The failure of the Occupy Wall Street movement and its descent into "Lord of  the Flies"-style chaos, and in many instances thuggery and criminality, is  emblematic of the dramatic decline of the Left in the United States. The ragtag  encampments that President Obama earlier described as expressing “the  frustrations that the American people feel”, are now being swept from the  streets of New York, Oakland, Portland, and across America, no doubt to great  applause from locals who have had to put up for weeks with unsanitary tent  cities on their doorstep. Nancy Pelosi should now be eating her words after  having declared in October: “God bless them, for their spontaneity. It’s  independent… it’s young, it’s spontaneous, and it’s focused. And it’s going to  be effective.”

The downfall of Occupy Wall Street mirrors a broader  malaise on the American Left. Just three years after the election of the “hope  and change” president, liberalism in America is in a state of crisis. A recent  Gallup poll shows just one in five Americans (21 percent) calling themselves  liberal. This compares to 42 percent who are self-described  conservatives.