COMMENTARY | Just when Herman Cain was ready to quit, leave the campaign trail and end his candidacy for president, his surprise win in the Florida straw poll gave his efforts new life. Supported largely by the tea party base, Cain found appeal with his simple, flat rate tax plan called 9-9-9. Vaulted to the front of the GOP field, Cain commanded attention for several weeks before waning in the polls.
With recent comments denouncing the Occupy Wall Street movement, Herman Cain has sealed his political fate, proving himself a tea party imposter.
Accusing the Occupy movement of "trying to destroy the greatest nation in the world", Herman Cain completely dismisses a true grass root uprising of the American youth. The OWS movement exists precisely because these youth feel that the political establishment is destroying their future. Rallying around the issues of corporatism, the protest has valid points and a resolute will. With their cause centered on the same issues of the tea party, Herman Cain's broad dismissal proves his lack of understanding of the very constituency from which he draws support.
Speaking on the recent actions of the OWS to shut down the NYC Subway system, Cain professed the movement of hampering "people's right and liberty to go to work." OWS would say it is the other way around. Under the leadership of both the Republican and Democratic Party's, the OWS view that their futures have been mortgaged for political and corporate gain. With unemployment highest among youth since records began in 1948, the Occupy supporters are fighting for their right and liberty to work too.
While Cain's history with the federal reserve would certainly never have made him a viable candidate for the youth of the Occupy movement anyway, his complete dismissal of their anger, resolve and valid issues expose his true identity as a candidate. He would choose to be the oppressor, not the liberator. That willingness to ignore a call from the citizenry he campaigns to lead should offend all involved with the tea party movement as well.
With growing criticism of his policy positions, rumors of professional misconduct and now a complete disregard for a historic outpouring of public sentiment, Herman Cain's bid for the Oval Office appears over.
