The campaign against Issue 2 has subsided, yet the Occupy protesters remain. Their fortitude is commendable, and we no longer doubt that their intentions are genuine.
But the public seems to be fed up with the national distraction that has garnered more disapproval than political change.
The public could care less about the movement, even though two out of three Americans feel that wealth should be more evenly distributed, according to a poll conducted last month by CBS and The New York Times.
So the anger of the 99 percent is echoed throughout the nation, and perhaps it’s justified, but the Occupy movement has failed to galvanize that support.
According to a recent Quinnipiac poll, Americans oppose the movement by a 39 to 30 percent margin. Popular consensus has swayed as opinions registered by a CNN poll last month reflected a favorable view of the movement by a tight margin of 32 to 29 percent. In that same poll, however, about one in four people admitted to having never even heard about Occupy Wall Street.
Likewise, a November NBC News and Wall Street Journal poll shows that nearly half of America has no definitive opinion about the movement whatsoever.
We’ve criticized the local occupation, calling it unfocused and lacking cohesion, and recent polls suggest that our assumptions are true.
While the Occupy Youngstown tent did not impede the sidewalk or obstruct pedestrians, it symbolized a movement that more people fear than support.
The tent sat on the same concrete square that housed a weekly farmers market. It wasn’t taken down because of an ordinance.
Across the country, police forces are cracking down on the protests. In Youngstown, police and government officials are nipping the movement in the bud before it blossoms into anything that even resembles an encampment or, worse yet, a full-on Oakland riot.
