Forum Post: A Single Demand
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 8, 2011, 11:24 p.m. EST by poratosk8r
(0)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
In order to focus the energy of this movement and making a lasting impact, the people need to find a single demand to get behind. I say we demand an end to campaign contributions and lobbying, and a beginning of pubicly funded elections. This world be the first step in removing corporate power for the government.
Look for Demand #1 regarding elections etc.
I totally agree. corporate lobbyists help perhaps 1 in 1000 citizens. so you have a common interest of 99.9% of Americans.
your one idea would dramatically reduce the influence of money in politics.
imagine if we changed this one issue. from there we could let all these other issues be argued on their merits in a government where each individual equalled one vote in the process.
I don't know what the best way to go about it is, but reforming campaign finance laws is the only "demand" that people can could and should be rallying around. The root of all the anger here is that someone with a lot of money buy enough political influence to get what they want, while other people feel like they're being completely ignored. Everyone can agree that this is wrong, and it's the first step to the implementation of policies that benefit the majority of Americans.
Too many of those involved in the OWS movement want to make it about one fringe idea or another.
@poratosk8r: I need to be blunt with this: Campaign contributions come in more forms then a simple check. An example of this would be AXA Financial giving President George Bush Jr their New York Offices for his 2004 Re-Election campaign. There was no money involved, they simply just made a very powerful resource available to the candidate.
Second, Rich people are not dumb. They didn't get rich by being dumb. They got rich by understanding the flow of economy and the value of commodities. They use this knowledge in business AND politics.
Don't get me wrong NotMy99, a distinction needs to be made between individuals and corporations. The $100 or $1,000 a flesh and blood US citizen may donate to a campaign becomes next to meaningless when a multinational corporation (often with foreign entities included on their boards of directors) are making donation in the millions of dollars for political favors. The whole point would be to augment the freedoms of actual citizens rather than disenfranchising them with the slanted playing field we currently have.
it is too small a demand
the movement is still too young, let's wait some more and see. the movement is still slowly gathering momentum
That's very reasonable.
Most of the idiots protesting are not reasonable.
Most of the smart, corrupt people leading the idiots around are even less reasonable.
I like that idea, and I think a vast majority of us can agree to that. Getting the money out of politics, in general, sounds like a great place to start.
There is one demand Structual change.
Why should I not be allowed to give my money to whatever candidate I want?
Why would you limit my freedoms?
I agree - the first step to achieve this is campaign finance reform! Right now the corporations can "speak" to politicians as if they were millions of people and it is skewing our laws and policies in favor of special interests.
Great idea but good luck with that. This is turning into a complete clusterf*ck. Every group out there has glommed onto it now as a way to push their own particular agenda and interests.
Take it from an old 60s guy (and despite what you younger people may have heard the 60s basically were a complete clusterf*ck too btw. lol) The ONLY way that it doesn't disintegrate further is if A common, driving cause rises and stands on it's own merits above all of the noise. Not 50 causes that you have to have meetings about to decide which you should do. lmao
Or at least there needs to be some common thread that holds all of the different interests together toward A common goal. i.e., You can organize around a war. You can't organize around every aspect of life, government, money, etc., that various groups want to address.
To be frank, I'm not very hopeful.
Lol, Frankie. You speak the truth. The only movements that have worked in the past have had a singular idea. Easily definable. The 60's protests were all over the place too. Not much was accomplished, except for MLK's fight for African Americans' civil rights. MLK had a specific agenda, just like we should.
I agree with your single demand idea, and I also like your non-partisan suggestions. I posted a single demand idea at almost the same time in this forum.