"I've worked my ass off since I was 15 years old. I have worked hard. I know what hard work is," O'Meara says, building up an obvious head of steam. "I also have another word that's in my vocabulary, called compassion, for people who bought into the American Dream...Those people have been summarily f--ed." Attacking OWS, O'Meara argues, is nothing more than "misguided hatred." "You're picking on the wrong people." Now, for those of us close to the movement, there's nothing really new in the substance of O'Meara's stirring defense. He broke no new ground, except that he actually chose to come out and say it.
O'Meara closed by suggesting his stand might not be terribly popular with his audience. "I'm going to get a lot of hate, and I stand by it because I don't give a rat's ass," he says. "Because I happen to believe that you should pick up your neighbor when your neighbor's in the toilet. You should spread it around a little. I believe that. I'm not an effing socialist. I'm an American. I love this country."
The point is that he felt free to defend the movement at all, and to do so with the vigor he did so. O'Meara may be right that a lot of his listeners won't agree with him. But what he left unsaid is that most of his listeners won't really hate him for it. If middle America, O'Meara's podcast also is broadcast on on-air radio stations in Iowa, too, really was against the movement in a wholesale way, O'Meara wisely would have steered clear.
While O'Meara may have the leeway to challenge his audience, he can't afford to alienate them, or the advertisers who he relies upon to support his show, either. The facts are that middle America isn't as against the movement as its enemies would portray, and that O'Meara came out swinging strongly in favor of it last week. Maybe O'Meara changed some minds in favor of the movement. Maybe he didn't. Either way, chalk it up as a big win for Occupy, and for what it represents.
Article comments
1 - Brandt Hardin
The Occupy Movement is NECESSARY for our citizens to expose the corruption which Big Business has infected our Government with. Every single person occupying the streets and protesting Corporations is a hero and a patriot. I was compelled to lend a hand and create some new posters for the movement which you can download for free on my artist's blog.
2 - jamminsue
Brad, good work!
3 - Jacob
Voice of the people needs to be heard. In a democratic society it should be heard in parliament, but lot of politicians are sponsored by big business and once they enter parliament they forget what they are in a parliament for. So people have to find alternate ways to expres their opinion.
4 - Tommy Mack
In the absence of leadership and goals, protests only last so long as they don’t get in the way of the things against which they have united.
Tommy
5 - dave triffith
No one listens to this show! Why do you think they have to do it from his living room!? Because it's BORING! Just like OWS! No one gets it! Start acting like human beings instead of drug addicts and communists and you might get some respect
6 - Jon DeForge
How dare you Dave Triffith. People in 148 countries and 10 million downloads listen to the Mike O'Meara Show. Mike had the right to call out Adam Carolla. Dave Triffith essadee.