Tweet
The overall level of popular support for the Occupy Wall Street movement has remained basically unchanged since last month according to Gallup.
What I find most interesting about the poll is that the “neither” number has remained so high even after a month of significant media coverage. It is a reminder that even though the occupy movement seems to be very prominent in the news, and right wing media have been bashing it for weeks, there is a large part of the populace that does pay much attention to political news.
Even though the movement is now two months old, there is still significant potential over time to shape public opinion about the movement and its goals. Popular narratives are not created overnight; changing broad public opinion on political matters is often a slow process.
One worrying sign for the movement in the poll is that approval for how the protest is actually being conducted has dropped from 25 percent to 20 percent while disapproval went up from 20 percent to 31 percent. In part this is to be expected given how strongly right wing pundits and some in the mainstream media have worked to paint the movement in a bad light, but it is still something protesters should be mindful of. Actions should advance the message not distract from it.
28 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About FDL Action
Approval has dropped because the US public knows the problem and wants OWS to suggest solutions – leaderless and no agenda makes for fast growth but that has stalled, and while it also avoids media attacks the media needs spokepersons for news and opinion shows – without those in the media discussing what the spokespersons have said, OWS does not grow support.
It could be as fuzzy as OWS wants – say a list of “possible ideas not supported by all but suggested by a few” – but that list – and those spokepersons are needed.
Denver OWS electing a dog as their leader is cute and makes a statement – but does not change much in the system.
I am curious what the discrepancy is between this poll and the recent Public Policy Polling which showed Occupy being held in a more negative light
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2011/11/occupy-wall-street-favor-fading.html
I know some people who seem to purposely avoid all news. They know the economy is crap and both parties are corrupt, they have no interest in hearing what the parties are not doing to help or how bad things are. With 8473084709874 million cable channels now and the Internet, news is not exactly hard to avoid.
Movements take time. We’re just over 2 months into this and I can’t recall having a protest movement this large and constant in my lifetime. This surpasses the once a year anti-war marches, or the summit-hopping global justice movement protests. Even if OWS dies off, there’s still a bunch more to remain active. They may change a lot over the next few months. We’ll have to see and stay involved if possible.
Fascinating that we’ve been watching police beating and pepper spraying peaceful protesters and #occupy’s approval has gone down.
I don’t find the drop in approval surprising at all. I doubt that most people even know what this is about but it also is coming up on the holiday season. Heaven forbid that people have to think about something unpleasant like lack of jobs, homeless people and foreclosures. Can’t we all just all get along? s/
The media is responsible for the message that is being propagated. Speaking with a Democrat friend today regarding the OWS movement in general, and the protests in particular, his take on it?
Fuck ‘em.
This is a guy who is an it-getter, and he has a terrible impression of OWS, and very little understanding of what the movement is truly about. He says, “they should go get jobs and shut the fuck up”.
It’s an uphill struggle when even those who should be philosophically and politically aligned have no sympathy.
The messaging is the toughest part to get out, ‘cuz the MSM want no part of making it seem like civil disobedience by OWS has a foundation in rational thought.
Support is probably going to drop further if Occupy doesn’t come out with something more than what they have so far. Everyone agrees there are inequities. Support will go to those who do more than just point that out. Two months of protest of inequities is fine, but now it is time for proposed solutions.
If nothing else, at least Gallup’s figures are off by the exact same percentage in each month: last month the total was 101 percent, this month 99 percent. Go figure.
When you refuse to define yourself others will always be more than happy to do it for you. Occupy has been too nondescript for it’s own good.
If Occupy wants to capture a meaningful chunk of that 51% undecided, they need to ensure to the fence-sitters that they have no broader agenda besides hurting the wrong-doers and eliminating corporate welfare in furtherance of the well being of middle-of-the-road Americans.
Any deviation from that message, such as ambiguous “widespread change” will alienate the fence-sitters who merely want to go back to the utopia of the 90s before the repeal of Glass-Steagall.
