{"id":40802236074,"date":"2011-10-24T14:10:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-24T18:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/2011\/10\/24\/who-is-ows-and-why-should-we-care\/"},"modified":"2021-01-25T11:22:06","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T16:22:06","slug":"who-is-ows-and-why-should-we-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/2011\/10\/24\/who-is-ows-and-why-should-we-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is OWS and why should we care?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at PolitickerNJ<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Does the Occupy Wall Street movement represent anything other than the protesters who have taken to the streets in New York and elsewhere?\u00a0 Public opinion data indicates that they are tapping into widespread frustration with the political system, even if they don\u2019t reflect the political ideology of most Americans.\u00a0 And that makes this a movement worth watching.<\/p>\n

So what drives those who are actively taking part?\u00a0 One pollster, Democratic consultant Doug Schoen, actually waded into the throngs occupying lower Manhattan\u2019s Zuccotti Park and interviewed nearly 200 protesters.\u00a0 While his methods didn\u2019t necessarily adhere to the most rigorous polling practices, the results are suggestive.<\/p>\n

Half of those interviewed are under the age of 30, but 1 in 7 are age 50 or older and most are employed.\u00a0 In other words, this does not appear to be a \u201cstudent\u201d movement., although about half said this is the first time they got involved in any political activity.<\/p>\n

Politically, 1-in-3 protesters identified with the Democratic party.\u00a0 The remainder said they were independent or left of center.\u00a0 However, this does not translate to unstinting support for the incumbent president.\u00a0 More of the protesters interviewed actually disapprove than approve of the job Barack Obama is doing.<\/p>\n

They were also divided on whether TARP was necessary to help the economy.\u00a0 They largely agreed, though, that the wealthiest Americans need to pay \u201cmore of their fair share.\u201d \u00a0And a good number say they want to exercise the same kind of influence in the Democratic Party they feel the Tea Party has in the Republican Party.<\/p>\n

The second question is whether these protesters speak for a larger segment of the population.\u00a0 The answer to that is both yes and no. \u00a0A recent poll by the Associated Press found that 37% of Americans say they support the Occupy Wall Street movement.\u00a0 By comparison, 28% say they support the Tea Party.<\/p>\n

Although public support specifically for either movement is in the minority, it does appear that these groups have tapped into mounting public frustration with government.\u00a0 Nearly 6-in-10 (58%) Americans say they are \u201cangry\u201d at the current state of U.S. politics.\u00a0 That\u2019s up from 49% at the beginning of the year.\u00a0 Conversely, less than half (47%) of the public is \u201chopeful\u201d about our political system, which is down sharply from 60%.<\/p>\n

A recent Monmouth University poll<\/a> asked New Jersey residents how different groups have benefited from current Washington policies.\u00a0 At the bottom of the list was the middle class \u2013 only 1-in-10 felt this group has benefited a lot \u2013 even worse than either the poor or the wealthy.\u00a0 At the top of the list was Wall Street, with half saying this group has benefited from government policies.<\/p>\n

A recent study by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini found that the wealth of \u201cultra-high net worth individuals\u201d grew by 11.5% in 2010.\u00a0 On the other hand, the U.S. Census reports that “real” median household income is 6.4% below where it was just before the recession.\u00a0 Another study indicates that incomes have fallen more since the economy officially began to recover in June 2009 than they did during the recession itself.<\/p>\n

While most people aren\u2019t aware of these statistics, the public feels there is a widening disparity fueled in part by government action or the lack thereof.\u00a0 Polling indicates a growing frustration among the general public that politicians from both parties ignore at their own peril.\u00a0Both the Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party movements are manifestations of this unsettled mood.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at PolitickerNJ Does the Occupy Wall Street movement represent anything other than the protesters who have taken to the streets in New York and elsewhere?\u00a0 Public opinion data indicates that they are tapping into widespread frustration with the political system, even if they don\u2019t reflect the political ideology of most Americans.\u00a0 And that makes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":939,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40802236074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802236074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/939"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40802236074"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802236074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40802237205,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802236074\/revisions\/40802237205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40802236074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40802236074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40802236074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}