Many of the responses to the Occupy protests are more revealing, interesting and troubling than the protesters accusations and actions are.
I have not been moved to camp out with the protesters. Call me Pollyanna, but I want to think change can come without having to take to the rash measures chosen by the Occupy Movement. By and large Americans are rational people who share the ideal all people deserve an equal shot at the American dream. Right? Maybe…hopefully…I am beginning to wonder. There is something insidious in how and what some say about the protest and the protesters. It makes me question how many truly believe in that pursuit of happiness/created equal stuff.
I’m fairly certain Newt Gingrich doesn’t speak for a broad swath of Americana, but he is a national figure comfortable in maligning a group if it helps him gain favor with another. His comments about the Occupy protesters are disturbing and echo what a few others have said. Since he is the frontrunner-of-the moment in the Republican contest for president, I will use his remarks to demonstrate the divide.
Occupy Des Moines in Stewart Square
When asked this weekend about the Occupy protesters, Gingrich said, “They take over a public park they didn’t pay for to go nearby to use bathrooms they didn’t pay for…to obstruct those who are going to work to pay the taxes to sustain the bathrooms and sustain the park so they can self-righteously explain that they are the paragons of virtue to which we owe everything.”
Public parks are, well, public. They are not apportioned for use on an ability to pay, Mr. Gingrich. A free society builds and maintains parks for the collective good, not just so the well-to-do have something pretty to look at as they go about their lives. The courts may decide in some cases that a small group’s occupation of a public space harms that greater good, but that is different than implying some lack a right to be there because others paid for the space. Every American has a right to use public spaces whether they made millions lobbying – ahem, being a historian – or a few thousand being a baker.
Moreover, painting the protesters with a broad brush as ne’re-do-wells and freeloaders is duplicitous. It may be easier to craft a sound bite if you discount the group as troublemakers and ignore the fact many occupiers are teachers, medical professionals, veterans and other members of the middle class you pine about supporting while on the stump, Mr. Gingrich, but you are missing the point.
Like it or not the protesters are your fellow Americans. Many of their frustrations stem from the same fissures in our nation that spawned the Tea Party you are trying to appropriate to power your ride to election victory.
The Occupiers took to Wall Street and cities across the country including Des Moines where they are currently occupying a park across the street from Tasty Tacos to express frustration about the increasing inequity in modern America. Unfortunately for the Occupy naysayers, many facts fall on the protesters’ side.
Study after study provides evidence the once vibrant, robust backbone of our nation known as the middle class is in decline. The current generation of middle class children may be the first to do less well than their parents. Meanwhile, those at the top of the income spectrum are in the midst of an unprecedented boom. It appears the 2008 economic downturn causing pain to most Americans may have actually benefited the rich. At a minimum, these trying times have impacted the wealthy the least. But, don’t take this the wrong way. The solution is not found by penalizing the successful, but leveling the field in a way to provide a fair chance for more to be successful.
I cannot decide if it is laughably ironic or plainly despicable Mr. Gingrich calls the protesters self-righteous as he directs this pomposity toward them, “We need to reassert something as simple as saying to them, ‘Go get a job right after you take a bath.’”
Someone needs to reassert to Mr. Gingrich and those quick to look down their noses at the Occupy protesters something as simple as ‘America belongs to all Americans.’
The way to economic recovery and stability begins with civil discourse and respect for those willing to stand-up for what they believe, even when we disagree.
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Graham Gillette can be reached at grahamgillette@gmail.com
This entry was first published as a Des Moines Register blog entry.
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