How Gallup works: A few years ago Gallup called me, the interviewer asked me many questions in three separate sections: my political preferences and responses to questions about politics and the economy; my social and personal ‘life style’ (like, do I eat out or at home, spend money on events & such, go to movies, watch TV, drive a late-model car, etc.); and last, about my education and degrees, employment history, and financial status, and of course my age.
The interview/survey lasted some 45 minutes during which I was able to ask counter questions for clarification, and also provoke debate from the interviewer.
My conclusion: Gallup gathers data and later uses its database to cherry-pick. I have not been called back since.
This is complete baloney. The movement needs to continue pushing to educate about exactly how messed up our system is and demonstrate this via actions which provoke unjustified and insane reactions by the state. We absolutely need widespread change if we’re going to stand a chance at passing a livable world and free society down to future generations.
I have quite a few trad-Dem friends who say the same as your friend. Mainly due to propganda media “successfully” saying all Occupiers are lazy dirty smelly wastrals who simply don’t feel like working & just smoke pot & poop & have sex in public. Plus they are all not paying taxes so “not contributing.”. And it is the protestors who are “causing violence” resulting in hard working tax payers footing the bill for all the PD who are “just doing their jobs”
The propaganda is powerful & persuasive. It’s not just Fox that lies & distorts the images & footage that is published & broadcast. Trad-Dems anymore are mostly very conservative anymore as is the goal. Just not batshit nutty like the rightwing has become. The goalposts have been pushed very far right.
Occupy movement is very new. It will help to figure out a way to get a better more cohesive message out. But Civil Rts & Viet Nam protests faced similar opposition & push back.
I was unaware that “Let’s all take care of each other” was an insufficient demand.
At any rate, since the current governments aren’t doing a great job of it, and winter’s coming on, there’s not much choice, I guess. What are they going to do — toss all the homeless people in warm jails and give them food and medicine for punishment? :-)
Well, you don’t see any Democratic leaders (are there any Democratic leaders?) supporting the movement. Democrats are taking their traditional position – supine cowardice (do you think they could be pepper sprayed out of that position – nothing else has worked?).
The challenge for the movement is to find a vehicle to carry the message. That’s been a challenge for the left since the 60′s. The Democratic Party isn’t it.
FWIW, during the civil rights protests and through most of the anti-war period, the term ‘the media’ hadn’t replaced ‘the press’. During the 1950′s and early 1960′s TV news lasted 15 minutes, radio news maybe three minutes. If the ‘nation’ saw filmed events, it usually came at the movies in newsreels.
Not until the 1980′s did policy makers take TV reportage seriously; they previously tended to rely on a few newspapers and magazines as purveyors of public opinion. Since the 1980′s and the shift to TV, the recursive information loop (gov-fed, TV regurgitated) has had the same effect as lockdown.
I apologize for oversimplifying a hugely complex issue.
Its the question thats the problem. Thats why Neither is so high. A better question might be:
“Do you Agree with the message of Occupy Wall Street or Disagree with the message of Occupy Wall Street”?
Still needs work, but just might reflect a truer reading.
Also, Jon Walker’s headline hasn’t changed since he posted it.
Oh, and for those that state/ask:
Have you by any chance read
If not or need to read it again
http://www.sparrowmedia.net/declaration/
after the page Loads click on the Expand Button in the 2nd picture about 3 pages down. A Thing of beauty.
Remember its not a Democrat or Republican solution for they Both are the Problem.
Given the theme coming out of corporate media about OWS, I’m not surprised at the support reflected in the poll. Add to that, I heard an Obama mouthpiece, Earle Hutchinson say he wants it all to end now. So with hatred from the right, smear from the media, and dems indifference and wishing for it to end, the numbers really aren’t that bad.
The numbers aren’t bad at all At least one-quarter of the nation are solid supporters. That’s equal to a major political party.
That is 16 pages that is a nice riff on our Declaration of Independence – but again – there are no proposed solutions, or path to a solution.
