More than anything else, the Occupy Wall St. movement marks the return of the American Left to relevance. I know that is an inflammatory thing to say, especially here on this site, but let me explain what I mean.
In the late 60s through the early 70s, the American Left was an active, vocal, relevant presence in politics. Issues like the Vietnam War, and the anti-nuclear power movement commanded mass demonstrations. Politicians, like George McGovern and Teddy Kennedy, were able to command significant party mind share and resources.
Starting with the election of Jimmy Carter, continuing with Teddy’s failure to successfully wrest the nomination away from Carter, and crystallizing with the election of Ronald Reagan, the American Left went quiet. Indeed, throughout 8 years of “triangulation” during the Clinton era, the American Left was largely dormant.
But something began to happen shortly after “W” was reelected. Katrina, the war, and the economic crash made a lot of people very angry. First out of the shoot was the Angry Right, as embodied by the Tea Partiers. Putting substance aside for a moment, the Tea Party looked a lot like the “movements” of the late 60s and early 70s. Organic, grassroots activism, anchored around a few key issues.
It wasn’t all that surprising to me that a corresponding outcry from the American Left didn’t occur. After many years of being asleep, it was hard to imagine mass action from the left ever happening. And of course the conventional wisdom is that we are a “center-right” nation, right?
But starting with sites like this one, and opposition to "W", the left began to wake up. And of course, massive unemployment and economic dislocation are the seeds for growing left oriented discontent. Sprinkle with the conventional wisdom that the current economic crisis was caused by elite bankers treating the nation’s economy like their own private, rigged, casino, and fertilize with reflexive GOP defense of the wealthy in the face of true crisis, and voila, a leftist protest movement springs into being.
The implications could be pretty interesting. First off, while it is clear the the President has the political skills to galvanize this movement, all indications are that he is truly a centrist. Will he embrace the Occupiers? Will the Occupiers embrace him?
Secondly, just as the GOP counts on the Tea Party for enthusiasm and support, so too could the Democrats turn to the Occupiers. As many have noted, just diminishing the enthusiasm gap can have a profound effect on a number of elections. If this in fact comes to pass, the Democrats will likely become as solicitous of the Occupiers as the Republicans are of the Tea Partiers. This will likely lead to an EVEN GREATER POLARIZATION amongst our elected officials. The net effect of this greater polarization is that nothing will get done unless one party, or the other commands a super majority.