Fordham University political science professor Costas Panagopoulos and a team of researchers have done a fascinating study of the people at the “Occupy Wall Street” protest in New York’s Zuccotti Park. Some media have tried hard to cast the protestors in negative terms, such as spoiled-brat kids who are too lazy to get jobs.
Several conclusions based on interviews of 300 of the protesters:
- While 60 percent of protesters said they voted for Barack Obama in 2008, 73 percent said they disapprove of how Mr. Obama is handling his job as president.
- Not unexpectedly, given Occupy Wall Street’s assertion that the US political system is adversely affected by an improper distribution of political power, nearly all (97 percent) of those surveyed disapprove of how Congress is handling its job.
- Nevertheless, only 42 percent of the protesters said they will vote for the Democratic candidate for the US House for their district. Fewer than 2 percent of those surveyed said they’d vote for the Republican.
- 75 percent view the tea party movement unfavorably.
The average age of the protestors is 33. “That means for every college student you have a mid-career professional in their 40s,” Panagolopoulus says.