Can the ballot box be Occupied?

Democrats hope the burgeoning anti-bank protest movement's anger will help the Left in 2012 — though it could wind up hurting liberals more

Edward Morrissey

In some ways, the Occupy movement resembles the Tea Party. Both have harnessed anger over the crony capitalism that pervades Washington and Wall Street, where lobbyists buy influence with politicians and cut deals that favor themselves and hobble their competition. Both protest movements object to the big bailouts engineered by a Democratic Congress and the Bush administration, and then continued under the Obama administration for banks and American automakers. And both movements are at their heart iconoclastic, trying to replace the Establishment with something more responsive to the will of the people.

Democrats ignored and often belittled the Tea Party in 2009 and 2010, and paid a steep price for it in the midterm elections. Could Republicans underestimate the Occupy movement and face the same fate in 2012?

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Edward Morrissey

Edward Morrissey has been writing about politics since 2003 in his blog, Captain's Quarters, and now writes for HotAir.com. His columns have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Post, The New York Sun, the Washington Times, and other newspapers. Morrissey has a daily Internet talk show on politics and culture at Hot Air. Since 2004, Morrissey has had a weekend talk radio show in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and often fills in as a guest on Salem Radio Network's nationally-syndicated shows. He lives in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota with his wife, son and daughter-in-law, and his two granddaughters. Morrissey's new book, GOING RED, will be published by Crown Forum on April 5, 2016.