MSNBC 'Now' Panel Bemoans How Occupy Movement's 'Moral Argument' Has Been Drowned Out
The "moral argument" of the Occupy movement have been unfairly tarnished by violence and as well as frittered away by the group's lack of Tea Party-like political mobilization. That's the consensus of the liberal panelists on today's edition of MSNBC's Now with Alex Wagner.
The Nation magazine contributor Ari Melber kicked things off by blaming the recent violence and vandalism of the Occupy Oakland demonstrators on the "system" as it were, blaming police for excessive force against the well-meaning masses. [MP3 audio here; video coming shortly]
"I think this is a movement that is showing what happens when you politically participate in ways that are not sanctioned," Melber groused, noting that some police officers "have been excessive with their force" because "people aren't doing the sanctioned parade or the sanctioned political activity."
Apparently going through the proper legal and constitutional channels of securing permits and paying for use of park space is tantamount to censorship to Melber, who complained that "if we saw this footage from another country, we would be shocked, we should be shocked."
At that point, a worried Wagner asked "whether there's a concern about the message getting thinned too much" what with that the squatters' movement seeming to have no one furthering the "demands" and "policy asks" of the demonstrators.
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"They have a huge, super-powerful moral argument," insisted Time magazine's Mark Halperin adding:
[T]heir mistake is to not be part of politics as the Tea Party movement did. It had a huge impact on America, they've got just as strong a moral argument and I think they're squandering it.
Northwestern University professor Victoria DeFrancesco Soto followed up by worrying that the Republican voter base could be whipped up to vote in November in horror at the violence of the Occupy movement, prompting Wagner to react, "This sort of gives fuel to the contention that they're rabble-rousing, lawbreakers that don't want to --" DeFrancesco Soto then cut Wagner off, finishing Wagner's thought, "Because they haven't, yet, gone to the formal modes of democracy."
Melber took DeFrancesco Soto's spin even further, asserting that the Occupy movement was too busy "thinking about decades, not this November" to be concerned with short-term political change.
"The moral argument gets watered down with the violence... if we keep seeing that, it's going to hurt not just the movement but Democrats," DeFrancesco Soto added in closing out the panel's discussion.
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Comments
the OWS punks are the
Submitted by jkwtrading on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 5:03pm.
the OWS punks are the products of YOUR system.. nice try, commie, but no one believes you now.
Ayn Rand
Submitted by Free Stinker on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 5:09pm.
Anyone who has read Atlas Shrugged know that violence is in fact a Looters "moral arguement".
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
OWS was basically stillborne
Submitted by Galvanic on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 5:13pm.
"[T]heir mistake is to not be part of politics as the Tea Party movement did. It had a huge impact on America, they've got just as strong a moral argument and I think they're squandering it."
The major mistake were (a) thinking that Big Corporations and the Federal government would be influenced by squatter in public parks, and (b) allowing everyone with some sort of liberal message to include it in the agenda.
Ultimately, it was municipal governments and law enforcement who had to deal with OWS, and these institutions had no influence over Big Government or Big Corporations.
Their "We're the 99%" claim melted away after folks got a look at who was showing up to these gigs. Self-proclaimed anarchists and people who've named themselves after kitchen utensils can never be thought of as "mainstream," and despite MSM efforts to downplay negative activity, stories of assault, rape, theft, and rampant drug abuse abounded.
It struggled hard to rekindle the anti-war movement memories of their university professors, but it was a dud from the start, and now it is desperately trying to hang on to any sort of claim of still being alive.
Drowned out?
Submitted by KornKing on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 5:19pm.
The truth is that what's really happening with these idiots is NOT being reported at all
Comcast policy?
Submitted by Fredy on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 5:20pm.
Now that msnbc is openly calling for the destruction of public property, like the city hall in Oakland, and burning US flags in hatred, people need to ask Comcast if it is their policy to call for the end of the US government?
Oh really??
Submitted by jon_torlin on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 5:21pm.
Wow.......just.....plain....wow.
Moral argument indeed.
Paging Doc Sam, is there ever a time to put down this kind of insanity?
How do these people sleep at night??
-Jon
Moral argument?
Submitted by MrLuigi on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 5:39pm.
A moral argument from a bunch of moral degenerates is not possible!
What "moral argument"
Submitted by robert108 on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 5:40pm.
What "moral argument" justifies their thuggery? Sounds like more left wing victim entitlement to me.
What Moral Argument?
Submitted by Tugboat Phil on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 7:25pm.
Why, crapping on police cars of course!
It's sad, really
Submitted by bkeyser on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 5:40pm.
that these "one-offs", these "splinter groups" not really associated with the peace-loving Muslims can... wait... that's not it.
