Undermining the Occupation: Memo

If they're worried, then it's working:

A well-known Washington lobbying firm with links to the financial industry has proposed an $850,000 plan to take on Occupy Wall Street and politicians who might express sympathy for the protests, according to a memo obtained by the MSNBC program “Up w/ Chris Hayes.” The proposal was written on the letterhead of the lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford and addressed to one of CLGC’s clients, the American Bankers Association. CLGC’s memo proposes that the ABA pay CLGC $850,000 to conduct “opposition research” on Occupy Wall Street in order to construct “negative narratives” about the protests and allied politicians. The memo also asserts that Democratic victories in 2012 would be detrimental for Wall Street and targets specific races in which it says Wall Street would benefit by electing Republicans instead. According to the memo, if Democrats embrace OWS, “This would mean more than just short-term political discomfort for Wall Street … It has the potential to have very long-lasting political, policy and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bullseye.”

They should really be more careful with these memos. Particularly with the Anonymous collective involved. It's just fueling the fire and painting a bulls eye on their back. Another interesting note:

The CLGC memo raises another issue that it says should be of concern to the financial industry — that OWS might find common cause with the Tea Party.

Now we're talking. Those on the ground with the Tea Party—assuming they have not been too affected by the antagonistic mainstream media depiction of OWS—should feel sympathy with the anger and disaffection of the Occupiers, and the sense that this Democracy is beholden to powerful monied interests. After all, who are the elites at whom the Tea Party are so angry? OWS is camped out at the doorstep of those elites right now. Ignore the party posturing: there is a common cause. Change is there for the grasping, if only people have the will, and only if they put aside the divisions that empower Wall Street and their cronies in both parties.

Mind you, if the economic system worked—if we were closing in on full employment, particularly—the Occupation and the Tea Party would both dissolve. Memo to Wall Street: solve the jobs crisis, end the protests.

Also, I hear that 75,000 big-bank employees are being laid off this week. I wonder if they still think the jobless in this country are lazy freeloaders. Maybe that view is a gross exaggeration of how most bank employees really feel. It is a very different perspective tho standing in the unemployment line with all those factory workers, laborers, office workers, recent veterans, and teachers. Anyhow, I'm sure they will be welcome in the movement.