Nothing has ever reminded me so much of H.L. Mencken's "The Archangel Woodrow" (Wilson, that is), than E.J. Dionne's column today, on the Occupy movement:
[T]his movement has accomplished things that the more established left didn’t....
[I]t provided the media with a committed group of activists to cover, a good story line and excellent pictures...
[I]ts unconventional approach fit nicely with current media conventions. And its indifference to immediate political concerns gave the movement a freedom of action that others on the left did not have....
[T]he Occupy demonstrations are precisely about the concerns of Americans who have been sidelined economically....
This movement is about something much bigger than "occupying" a particular space....
More important, the movement should remind itself of its greatest innovation, its slogan[!]: "We are the 99 percent."
Now, Mencken, on "the whole Wilsonian buncumbe" and its ...
ideational hollowness, its ludicrous strutting and bombast, its heavy dependence upon greasy and meaningless words, its frequent descents to mere sound and fury, signifying nothing.
But, perhaps not nothing, entirely, in Dionne's otherwise meaningless case. For he does wedge in this critical piece of advice, which all along has been the only critical step that will render benefit:
[The Occupy movement] should also want to help political figures such as [Elizabeth] Warren, who understood far earlier than most the costs of inequality and of the abuses of financial power.
Street protests are pleasant-enough affairs. They're emotionally rewarding. They provide a fleeting sense of humanity solidified. But, other than acting as the unnecessary precursor to the hard work of political action -- organizing, phone-banking, canvassing, door-knocking, leaflet-distributing, getting-out-the-vote, coffee-and-tea-partying and fundraising -- they are utterly valueless, mere sound and fury.