It's sad, really, that these "one-offs", these "soloists" can inflict workplace violence like the this Army Major... crap... That's not it either.
What's the deal with this one? We know they're not actually part of the peaceful and necessary protests of these thoughtful and committed OWS'ers. And they can't be drug addicts. Drugs are good. Can't be longshoremen or students. I'm not sure why they're blaming public servants for this either. You know what I'll bet happened? I'll bet this is a bunch of TEA PARTIERS who haven't bathed in a couple of weeks and infiltrated Occupy Oakland!
Bastards.
moral argument
Submitted by nanabanana on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 5:44pm.
"[T]heir mistake is to not be part of politics as the Tea Party movement did. It had a huge impact on America, they've got just as strong a moral argument and I think they're squandering it".
Is it just me or is he actually saying the Tea Party had/has a strong moral argument?
The OWS list of violence, lewdness and arrests
Submitted by Gary Hall on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 5:50pm.
Breitbart's "Big Journalism" is keeping the "rap sheet" going. Thousands of arrests so far.
One has to wonder what the rap sheet for the Tea Party looks like? 2 things, perhaps 3 - 4?
(;~/ gary
The reporting is immoral
Submitted by Tomorama on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 5:53pm.
Imagine if the media would actually REPORT THE FACTS of these misunderstood youts who break into building and burn flags etc, etc.
Christ, these PEOPLE made stuff up about the tea partiers and the shills believed it and reported about NOTHING that ever happened.
Peaceful demonstrations, cleaned up and paid for, no violence, no drugs, no rapes, but there was a gun, a racist gun possibly according to the photo.
Of course the fact they cut off the black mans head in the photo and he actually had a legal permit were irrelevent.
They are suffocating themselves.
Submitted by drsamherman on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 6:20pm.
Just as the case with most fatally overconfident narcissists, the OWS bowel movement is choking itself by meeting every expectation that it is nothing but a stinking, filthy anarchist mob. The group consists of the usual suspects of self-loathing American communists, socialists, whiny college students mad that they have to repay their student loans and the parasites that hang off of the former. They could give a damn about the 99%. They are mad and envious that they are not part of the 1%. Of course, that 1% is anyone who pays their bills, holds down a regular job and follows the rules.
The next part of this will be the mass defection from the OWS supporters who will consequently blame others for causing it in the first place. They come off like spoiled child having a tantrum, and in bad need of a good spanking.
Doc
Submitted by bkeyser on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 6:39pm.
Isn't it strange how the college student OWS'ers never seem to speak out about how much tenured professors make, and how much celebrity adjunct professors are paid to do relatively little for the school?
Elizabeth Warren earned better than $429k last year as a professor at Harvard. At the same time, taxpayers were paying her $165k as a special advisor to Obama. Somewhere in there she did as all tenured professors seem to be required to do, she wrote a book. Now, if students want to get upset at tuition costs, maybe they ought to look at the golden salaries of their professors.
I'm not begrudging her her money -she should pull down whatever she can get. But I find it odd that these OWS'ers don't either.
OWS, spoiled brats with absentee parents
Submitted by ThePickle on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 6:24pm.
Their "Moral Argument" consisted mainly of demands to be given free stuff...at other peoples expense.
When reality bitch slapped them, they did what any other petulant child would do...they threw a tantrum.
When the supposed "adults" caring for these whiny little shits (State, County and Local officials) failed to swiftly put an end to their blatant lawlessness, like so many liberal parents, feeling it more important to allow these 'children' to 'express themselves', the children reacted in a manner consistent with teens who had not been discipled as kids, they acted out even more and added drug use, sex and anti-social behavior to there list of things they felt 'entitled to'.
When the world saw the mess the parents made of their kids, the parents were righteously dressed down for their dismal failure to uphold the ideals of socially acceptable behavior and the rule of law.
The parents, having been humiliated publicly, then did what many parents in this situation do and that is to come down hard on their spoiled little brats, and the brats, being used to never being told no, did what another spoiled little brat would do, they lashed out at Mom and Dad.
In the end the entire 'movement' was nothing more than spoiled little brats throwing a tantrum and absentee parents allowing it to go on until the neighbors got sick of it and told mom and dad to get their brats in line.
Hardly a strong case for them having a "Moral Argument".
"Just as strong a moral argument"?
Submitted by UpNorth on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 6:30pm.
I guess that a "guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment " is a moral argument? And, "free college educations", "Immediate across the board debt forgiveness"?
I mean, this was all spouted by one of the poster boy Occutards back when this insanity started. Their ideas weren't moral then, they aren't now.
But, I think the Occutards will do some damage before they're consigned to the trash heap of history, much like Chicago '68, they won't learn from history, so they'll repeat it.
The Occupiers....
Submitted by kch50428 on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 6:34pm.
