[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAQeQ6PKRxk&w=560&h=315]
Conservatives need to constructively engage the Occupy movement and not fear it, said panelists at a discussion at The Heritage Foundation on Thursday.
The panel of experts suggests that their first-hand experience talking with Occupiers in diverse locations such as New York, Washington, Chicago and elsewhere gives them hope that room for dialog can be found. This is especially true on issues such as crony capitalism and the bailouts.
The Occupiers’ faith in capitalism has been shaken by a fear that the upcoming generation will not do as well as previous ones, according to panelist Ben Domenech, co-founder of Red State.
“The response needs to address the essential needs of this movement,” Domenech said. “They have a conscious understanding of the limits of the free-market economy.”
The conservative response needs to validate areas of conservative/Occupier agreement while creating an emotionally valid argument for economic freedom, the rule of law and the pursuit of happiness while teaching them why entitlements harm the people they intend to help, according to Domenech.
The Occupy movement is difficult to pin down in terms of any particular ideology, and unlike other movements emanating from the groups aligned with the Democratic Party it opposes both the GOP and the Democrats.
“A few things need to be kept in mind. The Occupy movement is not a monolith. It encompasses a lot of political goals and views,” said panelist Lachlan Markay, and investigative reporter with The Heritage Foundation and a Red Alert Politics contributor. “There is not really an established platform.”
The goals of the movement are “amorphous” because it is leaderless.
“It is an outgrowth of the protests of the WTO other summits over the past 10 years,” Markay said.
But it shares a lot of characteristics with the generational aspirations of the Millenials, says AEI expert Eric Teetsel.
He describes them as “well-meaning,” “ignorant” and “non-political” because they are disillusioned with the American system.
The movement has two main factions: idealistic communitarians who want a better world and hardened professional leftist and anarchist political operatives such as those in the Ruckus Society whose sole purpose is to stir up trouble.
“You need to read “Rules for Radicals” to get inside their mindsets,” said Ann Sorock, president of Frontier Lab .
Saul Alinsky advocated using drama and adventure to get people motivated, and Sorock, an experienced market researcher, said Occupy has made good use of those traits.
“[Alinsky says] the revolution must manifest itself in the corporate sector, and you definitely see that in the Occupy movement,” Sorock said. “He says you need something to live or die for. The Occupy movement is about power.”
But Sorock expresses skepticism about being able to connect with the Occupiers because they have been indoctrinated by the public-school system to reject the idea of American exceptionalism.
“We need to convey the free market from an emotional standpoint and tell stories rather than rattling off statistics,”Markay said. “We need to change the Zeitgeist to show them how good the market is as a force for prosperity.”
Occupiers Red Alert Politics spoke with after the Heritage event agreed with many of the points raised by the panelists and suggested they would be open to a dialog and to finding common ground.
