Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, and Steve Jobs

No one to my knowledge has yet done a survey of the protestors connected with the "Occupy Wall Street" movement in New York City and elsewhere, but news reports of a union connection and the general focus of their objectives leads one to believe that they are more likely to come from the left side of the political spectrum.

If that is the case, we now have a situation in which a segment of Americans with a more traditionally conservative orientation -- the Tea Party -- is taking public political actions against what they perceive needs to be changed, while a segment of Americans with a more traditionally liberal orientation is taking public political actions against what they perceive needs to be changed.

The targets of these groups are different. The Tea Party supporters have focused their ire for the most part on BIG government. Tea Party supporters apparently assume that huge federal government in this country is causing major and significant problems. The Occupy Wall Street group has focused its ire for the most part on BIG business. They apparently assume that the large corporate entities symbolized by Wall Street are causing major and significant problems.

A good deal of our polling data shows that Americans dislike most things that have the word BIG in front of them. In our summer update of Americans' confidence in institutions, we found that confidence in big business was third from the bottom on the list. What was dead last? Congress or, in other words, big government.

Many, many Americans are, at the moment, frustrated and worried, primarily about the economy. As of Wednesday, Oct. 5, we have 74% of Americans saying that the U.S. economy is getting worse, and 90% (yes, that's right, 90%) rating the current U.S. economy as only fair or poor. In our latest update, 88% of Americans say they are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the U.S. -- just shy of the all-time record 91% recorded in the fall of 2008.

It's apparent that this frustration and angst is percolating up in different ways, as it often does. Tea Party supporters displace their anger onto the government, while the Occupy Wall Street group displaces their anger onto Wall Street corporations. No doubt some other group may crop up which displaces its anger onto still another target.

One of the entities designed to cope with the problems of the nation is our group of elected officials we send off in our name to represent us in Washington, to whom we entrust over 1 trillion dollars in individual tax money each year. Unfortunately, Americans' confidence in that process is extremely low at the moment, which probably contributes further to the angst.

I said above that Americans have negative attitudes toward everything big. That's not the case. Our annual update on Americans' views of the images of business and industry sectors shows that the public actually has a very positive attitude of the computer and Internet industry -- which involves some very big companies. Indeed, the outpouring of interest in and adulation of the late Steve Jobs is emblematic of the positive attitudes Americans have about this business sector. Part of this no doubt reflects Americans' appreciation for the perceived effectiveness and efficiency of a company like Apple. The data show that this is the antithesis of the attitude Americans have about the federal government, which on the at same image list was dead last.