Occupy Lives On

Scott Hardie | September 14, 2013
Peter Beinart just wrote a very persuasive article about how the recession of the last few years could doom Hillary Clinton and the Republican field alike, not just in the 2016 election but for a couple of decades to come. If you don't want to read it, the gist is: The economic downturn has been cataclysmic for Millenials and forced them to the anti-corporate, big-government left, where their opinions will remain for life. Clinton, Obama, and pro-business elitist Democrats don't appeal to them as much as populist firebrands like Elizabeth Warren and Bill de Blasio do. The GOP's old reliance on culture wars to win over the poor won't work on Millenials, but they have a shot if they can argue that government is broken and needs fixing instead of reduction.

I'm a little too old for the recession to have had the same transformative effect on me, but I'm with the Millenials all the way politically (and with Elizabeth Warren, and Paul Krugman and Jon Stewart as also noted). Occupy's dissolution as a movement struck me not as a failure of its core ideas, but a failure to reign in the hippy-dippy fringe that made the cause seem silly and unworthy of real consideration. I sincerely hope that the article is correct in predicting a generational surge in support for economic regulation and safety nets.

What's your take?

Steve Dunn | September 14, 2013
I question whether the Occupy movement had "core ideas." I agree you might very loosely describe it as "anti-corporate, big-government left" it impressed me more as a manifestation of generalized discontent, expressly reluctant to take on any particular program or platform. It may very well be true that Millennials will espouse European-style politics - I just wouldn't use the term Occupy to describe it.

Is Jon Stewart anti-corporate, big-government left? Not doubting it - I just never noticed this.

Samir Mehta | September 16, 2013
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | October 22, 2013
All well said. I agree.

I didn't mean for this to be all about Occupy. They were a small part of the article. The term just represents a convenient if fading shorthand for angry young liberalism today, especially one hostile to big business.

The Daily Show does anti-corporate material from time to time, and is particularly critical of Wall Street corruption and the endless ways in which certain bank executives continue to evade punishment for wrongdoing that led to the recession. Jon Stewart has (imo) made clear his belief that the government doesn't do enough to help people, criticizing ObamaCare, Sandy and Katrina relief, the Zadroga Act, the Veterans Administration mess, and other actions for failing to accomplish even more and/or for being hampered by inefficiency or politics.

Samir, you listed several nearly universal beliefs (suffrage and abolition) and one that has come along but may get rolled back (independence/self-agency for the mentally ill). I keep hearing about how widespread homelessness and high-profile incidents like mass shootings are causing people to rethink the idea that the mentally ill should not be institutionalized. An older friend of mine spent some years in an "nut house" (his word) and a few more years on the street, and he says that many of the now untreatable homeless wanted to stay when mental asylums were widely closed in the 1950s as part of that movement: They provided shelter and three meals a day and a more stable environment, and the patients feared being lost or hurt or killed on the streets. I wonder if we won't see a return to some level of institutionalizing, hopefully not at its neglectful worst extremes.