Believe it's the governments job to promote the common defense and provide for the general welfare rather than the other way around as our Founders believed... provide for the common defense & promote general welfare.
You know,,I think
Submitted by NJRightWinger12 on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 6:49pm.
Youre the only one watching this friggin trainwreck, Shep-I never hear about this goofy lib except for your article!
Beavis
Submitted by bobsmom on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 7:22pm.
to Butthead, " They used Occupy, and moral in the same sentence, nhheheh, neheheheh."
I fer git...
Submitted by MightyMouth on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 7:50pm.
What did the OWS fleabaggers want? Oh yeah, free sh*t right? Talk to Bloomberg you idiots! 'Moral argument' my behind!
Pond scum
Submitted by mmilesll on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 8:23pm.
This was pond scum talking about pond scum
The Moral Argument
Submitted by djwolf12 on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 8:25pm.
Funny how this group of Miscrients on M.S.S.R. (MSLSD) are arguing about Morals when they have no morals themselves. Make no question about it, this whole network has been bought and paid for by George Soros.
Preferential Treatment
Submitted by amlaml on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 9:28pm.
OWS gets preferential treatment compared to the Tea Party, so why are they complaining again?
http://biggovernment.com/dloesch/2011/11/08/st-louis-showers-ows-with-pr...
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/10/richmond-tea-party-sues-city-cha...
When you condom rape, protect rapist
Submitted by Injest on Tue, 01/31/2012 - 6:27am.
The "moral argument" of the Occupy movement have been unfairly tarnished by violence and as well as frittered away by the group's lack of Tea Party-like political mobilization. That's the consensus of the liberal panelists on today's edition of MSNBC's Now with Alex Wagner.
This woman is truly stupid. She's making the same mistake these idiots did with Obama, they are projecting there wants on to these morons despite the tower of evidence these morons are bad apples
have been unfairly tarnished by violence and as well as frittered away by the group's lack of Tea Party-like political mobilization.
There tarnished is not unwarranted. When you condom rape, protect rapist and murders you lose any possible respect!
The main arguments I hear are
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Tue, 01/31/2012 - 9:55am.
The main arguments I hear are the OWS crowd has been coopted by thugs and miscreants. I hear the same argument about the TEA party from libs saying the TEA party was started by a guy named Karl Denninger, who backed OWS, and it was stolen by big business.
I think that the claim is ludicrous. They make the claim because of a few entries in his blog. It is the people who comprise the TEA party who make up what the TEA party is. Just as OWS is the people who comprise that organization. Just as the ones who comprise any organization.
OWS Sets New Lows, Eyes Chicago
Submitted by berlet98 on Wed, 02/01/2012 - 4:16am.
OWS Sets New Lows, Eyes Chicago
What began last September in New York City as a complaint against unemployment and greed by some unemployed and student loan-burdened young people has long since been transformed by radical revolutionaries worldwide.
Since that transformation, President Barack Hussein Obama’s favorite protesters have repeatedly established new lows in uncivilized behavior. Characterized by his own Washington Post as the most polarizing president to ever sit in the White House, The Anointed One “ain’t seen nothing yet” when it comes to polarization.
In recent weeks, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) anarchists have devolved from almost-comical whiners into residents of rat-infested enclaves in the nation’s capital, throwing bricks and Bibles at police and urinating on a crucifix in San Francisco, using storm drains as toilets in Charlotte, tossing condoms at Catholic high school girls in Providence, and rioting and burning American flags in Oakland.
That’s not the half of the atrocities they have committed.
And, true to form, Obama’s MSM reports next to none of it and the president has refused to condemn even the rioting flag-burners. However, all those sick stories and more have been reported on such non-mainstream websites as Drudge.com and PatDollard.com.
It’s almost as if Obama’s MSM is censoring the news and Obama supports the anarchy. Imagine that!
In a farcically desperate attempt to characterize the Occupy Movement as simple socio-economic dissent, Obama’s MSM have compared it to the invariably-peaceful and decorous Tea Party demonstrations.
The fact that, in the 3-year existence of the Tea Party, not one member has ever been arrested while over 6,000 Occupiers have been jailed for everything from assault to rape to public nudity and copulation in their 4-month history puts the lie to that absurdity.
Among other evidence that Obama’s media have been shielding both the Occupy Movement and their most notable supporter from adverse publicity is their effort to hide plans to disrupt the Chicago G8 summit in May.
All the president’s minions have successfully cloaked the infestation of Marxists directing the Occupiers’ actions, the presence of criminals, skin-heads, neo-Fascists and other reprobates in the OWS midst, as well as the funding from arch-leftist George Soros.
Now, they are ignoring the call for spring chaos in Chicago by the leftist magazine, Adbusters. . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=12380.)