October 6-9, 2011: ORC International Caravan Poll – Interviews with 1,005 adult Americans

An ongoing complaint of the mainstream media is that the Wall Street protestors and their kin in various cities throughout America lack a coherent agenda.  The right wing media has gone further and labeled the dissidents  “weirdoes” and “the usual assortment of tree-huggers and anti-American zealots” as well as emphasizing the lack of definable and agreed upon goals.  Of course it’s too early for these courageous and highly divergent group of concerned and patriotic citizens to articulate specific principles they can all agree upon.   But despite (maybe because of) the negative response from the far right, recent polls show there is wide support for the movement across the country.  Of those who have heard of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, 42% agree with the group’s positions, while only 27% disagree. An MSNBC poll, admittedly skewered because of that network’s liberal viewership, found that 89% of its respondents approved of the protest.

As the GOP “greed is good” presidential campaign continues its oblivious assertions that the Bush tax cuts should remain in place and that the wealthy are really the only “job creators” in the country, it becomes more and more difficult for many people to defend the colossal inequalities that become increasingly obvious with each passing day.  As