The People’s Movement Escalates….

First observations:

Today, I watched and listened as they covered the build-up to the protest on Wall Street. And I came away with a few observations . For one, I disagree with most of the critics and especially Obama strategists, who see the election in terms of independents and democrats, and the black and white issue.

The Obama strategists recognize that their hopes rest on the Independents. I agree with that, but I do not feel based on what I’ve seen up ‘til now with the burgeoning protests anything that indicates color as an issue. What in fact I do see is not based on party politics, but issues. And it is to the credit of the planners of the protest that they have left it open ended, because under those conditions “one size fits all.”

As a result, people of every political persuasion and perhaps no persuasion at all are finding a place in this big tent where it seems everyone represents a different perspective, a different point of view that inveighs against the party in power.

Mostly, if we were to generalize the themes that come through have most to do, it seems to me, with politics and business in bed together and the dissonance it produces among the people who make up this country of ours.

What is most moving is the fact that the people are showing far more common sense, far more in common with each other than apart, and that the politicians, per se, don’t come close to representing their interests. And nowhere have I seen the specter of black and white politics introduced.

As a result of this open-ended spectrum that only invites more dissatisfied people into the tent, I don’t think it is a movement likely to fold any time soon….quite to the contrary, it seems like a movement that will continue to grow as long as there is dissatisfaction among the rank and file, and until the parties learn to talk with each other.
For them, the danger is that this kind of a forum could replace either one or both parties and it could happen relatively quickly if politicians forget the powers of the people to replace them.

I will have more to say in coming days.

In the meantime, I am getting pangs of deja=vu from old movements and old marches and having the Unions cover my back; maybe even plant a little time capsule at the foot of the Big Bull outside the Big Board to remind myself that the last decade was the decade of terrorism and big government controlled by business, and, now, ten year’s later, we are at the beginning of the Fall of those “Too big to fail!”

And, so, in these final moments in the lead up to 2012, the people are speaking out. When that happens, both sides of the spectrum should be paying close attention; their survival may depend on it.

The people are speaking.

And that most ephemeral of things, hope, is in the air again! Makes me feel like I’m back in the 60’s.

The question is will the rest of us listen.