Eliot Spitzer never seemed to like Wall Street. He had an unfortunate habit of destroying reputations in pursuit of nonexistent cases, and hiding evidence to win convictions. Now that he is out of power, he has to rely on others to attack business in America. It is no surprise then that he supports OccupyWallStreet:
Occupy Wall Street has already won, perhaps not the victory most of its participants want, but a momentous victory nonetheless. It has already altered our political debate, changed the agenda, shifted the discussion in newspapers, on cable TV, and even around the water cooler. And that is wonderful.
It’s intriguing that Spitzer celebrates OccupyWallStreet’s lack of focus and desire for destruction; perhaps it seems similar to his old approach as Attorney General for New York:
Of course, the visceral emotions that accompany citizen activism generate not only an energy that can change politics but an incoherence that is easily mocked. OWS is not a Brookings Institution report with five carefully researched policy points and an appendix of data. It is a leaderless movement, and it can often be painfully simplistic in its economic critique, lacking in subtlety in its political strategies, and marred by fringe elements whose presence distracts and demeans. Yet, the point of OWS is not to be subtle, parsed, or nuanced. Its role is to drag politics to a different place, to provide the exuberance and energy upon which reform can take place.
The rest of his article in Slate here.