More Americans Are Sympathetic To Occupy Wall Street Than To Tea Party

A new poll shows that a large majority of Americans are unhappy with the direction that the country is taking and they do not believe that government will do much to move things in the right direction. A recent report on the growth in income inequality in the US confirms the views held by most Americans. The share of income going to the top 1% doubled between 1979 and 2007. This feeds into what the Occupy Wall Street protesters are saying about the direction that the economy has taken. They believe that government policies have favored the top 1% and that government has done everything possible to protect them from bad decisions, while doing little to help those who have seen their income and wealth erode.

Almost twice as many American's have favorable views about the Occupy Wall Street protests compared with those who have positive views about the Tea Party. Support for the Tea Party is about equal to the percent of Americans who say that they belong to the Tea Party.

Conservatives have tried to portray the Occupy Wall Street protests negatively. They accuse them of class warfare and claim that they are envious of successful Americans who have worked hard to earn their increasing share of income. They also argue that they have not presented a focused list of changes that they would support. In fact, the protesters are more concerned about fairness, and the manner in which the share of income going to the top 1% has been achieved. They also recognize that growth in the share of income held by the top 1% reduces the share of the income pie available to the bottom 99%. While Wall Street has been their primary target because of the damage that it created with government help. They also resent the growing share of income going to the top executives of US corporations who have benefitted from globalization at their expense. They believe that government policy has accelerated the rate of globalization. Unfortunately, while they recognize that Republicans promote policies that favor the wealthiest Americans, they believe that Democrats have been pushed in a similar direction in order to compete for campaign contributions that have become a necessity in order to win elections in the US.