Occupy Wall Street has officially hit the one month mark today. They say they want to end economic injustice, corporate influence in politics and the control of wealth by the 1 percent.
The method they are using to try and get this outcome is to protest Wall Street, march in front of millionaires homes and trespass on private property at Zuccotti Park. Now, Obama, Biden, Pelosi and other politicians are expressing their support for the movement and trying to co-opt it into a rallying cry for Democrats.
Here is my issue and why I can't support this movement yet, but if the right changes are made I could. These protesters shouldn't be protesting the corporations, they should be protesting Congress. It is because of our Congress and the bills they pass that any of this happened in the first place. Instead of protesting the cause, the #OWS people are protesting the effect. The worst part is that the very politicians they should be protesting are now expressing support for the movement. Let us take a look at some of the numbers, shall we?
From the years of 1989-2010
Barack Obama received a total of:
$16,004,693 from Securities & Investment companies with these being some of the specific companies
$1,058,395 from Goldman Sachs
$759,197 from Citigroup Inc
$751,695 from JP Morgan Chase & Co
$523,056 from Morgan Stanley
$426,674 from Lehman Brothers
$421,242 from Bank of America
$327,837 from Merrill Lynch
$238,035 from Wells Fargo
$40,800 from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Joe Biden received:
$916,875 from Securities & Investment
Nancy Pelosi recieved:
$625,950 from Securities & Investment
Hillary Clinton received:
$10,324,347 from Securities & Investment
Harry Reid received:
$1,568,933 from Securities & Investment
Daniel Inouye received:
$360,200 from Securities & Investment
Max Baucus received:
$1,542,004 from Securities & Investment
Please don't think I am singling out Democrats, I mention them first because they are the ones I have seen and read about giving their support to this movement. Here are some of the Republicans as well.
John McCain received:
$10,534,171 from Securities & Investments with these being some of the specific companies
$454,020 from Merrill Lynch
$395,116 from Citigroup Inc
$338,065 from Goldman Sachs
$271,402 from Morgan Stanley
$244,007 from JP Morgan Chase & Co
$196,450 from Bank of America
$94,465 from Wells Fargo
Sarah Palin received:
$25,250 from Securities & Investment
John Boehner received:
$992,536 from Securities & Investment
Eric Cantor received:
$1,149,050 from Securities & Investment
Herman Cain received:
$44,857 from Securities & Investment
Rick Perry received:
$5,873,509 from Securities & Investment
Mitt Romney received:
$5,462,414 from Securities & Investment
all the above information was collected from http://influenceexplorer.com/
Now lets look at the fundraising so far for the 2012 presidential election and see who is trying to buy the election this time shall we?
Barack Obama has received:
$1,643,149 from Securities & Investment
$4,687,716 from Misc. Business
Mitt Romney has received:
$3,561,783 from Securities & Investment
$1,382,295 from Misc. Business
Rick Perry has received:
$2,473,310 from Misc Business
$375,275 from Securities & Investment
Ron Paul has received:
$679,070 from Misc Business
$89,587 from Securities & Investment
the above information was collected from http://www.opensecrets.org/
Are we seeing a pattern here? Do the protesters honestly expect these companies to stop doing what they are legally allowed to do just because it is ethically questionable? Do the protesters honestly expect our politicians to act against the very companies that are getting them elected? If the government made it a law that anyone that wanted to could walk into my store and take anything they like without paying for it as long as those who took it gave a cut to the government, should I protest the people taking from my store or the government telling them to do it?
If these protesters would start protesting the cause of our nations problems, our elected officials and the broken laws they created after being paid off, instead of the affect, if everyone in our country would band together and refuse to vote for any politician who is in bed with any company, then we could really make a difference in this world and make a change for the better.
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