Gingrich on Occupy Wall Street: "Go Get a Job Right After You Take a Bath"

Speaking at the Iowa family forum on Saturday evening, surging Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich had some harsh words for the Occupy Wall Street movement. Despite a recent drop in Americans' support for the widespread movement, it is still viewed positively by one in three U.S. citizens. Gingrich, who was paid between $1.6 million and $1.8 million in consulting fees by Freddie Mac, the failed government-sponsored mortgage company, is not one of them. He said that the movement "starts with the premise that we all owe them everything." He added that Occupy Wall Street is a "symptom how much the left has collapsed as a moral system in this country, and why you need to reassert something as simple as saying, 'Go get a job right after you take a bath.'" The video can be viewed at weeklystandard.com Gingrich's statements were clearly designed to play into the right's narrative of the Occupy movement as being indicative of a liberal agenda of "class warfare," "socialism," and "extremism." His characterization is not only wrong, but his comments are both anti-American and very dangerous. First, the Occupy movement is clearly populist - something that no Establishment Republican could ever bring themselves to admit. In fact, it has considerable philosophical and ideological common ground with the Tea Party - but the media will never report this because it is much more advantageous to pigeonhole the movement within the the left/right paradigm, thereby dividing people along party lines and protecting the status quo. Did you know that only 27% of Occupiers identify as Democrats while 70% call themselves independents? This fact immediately reveals the "spin" that the ethically compromised Gringrich uses to paint the Occupy movement in a negative and partisan light. If that was his only sin, perhaps it would be forgivable. Unfortunately, when you parse what the former Speaker of the House said, it can only be interpreted as viciously anti-American and designed to protect a corrupt financial and political system. First, Gingrich asserts that Occupy Wall Street "starts with the premise that we all owe them everything." Wrong. The movement began as a protest against corporate money corrupting the political process. Why does Gingrich have to resort to smear tactics while playing on ignorant voters' fears of "socialism?" Could it be because he wants to defend the Establishment's (both Democrat and Republicans) obvious fascist policies by distorting the ideology of those that recognize and oppose these policies? While there may be a strain of protesters who would support the institution of "socialist" or "Marxist" policies in the United States, this is a very small minority. Rather, the movement is bound together by people who recognize the rise of fascism in the United States, defined by corporatism, militarism, and a domestic Police State designed to quell internal dissent. Gingrich's intentional mis-characterization of the Occupy movement, combined with his status as the ultimate corrupt Washington insider, reveals that he is not a defender of the people, but rather a shill for the Establishment status quo which has overseen the deterioration of the country. Furthermore, his statement that protesters should "Go get a job right after you take a bath," is nearly unforgivable. Here is what he is really saying: "How dare you point out the political corruption, crony capitalism, and degradation of civil liberties that is running the country our forefathers liberated from tyranny into the ground; Put your blinders back on and shut up so we can continue to loot America of its prosperity for the benefit of a very few!" Frankly, this view is borderline treasonous. Is Mr. Gingrich even aware of the unemployment rate in this country and the structural devastation that has occurred in the wake of the Wall Street-driven 2008 financial meltdown? Or, is he kidding? Given that nearly all of the GOP Presidential candidates have denounced the populist Occupy movement except for Ron Paul, and have resorted to spin, falsehoods, and propaganda in doing so, one has to wonder why they can't debate the legitimacy of Occupy Wall Street based on the actual issues. For example: Why haven't any bankers been charged for crimes related to the mortgage collapse? Why were corporations and banks bailed out at the sole expense of the American people? Why were bankers allowed to pay out bonuses with bailout funds? Why did the Federal Reserve lend trillions of dollars to foreign banks during the crisis? What forces have created the widest income disparity in the developed world? Are these not legitimate questions? Or are these questions which the Wall Street and military industrial complex-backed Establishment don't want to be confronted with, much less answer? It is time for the American people to wake up to the propaganda campaign that is being waged by our current political class of crooks, cronies, and charlatans and their banker and war-profiteering buddies.