Butte, Montana, native Barbara Ehrenreich: Dem establishment has abandoned OWS

Barbara Ehrenreich, 2008 photo by Jay Westcott/Rapport

Barbara Ehrenreich knows something about America’s working people. She grew up in the hard-knock western mining town of Butte (Wyomingites know something about tough mining towns). Her best-known book is “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.” She’s a life-long Democrat and an advocate for the “get out and vote” school of social change.

After watching the Democratic Party’s weak-kneed, lily-livered support for the Occupy movement, she may be changing her tune. I’ve been thinking along these same lines. Why should I support Pres. Obama when he turns a blind eye to those of us taking risks to advocate for real “change.” Why should America’s young people work for Obama’s reelection when he seems to be complicit in the overreaction to peaceful street protests, some of them visible from the White House? Why should I turn out to vote for any of those Democratic mayors and governors (I’m looking at you, John Hickenlooper of Colorado) who have used heavy-handed tactics against Occupiers?

Go to: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/15/barbara-ehrenreich-occupy-wall-street

Also read Ehrenreich’s essay about OWS in Oct. 12 issue of The Progressive: http://www.progressive.org/one_percent_barbara_ehrenreich.html