The other day in Honolulu, President Obama told the Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation summit that “we” have gotten “a little lazy.”
His specific example was that “we” have not been working hard
enough to attract foreign investments.
He didn’t suggest that “we” included his administration
so, presumably, he meant the whole nation. This fits comments to
other audiences recently when he said we seemed to have lost our
initiative and, earlier, that we’d gotten a little
“soft.” Was he referring to the working men and
women of the nation, the unemployed trying to find jobs, or the
small, medium and large businesses that are the engine of the
economy? If so, he was off-key.
The people these words fit are the louts, layabouts and
loose screws who have been inhabiting campgrounds on city streets
called “Occupy Wall Street.” Under the guise of exercising their
right of free speech, these people have been showing us for weeks
now what it looks like when self-discipline, self-reliance and
social civility are replaced by a sense of entitlement stoked by
resentment (or, in the case of Oakland, goaded by organized
anarchists).
Timid and fearful mayors and city councils let these
islands of barbarity fester until recent days when the defection,
urination, rape, suicide, trash and disregard for the rights of
neighbors and local businesses finally become too much. Now, at
last, Mayor Bloomberg has had the police uproot the Obamaville in
Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park and half a dozen other cities across the
country have done the same. At last, local ordinances are being
enforced. That enforcement will have to continue until the louts
begin to peel away. Cold weather will help.
The OWS “movement” has never coalesced around an
objective, unless one considers that taking money from
productive Americans and giving it to unproductive ones is an
objective. What it may be is a portent of the future if
we pursue Obama’s apparent goal of creating an ever-larger portion
of society dependent upon the government.
One thing the OWS crowd seems to agree on: Problems in our
economy are all the fault of greedy somebody-or-others, not the
government. This is not incompatible with Obama’s belief that only
government is capable of creating jobs and
prosperity.
The sympathetic statements about the OWS people by Obama,
Pelosi, certain union leaders and other Democrats suggest that they
see these urban mobs as emblematic of a large number of Americans;
something they can harness in an election through their old friend,
the message of class warfare.
Some media commentators have even compared the OWS
free-for-alls with the Tea Party Movement. There is no comparison.
The Tea Party consisted — and does to this day — of people with
the stated goal of reducing government spending and deficits and
the size of government. Whether one agrees with these objectives or
not, they are clear objectives. Tea Party demonstrations large and
small have been orderly, not unruly, and have not broken
laws.
What Obama & Co. don’t seem to understand, is that,
with the exception of anarchists and thugs, Americans want an
orderly society. To the extent possible, they want certainty so
they can plan their daily lives and they expect to live within
their means. They also have hopes, dreams and ambitions and many
like the idea of bettering their lives through initiative and
innovation.
Cutting against the downbeat statements of Mr. Obama and
Democrat sympathy for the urban mobs is the little noticed news
that some American companies are bringing jobs home to
America.
Two recent examples: Caterpillar, the world’s largest
earth-moving equipment company, has announced plans to move from
Japan to the U.S. its production of small construction machinery.
This will involve 1,000 jobs. It will build a new plant for this.
At the same time, it announced plans to expand production of
giant-haul trucks and large bulldozers at two Illinois plants.
Meanwhile, Otis Elevators will move production from a plant in
Nogales, Mexico to a new one in Florence, South Carolina. This will
involve 360 jobs.
Ford and General Electric earlier announced they have been
moving some jobs back home that had earlier been sent overseas. Not
yet a job tsunami, this movement is nevertheless gaining momentum.
It is called “reshoring.”
These initiatives reflect the American spirit. The
anything-goes mess that is the OWS movement reflects what happens
when you strip away the layers of civilization.
