ZUCCOTTI PARK, Wall Street, New York: I slept the night under a sign reading “Separation of Business and State.” I’ve seen a couple of signs objecting to the use of “our money” to bail out big banks. Cursing the destructive influence of corporate lobbyists is standard fare here.
There’s definitely some obvious common ground between grass roots conservatives/libertarians and this overwhelmingly liberal crowd at Occupy Wall Street. One camper here, Mack from Vermont, said he’s had conversations about trying to bring in “a representative of the Tea Party.”
This is not surprising to me. When Big Government colludes with Big Business, the critics of Big Government will have plenty of the same grievances as the critics of Big Business.
The proposed solutions, you might guess, are different, and the contrast comes out in the interpretation of this sign under which I slept.
I read “Separation of Business and State,” to mean that the two should leave one another alone. State shouldn’t subsidize, regulate, mandate, or bail out business, or guide its actions through tax incentives. Business, in turn, shouldn’t ask for favors or protections.
Here at “Occupied Wall Street,” the words mean something else: Business shouldn’t lobby, give to politicians or parties, or run issue ads. The concerns I hear throughout this camp are not about the powers of the state as much as the purity of our politics.
Surprisingly to me, campaign finance reform is the premier issue here. I foresee it becoming a premier issue in Democrats’ efforts to motivate the Left this election year.
That’s the most obvious likely political outcome I see of this movement: A Democratic Party focus on campaign finance and lobbying regulation.
