers that be. Another possibility is free market constitutional reforms to stop the current crony capitalism.

Among the current crop of preening political pygmies it seems to me only my old friend Ron Paul understands what needs to be done, but his age and some quirky ideas make him a punching bag for the liberal media and the Republican establishment.

Unfortunately, as Occupy Wall Street reminds us, America does not have that much time left to solve its problems. The need is immediate and acute.

By Bob Bauman JD, Chairman, Freedom Alliance