Magnificent.
Indeed
Mike
I applaud Peter Schiff for going out in the street and directly engaging people like that. And he certainly makes some good points. Nevertheless I admit to some mixed feelings about the overall effectiveness of his presentation. To those and other Occupy protesters, and people on the left who watch this video, I fear he is likely to come across as just a "greedy capitalist" who doesn't care about ordinary folks.
It looked like this was a made-for-TV exchange. Probably the TV news crew wanted him to wear a suit because the contrast made for good television, but I think he would've done better to dress casual. It would have been great also if he'd explained that he wants a society where poor people are better off, given examples of how big government is hurting them and he opposes that, etc. Of course there may have been more to the exchange than the short snippet shown in that video.
By the way, I encourage just referring to these protests as "Occupy", not "Occupy Wall Street". I think the movement is still in a fairly fluid stage, and the shorter moniker kind of encourages a focus that's more broadly anti-establishment including anti-government, and not just singling out the financial industry.
In a practical sense, the Occupy camps in various cities are being harassed, attacked, and shut down not by Wall Street, but by police officers whose bosses are local politicians, mostly Democrats. Those politicians rightly perceive Occupy as a threat to their ability to control who does what, when, where, and how in public spaces, and as they are attacked, I think many protesters will increasingly identify those politicians as their oppressors. I believe we should support and encourage Occupy in their efforts to stand up to this attempt to stand up for their (and our) First Amendment rights to demonstrate by occupying prominent public spaces around the clock, and treat this as the primary and most important focus of the movement.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))