Herman Cain made it very clear how he feels about Occupy Wall Street demonstrators and how they should be handled by the Obama administration and lawmakers. Obama should, according to Cain, “tell them to go home and get a job.”
Speaking this week on the Hugh Hewitt radio show, Cain responded to a question on what he would say to the ‘occupy’ demonstrators if given an opportunity.
“I would want this crowd to hear first, your success is not dependent upon wishing that someone else is not successful. Blaming Wall Street and blaming big banks, and blaming those that have succeeded in America under our free market system is never going to make you happy, and it’s never going to make you rich.
“Secondly, if you really want to do something to create jobs in this country, why don’t you go and picket the White House. That’s why where we have failed economic policies. That’s where we have policies that have kept unemployment up over 9%. You’re picketing the wrong source. It’s not those that have produced in this country. It’s the failed policies of this administration. If you look in the mirror, you will realize that the only person that you can blame for what you don’t have is the person you’re looking at in the mirror.”
Cain said those demonstrating are guilty of “playing the victim card,” and that they are not victims of anything.
“I don’t have a lot of patience for someone who believes that the government should take from one group and give to another group,” he said.
Hewitt asked how Obama should address this group, “which clearly comes from his Alinskyite side of the political ledger.” Cain said those demonstrating should be told to “go home and get a job, or go home and go to school.”
Many right-wing members of the media, including Rush Limbaugh, have done their best to paint a picture of the demonstrators as strict liberals who are supporters or previous supporters of Barack Obama. Unfortunately, the view is too simplistic, and completely disregards what too many of the protestors are saying. For instance, bail-outs for large corporations — those we now know of as “too big to fail” — wasn’t a sole Obama administration activity. Federal money spent to wage war in Afghanistan and Iraq wasn’t only approved under the Obama administration.
Likewise, while the Bush tax cuts began under their namesake, they’ve not ended there. Protestors are just as angry at the Obama administration for perpetrating what they see as economic inequalities.
As The Iowa Independent previously reported, the faith community is also beginning to take note and become active within the movement because they understand that the demonstrators are speaking out about ethical and moral issues. Ironically enough, such faith communities are arguing that if a corporation is a person, such as has been voiced specifically by Republicans on the Iowa stump in the aftermath of Citizens United, then corporate rights also end when another person’s begins. In short, no corporation/person has the right to make profits at the expense of someone else, which remains a key charge of the demonstrators.
