When I had gone down to the Occupy Manchester rally back in October, I ended up in a "discussion" with Mark Provost, an Occupier. He boasted at the time that the Occupy Wall Street movement was twice as popular as the TEA Party was. Well, that poll was from Time and just looking at the questions, one knew it was rigged (at the link, above).
Er, not so much any more. From Public Policy Polling ("PPP", a Democrat leaning polling company), we get the updated info now that OWS has been been out front for the last two months – it no longer is an unknown entity:
The Occupy Wall Street movement is not wearing well with voters across the country. Only 33% now say that they are supportive of its goals, compared to 45% who say they oppose them. That represents an 11 point shift in the wrong direction for the movement’s support compared to a month ago when 35% of voters said they supported it and 36% were opposed. Most notably independents have gone from supporting Occupy Wall Street’s goals 39/34, to opposing them 34/42.
Voters don’t care for the Tea Party either, with 42% saying they support its goals to 45% opposed. But asked whether they have a higher opinion of the Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street movement the Tea Party wins out 43-37, representing a flip from last month when Occupy Wall Street won out 40-37 on that question. Again the movement with independents is notable- from preferring Occupy Wall Street 43-34, to siding with the Tea Party 44-40.
As the large flagship OWS sites are getting shut down (by mostly Democrat Mayors and city councils [or equivalents]!). Certainly, the upfront bump was from the message of hate towards "the 1%" – few nowadays wish to admit that they themselves may be the root cause of their current status in life. However, as time wore on, ordinary folks of the real 99% saw what the OWS "Obamavilles" were turning into with the filth, disease, sanitation problems, drug use, et al.
Am not clear that the underlying, and more radical, OWS message has not exactly been embraced by those that they seem to think they represent.
