Occupy Wall Street: Herman Cain Tells Protesters 'Stop Blaming Banks and Get a Job'
GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain believes the Occupy Wall Street protesters are part of a vast, left-wing conspiracy to distract the American public from President Obama’s failed polices – and they also need to stop whining and just get a job.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza said, “I don’t have facts to back this up, but I happen to believe that these demonstrations are planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration.”
A staunch supporter of the Tea Party, Cain mocked the OWS complaints about bank bailouts and a lack of jobs. “Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks – if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself!” Cain said.
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Appearing on Glenn Beck’s radio show, Cain elaborated on his position when asked about the OWS protesters.
“They want to blame Wall Street for the fact that 14 million people are still out of work,” Cain said. “They want to blame the fat cats for the fact that the economy is not growing when it is all the responsibility of failed policies of Obama and his administration. That’s all that is.”
Despite Cain's insistence that the protesters are a distraction designed to take blame of the president, many protesters see Obama as part of the problem, according to RT.com.“We have corporate presidencies. We were told Obama was for change, and we got four more years of Bush again. Before that – his father, the Bush dynasty,” activist Phil Budenick said.
“Corporate greed goes all the way up to the president and this is where the artery, the main pulse of it starts – on Wall Street," he added.
Unemployment is also higher than Cain's "blame yourself if you can't get a job" attitude suggests. According to Think Progress, there are approximately four unemployed people for every job available.
Cain also took umbrage over blaming big banks for the current financial situation. When asked if he disagreed with many OWS protesters’ claims that America’s biggest banks contributed to the financial meltdown in 2008, Cain told WJS that the protesters should learn how to move on.
“[The banks] did have something to do with the crisis we got into in 2008,” Cain said. “But we’re not in 2008. We’re in 2011, OK?”
At the heart of it all, Cain said he believed that the protesters are really about a petty, “anti-capitalist” message that is born out of bitterness.
“When I was growing up, I was blessed to have parents that didn’t teach me to be jealous of anybody and didn’t teach me to be envious of somebody,” Cain said.
He added: “It is not a person’s fault because they succeeded. It’s a person’s fault if they failed.”
On Sept. 17, the first day of the OWS protest, The Christian Post spoke to protesters regarding their motivations. One man, Sydney Hawkes, 53, said he had never been very political during his life, but that the poor economy had changed that.
“I haven’t been able to find a job for over a year and a half,” the computer professional said. “And it just saddens me that we live in a country that has enough for everyone, but not everyone has it – so we have to come here and do this.”
However, one “protester” would have agreed with Cain. Put off by the wide array of messages and demands, a counter-protester came to Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park to mock the protesters by holding up a sign that read: “Capitalism failed everyone – except my parents who gave me money so I could be upset.”
“These people are here for an assortment of reasons,” the masked man, who would not give his name, said. “And none of them are coherent. They don’t know what they’re doing.”
However, Gloria Earls, from Connecticut, told The Christian Post Wednesday that it is not simply about specific demands or more jobs for the unemployed.
“We just want our resources used correctly,” she said. “Not more of the same.”
