Protesters will go more violent! This is how conservative commentator Pat Buchanan sees the future of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Over the weekend Pat Buchanan was part of a round-table discussion on “The McLaughlin Group” where he offered a dark prediction of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
“It’s going to end very, very badly with these folks in the winter and they’re not going to be getting publicity and they’re going to be acting up and acting badly like the worst of the demonstrators in the 60s,” Buchanan said.
Buchanan, an ex-Republican presidential hopeful, went on to say the impact of the Occupy Wall Street movement on the presidential race would be “very damaging” to President Obama if he “gets too close to it.”
“They’re going to start fighting with the cops,” Buchanan thought.
Susan Ferrechio of the Washington Examiner concurred with Buchanan and believes the dropping temperatures would reflect a reduction in the demonstrators.
“There’s just not that many of them,” Ferrechio continued. “We’re talking you know a couple hundred people camped out here and there in Washington DC. So staying power – I guess in the media, we’ll probably keep mentioning them.”
Not everyone on the panel agreed with Buchanan and others believed law enforcement had already initiated the first acts of violence toward the peaceful protesters.
“There was one fight with the cops in Oakland. An Iraq war veteran was hit with a projectile in the head and is still in critical condition,” Eleanor Clift, a contributor to Newsweek and The Daily Beast said to Buchanan.
Clift believes the movement had “staying power” and wasn’t going anywhere.
Although the movement is more than a month old, acts of violence from the police toward the protesters have created a surge in participation.
The latest of those acts were protesters who were arrested in Denver, Austin and Portland.
“Don’t measure their success by their number,” said Clarence Page from the Chicago Tribune. He credits the Occupy Wall Street movement for already having changed the political conversations.
According to McLaughlin now would be the best time for a third-party candidate to “spawn.”