By: Paul S. Marchand
It was a good night last night to be a Ninety-nine Percenter.
It was good to see mainstream Mainers restore a 38-year practice of election-day voter registration, rebuking the GOP’s consistent efforts to narrow the franchise.
It was good to see voters reject Mississippi’s misogynistic so-called personhood amendment that would have turned women into chattels of the state.
It was good to see the people of Ohio rise in support of public sector workers and their right to collectively bargain, reaffirming what ought to be an unquestionable American truth that our teachers, firefighters, and cops are our neighbors, not our enemies.
After the beating we Ninety-nine Percenters have taken in the last year at the hands of an out-of-control right wing, it was good to see us find our voice and reclaim our power at the polls.
But, as Winston Churchill said after the second battle of El Alamein, "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
The analogy to El Alamein is a compelling one. In late October and early November, 1942, Axis forces under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel stood just 50 miles from Alexandria. If they could break through, the way to the Nile, to Cairo, and beyond that, the Suez Canal, lay open. The only thing standing in their way was the British 8th Army, under Lt.Gen. Bernard Montgomery.
We may be grateful that Montgomery and the 8th Army were victorious at Alamein; the history of our world might have been a much darker one had the battle gone the other way. Together with Stalingrad and Midway, El Alamein ranks as one of the most consequential battles of modern times. As Churchill noted after the war: "before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein, we never had a defeat."
For the last many years, it has seemed as if we Ninety-Nine percenters had never had a victory. Again and again, we had seen the playing field tilted against us; banks were bailed out at our expense, only to punish us for having rescued them with the pittances of our pockets. Reward was privatized while risk was socialized.
We of the 99 percent were blamed for our improvidence in wanting to hold onto the American Dream, while the wizards of Wall Street were routinely rewarded for mediocre performance with end-of-year bonuses that exceeded by orders of magnitude the total lifetime earnings of most of their employees.
When the “too big to fail” haves and have-mores defaulted on their obligations, it was everybody’s problem; when an average middle class family came up against hard times and needed help with the mortgage, it was that family’s “moral hazard.”
It was a good night last night to be a Ninety-nine Percenter.
It was good to see mainstream Mainers restore a 38-year practice of election-day voter registration, rebuking the GOP’s consistent efforts to narrow the franchise.
It was good to see voters reject Mississippi’s misogynistic so-called personhood amendment that would have turned women into chattels of the state.
It was good to see the people of Ohio rise in support of public sector workers and their right to collectively bargain, reaffirming what ought to be an unquestionable American truth that our teachers, firefighters, and cops are our neighbors, not our enemies.
After the beating we Ninety-nine Percenters have taken in the last year at the hands of an out-of-control right wing, it was good to see us find our voice and reclaim our power at the polls.
But, as Winston Churchill said after the second battle of El Alamein, "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
The analogy to El Alamein is a compelling one. In late October and early November, 1942, Axis forces under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel stood just 50 miles from Alexandria. If they could break through, the way to the Nile, to Cairo, and beyond that, the Suez Canal, lay open. The only thing standing in their way was the British 8th Army, under Lt.Gen. Bernard Montgomery.
We may be grateful that Montgomery and the 8th Army were victorious at Alamein; the history of our world might have been a much darker one had the battle gone the other way. Together with Stalingrad and Midway, El Alamein ranks as one of the most consequential battles of modern times. As Churchill noted after the war: "before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein, we never had a defeat."
For the last many years, it has seemed as if we Ninety-Nine percenters had never had a victory. Again and again, we had seen the playing field tilted against us; banks were bailed out at our expense, only to punish us for having rescued them with the pittances of our pockets. Reward was privatized while risk was socialized.
We of the 99 percent were blamed for our improvidence in wanting to hold onto the American Dream, while the wizards of Wall Street were routinely rewarded for mediocre performance with end-of-year bonuses that exceeded by orders of magnitude the total lifetime earnings of most of their employees.
When the “too big to fail” haves and have-mores defaulted on their obligations, it was everybody’s problem; when an average middle class family came up against hard times and needed help with the mortgage, it was that family’s “moral hazard.”
For us in the 99 percent, the hits just seemed to keep on coming. We were routinely blamed for the shortcomings of others; for Wall Street, an economic downturn was a “correction;” the challenge for Wall Street was to ensure that the burdens of such a “correction” were borne by anybody but those whose incompetence and peculation had caused the “correction” in the first place.
For us, an economic downturn was more than a “correction;” it was a nightmare of deferred dreams, foreclosure fears, credit crunches, and the always uncertain footing that is the ineluctable concomitant of a playing field that was tilted ever more against us with each passing year. Under such circumstances, was it surprising that so many middle and working class Americans should have been close to despair?
Perhaps that is why last night’s victories, in Maine, in Mississippi, and most importantly in Ohio, feel so good. If nothing else, they have send a message that we can fight back, that we can say “no” to the ongoing effort of the One Percenters and their right-wing allies to grab all the goodies while leaving us to pay for their profligacy. Against a right-wing mantra of “no, you can’t,” we of the 99 Percent have once again dared say “yes, we can!”
For last night demonstrated that as much as we of the 99 Percent can Occupy Wall Street, we can also occupy our polling places, that we do have the ability to hold out, that we need no longer passively tolerate our spoliation.
The muted rumble of approaching events we began to hear with the Wisconsin recalls is growing louder, and its message is clear: the once-silent, once-close-to-despair 99 Percent has found its voice. More importantly, we have found new hope. Last night was our Alamein.
This is our country; we will occupy it.
These are our cities, towns, and villages; we will occupy them.
And we will use the power of our numbers and our vote to preserve, protect, and defend what is ours.
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PAUL S. MARCHAND is an attorney who lives and works in Cathedral City, CA, a working city full of 99 Percenters, including himself, even if not everybody in Cathedral City realizes it. The views expressed herein are his own. All rights reserved.
