We’ve known for some time now that the financial services industry has been “livid” with Democrats who’ve tacitly supported the Occupy Wall Street protesters. Politico reported last month:
Banking executives personally called the offices of DCCC Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) and DCCC Finance Chairman Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) last week demanding answers, three financial services lobbyists told POLITICO.
“They were livid,” said one Democratic lobbyist with banking clients.
Well, a new memo has leaked (and posted on MSNBC’s website) in which a lobbying firm linked with Republican leadership is advising The American Bankers Association on ways to disrupt and counteract the Occupiers.
“It may be easy to dismiss OWS as a ragtag group of protesters, but they have demonstrated they should be treated as an organized competitor who is very nimble and capable of working the media, coordinating third party support and engaging office holders to do their bidding. To counter that we have to do the same.”
The memo is surprisingly specific on the firm’s plans to counteract the populist narratives of Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party which “could be explosive later in the year when media reports cover the next round of bonuses.”
Methods include monitoring social networks used by the protesters, opposition research, polling in presidential swing states and advertising.
The memo then points out various ways the industry should flex its muscles to show that “these companies still have political strength and making them a political target will carry a severe political cost.”
Read the whole memo here or the original post by MSNBC here.
