I was skeptical about the Occupy protests when they began and I remain skeptical about where they are heading, but I sure am glad that there are people on the streets demanding that the most affluent people in this country pay their fair share when I see shit like this happening in Washington DC.
As time wound down to a Monday night deadline for an agreement [of the Supercommitee], Capitol Hill lacked the frenzied negotiation typical of a Congressional race to beat the clock. Instead, many members — well aware that Congressional approval ratings are near historic lows in polls — seemed resigned to the fact that Democrats and Republicans remained far apart on major budget issues, especially tax increases on the affluent, which Democrats insist must be part of any deficit solution and which Republicans oppose.
What we are not seeing is any people on the streets demanding that the Democrats make concessions on entitlement spending or the discretionary budget. In this case, no deal is a good deal for the 99%. It’s not a great deal, as there will be negative consequences from yet another demonstration that our government is paralyzed. The stock market will probably react negatively, and that will trickle down. The credit rating agencies may exact some retribution, further damaging the country’s reputation and probably costing us more jobs. And the president will not come out of this smelling like roses, even if people correctly assign most of the blame where it properly belongs…on the Republicans.
But the left has definitely won this argument. The Democrats went into this fight with modest and reasonable demands. Their negotiating stance was actually quite weak, as they began with a willingness to make concessions that their own base would hate. But they weren’t even allowed to make those concessions because their opponents were so incredibly intransigent and unreasonable.
In the end, the Democrats correctly concluded that the automatic cuts that will kick in if no deal is reached are preferable to anything that they have been able to negotiate. And the people in the streets have given them the confidence to hold their ground and accept whatever criticism they might receive for allowing large cuts to the Pentagon’s budget.
So, even though I can’t say that the Occupy protests are going to accomplish much, they have already accomplished something. It’s a modest accomplishment, but it’s significant.
