LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Wall Street rioters: Obama’s new allies

OPINION:

Any observer of the “Occupy Wall Street” gatherings in various cities is hard-pressed not to reach unflattering conclusions about the participants.

Woven within a street circus atmosphere are the usual malcontents who populate all such occasions, plus an embarrassing cohort of others demonstrably ill-equipped to handle the challenge of life’s journey from childhood into adulthood or to understand the connection between effort and success in life.

Rep. John Lewis, Georgia Democrat, got a taste of this last week. He is captured on YouTube looking wholly perplexed before one such Atlanta gathering. Mr. Lewis’ face, as he is led away by an aide, betrays his own conclusions regarding these would-be political allies.

All the more troubling, then, that President Obama has attempted to bond “spiritually” with the demonstrators. Economic troubles often do inspire crude, class-warfare demagoguery but the president also apparently feels a compelling need for new allies as his party flees the shambles of his failed economic policies and the next round of electoral drubbings he’s leading Democrats toward. Hope and change have, alas, long since transformed themselves into concepts Democrats have true cause to fear.

In 2008, we elected a president with scant experience with capitalism and a regrettable propensity to join in despising it. Economic realities in America and Europe are, meanwhile, dealing that puerile conceit the death blow it deserves.

RON GOODDEN

Atlanta