That means there is nothing for the media to discuss – or for a spokesperson to discuss lest they be dismissed as a “whiner” – no matter how valid each “whine” is. The “money out of politics” push on the Dylan Ratigan Show has more to sink your teeth into – and actually there is not all that much there except 250,000 folks signing an internet petition to take money out of politics via a Constitutional Amendment.
Is a Constitutional Amendment the idea? – Or is there a law or two that might be of interest, or perhaps the enforcement of some set of regulations or current laws. After services Church coffee has folks discussing these same problems – but not much is changing post all those coffee hours.
OWS has made the next move – a massive big move – and taken to the streets, where all change comes from. But after 2 months of making folks aware of the problem, we have Newt entering the vacuum formed by no leaders/no spokesperson/no stated changes demanded and saying the the OWS folks have no goal except to live off of strangers in public parks and that they should take a shower and get a job (an outrageous comment that the media is ignoring in favor of noting he is ahead of Mitt in the polls).
Exactly!
What is with all this insistence that we need solid majorities anyways? Solid majority action through democratic electoral process is a fantastic idea but totally unattainable at this juncture. Power is not wielded democratically in this country, just ask the 1%. I thought that was one of the central messages of OWS? The second important fallacy being discussed in this thread is the idea that OWS just needs “better messaging.” The message is crystal clear to everyone not benefiting in some way from the current system, or fearful of their tenuous position within it.
1/4 of the population is real power! And as suggested above, we don’t really need better polling, we know that a large majority of Americans actually do support and desire a more equitable and democratic distribution of political and economic resources. OWS isn’t everything nor should it be. To hell with the corporate media and trying to win a messaging battle on their turf. Organize your family, your neighborhood, your workplace and build bridges across other communities in need. As I’ve been told numerous times, this is a global movement but the real progress will be achieved locally.
Elections won’t matter much. Neither will a better message. The technocrats will only legislate for the 99% when they are forced.
True there is no proposed solutions, or path to a solution. (How can there be with Both Parties Ruled by Money and the person in the White House, a complete sell out to the 1% and the military complex, in a just world he would be serving time in prison).
At this Point in time, No one can come up with a solution, No One! So thats why Everyone needs to be in the Streets. And Dam, this is a good start. If this for some reason fails, then we are all Doomed.
We just Know that the current Political System is Broke and the Problems are listed. Everyone should remember that OWS started Sept 17, so just over 3 months old. But boy did they create a inclusive democrat society in that short period of time and if it wasn’t for Bloomberg and HomeLand Security and their storm troopers, who knows what else would have happened.
Its just flat out wrong to say that OWS doesn’t know why they are protesting. It is the MSM who do not want to see what they want, and think, like usual they can mislead their viewers. This time I think they are wrong.
Just read this post, think it covers what I was trying to say.
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2011/11/21/the-occupy-movement-bewilders-those-in-media-power/#comments
Exactly. One would think that the number of actions held by Occupy groups to stop foreclosures (including one where an Atlanta policewoman’s house was saved) might be a, y’know, slight hint of what they’re all about.
I suspect that the requests for “clarification” are actually requests that the Occupiers align themselves with a political party, which would mean the swift end of the movement. So long as they’re not part of anyone’s Veal Pen, they a) are seen as more trustworthy and honest than those groups that must chop up their messages into incoherence to fit the Procrustean bed of whichever party they’ve shacked up with, and b) have a lot more power to influence the narrative, and thus influence events.
I don’t need “clarification”. The inequities Occupy points out are clear enough. It’s how to fix them that needs to be addressed, in a meaningful and reasonable way, that will garner enough support from more than just progressive liberals, to actually effect changes. There are 3rd parties and other movements out there that are close to Occupy goals but with proposals and platforms to fix some of the inequities. The Occupy movement has generated public awareness but I think it might lose it’s momentum if it doesn’t start to show a way forward. If they’re not going to do that they probably should align with a 3rd party or movement that already has some support. It’s going to take a lot of numbers to overpower the Dems and Repubs, but that’s what it will take to make real changes. Protesting with no solutions isn’t going to get it done.