Maddow: Political discourse now linked to 'Occupy' protests

After showcasing the ways the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters planned to overcome the winter, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said on her show Tuesday night that the ongoing demonstrations have altered the political discourse of the United States.

The demonstrations across the country "demonstrate why someone like [House Majority Leader] Eric Cantor is all of a sudden for the first time in his life talking about income inequality," she said.

"Occupy Wall Street has made it possible for even the beltway media to point and laugh at flax tax proposals," Maddow added. "Occupy Wall Street is how you get into the narrative. So when Bank of America blinks, like it did today about a new big fat fee on its ordinary customers, you can wonder why it happened, but the story is forever linked to the 99 percent."

"Because if a bunch of your customers say they are going to start taking their money out of your bank, and the media starts listening to them, those customers -- raggedy urchins or not -- have changed the climate in which you, big banker, do business."

Maddow was not the only one to notice that the "Occupy" movement had changed the nation's discourse. Former U.S. labor secretary and University of California professor that the movement had already succeeded in changing the tenor of the conversation in Washington.

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