Standing Up To The Blockheads

For over a month and a half now, as the Occupy movement has grown from a small group of people protesting near Wall Street to protests across the country and around the globe, there's been a certain segment of the population that has looked down on the protesters and derisively asked , "What do those people think they're doing?" Many in the media have already answered that question, more than once - including us - yet the anti-Occupiers continue to insist that the Occupy movement produce some kind of definable change as proof that the movement is more than the disgusting caricature painted by those who enjoy the status quo.

With great pride, Occupiers, and those that stand with them, now have some tangible proof that our union around the subject of inequality can indeed make a difference.

Late Monday, more than a month after Bank of America announced plans to charge customers new fees - for the customers to use their own money - Bank of America backed down, along with virtually every other major bank. While some senior banking officials have denied on record that the Occupy movement directly influenced their decision, they've admitted that the movement has been at least partially responsible for the banks retreat.

It hasn't been just the marches and the protests at bank branches around the country that changed that minds of those responsible at the banks.

Efforts like Move Your Money, GetMoneyOut.com [which our webmaster has been part of], and New Bottom Line - an effort to help cities and local governments move their money away from the big banks - all have some responsibility for putting the banks and Wall Street on notice.

The unified efforts of these different and diverse groups of Americans seems to have given those politicians who support them, especially the President and those in the Democratic Party, a boost of courage to begin standing up to do what the American people have been clamoring for.

Democratic House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer and 182 other House Democrats, including both liberals and Blue Dogs, are demanding the removal of major government policy changes that John Boehner and the Republicans are trying to slip into smaller spending bills that must pass later this month.

Democrats in the U.S. Senate aren't sitting down anymore either. New Mexico Senator Tom Udall officially proposed a constitutional amendment on Tuesday to reverse two highly controversial Supreme Court decisions -  1976's Buckley v. Valeo, which said campaign money is a form of speech, and the nearly universally hated 2010 Citizens United decision, which has opened the floodgates to virtually unlimited campaign spending.

President Obama has also been emboldened, as he's pushed forward on his "We Can't Wait" initiatives to help homeowners with their mortgages, help returning veterans find jobs, help college graduates weighed down by debt, and help the ill and elderly get the medicines they need.

All this, and still most Republicans in D.C. refuse to do anything to help the American people that might also help the President or Democrats.

This willfully ignorant "head in a box" attitude has disgusted even fellow Republicans. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a prominent Republican in President Obama's Cabinet, openly admitted that his party no longer wants to do anything to help the American people - because they're myopically focused on their sole aim of beating President Obama.

We're not saying all these changes stem solely from the Occupy movement, because they don't - at least, not directly.

That said, no one can ignore that the wheels of progress seem to be turning slightly faster again, since people everywhere have been coming together, uniting with the Occupy movement and against the inequality that's been the focus of the movement.

To those people who still seem to have their head locked in a box, refusing to acknowledge the power of the people, our advice is simple:

Quit being a block head.