Should Republicans Support the #Occupy Movement?

The most disheartening part of the Occupy Movement that is hitting major cities all over the country is the fact that main stream media seems to be blacking out the coverage. It is very scary how influential government, the media, and corporate advertising dollars are to keeping the majority of us in the dark.

And, Gail? I suggest you go to one and see for yourself. I took my kids and saw nothing that you are describing. Again, folks are just repeaters of what they see in the news, whether it be Fox or MSNBC. Have you ever asked yourself who these organizations are owned by? Seriously, go check it out.

Emily, sorry but deregulation is not what got us into this mess. I suggest you read The Fed by Ron Paul. It will truly open your eyes to what has happened. Our government is in bed with the big banks, period. No matter who is in office. Until that power is taken away from them, we will continue on the same path. These big booms and busts we are seeing? They are a result of the Fed printing money (injecting capital into the system) and artificially controlling the interest rates. If the free market controlled the interest rates, we would not be in this mess. Honestly, I feel like I am screaming at the top of my lungs and no one is listening to anything but what the mainstream media is telling them. I wish people would read a book every once in a while.

Hi Elena and hello everyone. I'm here is Liberty City in NYC. First let me say that there is a very strict and enforced rule against drugs or alcohol in the park, we have our own security committee and safer spaces committee who are hyper vigilant about keeping order in the park. Everyone in the park is aware that any use of alcohol and drugs in the park will end the occupation unequivocally and forever. The people in the park call out other occupiers when they see such things and we report them and call them to account using our own rules of soft justice.

Second, I have been in the park for 2 weeks now and though I do not doubt that some couple during some cold rainy night may have had a lusty tryst under the covers of their tarps and sleeping bags I have never seen anything remotely like an orgy or public sex in the park.

Third and more to the point, there are people of every stripe, economic class, race and political persuasion out here trading ideas in respectful debate. Everyone is welcome in this movement, because this movement relies on the support of every American who wants control of their government wrested away from overt economic influence and returned to the people. We are proud Americans here, and we are defending our great country from the unjustice and unbalanced influences of corporatism in politics. All we want is our America back. Anyone who has the temerity to call us un-american is willfully blind to what has happened to our political system on both side of the isle over the past 30 years. Love to you all and I am proud to see such a lively debate happening over here.

Part of the point of the movement is that there isn't ONE person in charge. And that there's no official list of demands or goals. Because it's a bunch of people, from different places, with different experiences standing up to say that our system is broken. I really can't even imagine looking at our current political system and thinking it's doing a good job. This really isn't a Dem vs. Rep issue. It's an issue of having a broken system.

Gail, you have sources with proof they are being paid, because all I see is speculation.

Brianna-- I disagree with you on Ron Paul, but I do agree that we need an overhaul of our banking system. I feel that deregulation is part of what got us into this mess; large business will never be ethical or fair in a space devoid of guidelines/checks and balances.

Some protesters are being paid up to $600 per week to protest aka camp out. Others were hired to carry signs in DC that they could not read as they only spoke and read Spanish. Every protester interviewed has a different "cause" which they articulate with varying degrees of reason. No one should suport them until we know clearly who they are, who is behind it, and what they want. Nancy Pelosi, with voice quivering, says she is afraid of the Tea Party, forecasting dire events when their mean age was probably 45 and they were employed, left no trash, carried American flags, were not paid, while she God blesses the so called protesters who have been arrested by the hundreds, defecate on cop cars, have open sex, trash the place, have caused nearby businesses to lose business big time and have availability to drugs and union provided food. Go figure. Anyone who buys that this is a grass roots, flash mob type spontaneous new look at an old problem needs to look again.

Actually, the system started failing us during the Reagan administration. Pay close attention to wages back then and the percentage of wealthy versus average American and how much their income varies and it starts then. Pay attention to when school lunch nutrition started going down hill and you will see it started under Reagan (ketchup a vegetable, anyone?). Pay attention to when jobs actually started leaving this country, when 3rd world labor started manufacturing our tshirts in squalid subhuman work conditions, when Monsanto started it's vice grip on the world's seeds, I could keep going. It started under Reagan, not Bush.

Yeah, I think we agree that this post missed the mark. :/

Agree Emily. What we have now is not true capitalism. We have corporate welfare. The only clear choice for me is Ron Paul. He supports a truly free market and that includes getting rid of the federal reserve (which is comprised of private bankers) They are decreasing the value of our dollars and profiting from it. Did you know that most of our income tax goes to the fed reserve for payment of interest that they are charging us for them buying up bonds? They get our money just for printing money out of thin air.

Even my husband, currently a 15 year flighter pilot in the AF agrees that the Bush era really damaged our economy. It takes years for recovery. You can't blame Obama. We should all support the movement! He now votes like a Democrat because of all the politial posturing going on with our GOP - they won't vote for our jobs bill despite the fact that its' the RIGHT thing to do for the people. Shame on you Eric Cantor (yes, I'm even from your town). Shame on you!

I couldn't care less what party backs the protestors; what I hope is happening that all parties and politicians are listening. ALL of our citizens are suffering with this economy.

i don't know where the republicans get the idea that democrats are anti-capitalist. i LOVE capitalism-- i'm just tired of being so poor that i can't buy stuff. and you know what made me that poor? the bush-era economic policies that collapsed our economy. capitalism only flourishes when every citizen can participate in the buying and making of goods and services. anybody who supports capitalism should be seeking a change in the American wealth distribution.

I agree the Republicans should get involved, but couldn't disagree on her idea of what the Occupy movement is about. Republicans should back it not as a ploy to get back into presidential office, but because our system is so fundamentally flawed by our political system being in the pocket of the corporations getting richer all the while our unemployment rate is through the roof and the poor and middle classes just keep getting poorer. It's a united idea that our political system is broken. Both sides. All of it.