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It’s that 1% of Americans that lives on another plane than the rest of us. They have every advantage in life and spend as much on caviar as most of us do on our mortgage. That applies to only the portion of the 99% who actually own a home of course. We are reminded repeatedly, in the “occupy” movements across the country, that there are the rich and then there is the rest of us.  The occupy protestors, with their signs and comments to reporters, suggest that they are part of the mainstream that makes up the 99% of Americans who are not million or billionaires.

To arrive at this conclusion is a bit of a misnomer though and the media seems to miss this point. The great majority of the “occupy” protestors are not actually part of any 99% at all. Watching interviews with the occupiers in New York and Washington State, Oakland and Colorado reveals one common denominator. The occupiers seem to come from the ranks of the career protestors, unemployable, anarchists, anti-Christians, pony-tailed 50-something men and hairy-under-armed woman. In other words, the occupiers inhabit the same space as America’s far-left. Statistically, that would make them the 22%, not quite the 99%.

Realizing that this was the real “occupy” movement leads one to feel duped or coerced by the early information coming from the giant PR machine touting their uniqueness. This wasn’t a new “movement” at all, but a thinly-veiled attempt to create a counter movement to the Tea Party. 

It makes sense then that Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama and Joe Biden would embrace the movement so thoroughly from the get-go. This really wasn’t middle-America after all, but a big sampling of these Democrats core constituencies. These are the people who see government as the answer to every problem, the people who believe that George Bush detonated the twin towers and the people who wake up to a joint every morning with their organic cereal.  The occupiers actually occupy that 22% of American culture that sits out in left field.

It became far more apparent as the weeks went on that the movement was the same people who eventually reveal themselves in so many unsightly, unethical, immoral, illegal and violent ways. These are the people well-trained in getting in police officer’s faces, breaking windows and bathing in public restrooms. Scratch that last one, they don’t actually bathe on a regular basis but just make a mess of some poor restaurant’s bathroom so the paying patrons can’t comfortably use it.

Who are these people?
The occupy movement is a farce of sorts. It represents itself as symbolizing the mainstream, but indeed it is the same suspects. And now funny, as all of the ”occupy” protests were quickly springing up in different places that the signs and talking points were so similar.  Almost like it was all orchestrated.

With November 2012 just around the corner, it may be that every rabbit is being pulled out of every hat. Just look at the alignment; Obama wants to tax the rich and provide more entitlements to the regular folks and that is exactly the message coming out of this new movement.  It’s not class warfare when the 99% all agree – right?

And what about those people on Wall Street?  What about the messengers and secretaries, mailroom clerks and security guards?  Are they all part of the 1%?  Are the traders on the exchanges who help make profits for middle-class people’s 401k plans and IRA’s the enemy? Are they just in it for themselves or do they help regular folks? 

Would the Wall Street occupiers be better served by protesting those who spend billions of our tax dollars on wasteful projects?  Since we learned that unions were funding much of the occupy infrastructure and since so much of the White House’s spending benefits unions, maybe Wall Street is the better focus. No need to tamper with the purse strings.

At this point, it may be more appropriate to say; occupy-schmocupy. It’s the left doing things that are meaningful to other members of the left.

The Dupe Strategy
The real benefit of the whole occupy movement is actually in the perception. It is in the con. Speaking to a friend in Romania recently, they remarked how the American middle-class was rising up.  They knew this because their media had told them so. The same in the Asian countries. The word there is that the occupy movement represents the consensus of the struggling American middle-class. That is not just a mistaken conclusion but the result of a well-honed strategy. Between these misinformed Eastern Europeans and misinformed Asians, the sense that the occupy movement was new and refreshing is believed by many uninformed Americans. It’s working here, so might as well try it in Europe.

As long as the facts are nowhere in sight, the occupy movement will have achieved one of its political goals. Just listen to interviews with so many of the occupiers; they don’t support everything Barack Obama is doing, but they plan to vote for him next time around. All members of the voting public who believe the occupy movement represents the 99% may give the Democrats more than 50% of what they need. A few oft repeated phrases and news stories work magic.