Forum Post: Focus on the root cause, not the symptoms
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 9, 2011, 11:47 a.m. EST by practicalpolitics
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I read the demand of OccupyWall Street and it seems like the particiants are looking for a radical change in the government - a move toward communism. Sorry Russia tried it and it didn't work.
Maybe the focus should be addressed at the root cause of the problems in America - the politicians.
The politicians opened the door that created the housing/financial crisis and greed of the banks and, yes, the American people took over to create the problem. People need to take responsibilities for the own actions. People who continued to refinance their homes so they could go on the vacation that they couldn't afford was irresponsible.
If you want to stop the link between big corporations and the government, then 2 things need to happen. The first is campaign reform. A fixed amount of campaign dollars, our tax dollars, should be given to qualified candidates to be used for their campaign, and no dollars from any other source can be used - this includes a ban on outside organizations campaigning on the behalf of a candidate.This means that politicians would have no obligations to any business or organization.
The second is to call lobbying what it really is - legalized bribary. Do you really think that a politician doesn't get something in return when they do something for an organization. Lobbying should be illegal.
So I say the best way to create change is to give the politicians a list of reasonable demands and continue to vote 100% of them out of office until the demands are met. It really isn't a party issue, all parties are quilty of creating the problems of the country and the American people are not innocent either.
It is time for pratical politics, and you can make it happen. Just don't ask for ridiculous demands.
"Lobbying should be illegal" - Bingo!
At some point in the future people will look back at this period of American history where wealthy lobbyists set American policy as a period of illusory democracy. True democracy is impossible in a system where politicians' votes are openly sold to the highest bidder. In a true democracy the lobbyists would have to sell their ideas to the American people by rational argument and facts instead of buying politicians to force their vision of America down our throat without consent. Great point.
Absolutely. A great first step is taking the money out of politics. Our politicians should help shield us from Wall Street's mistakes. Instead, they are Wall Street's "paid for" puppets.
Great post! Labels cause knee jerk reactions and it would be wise to avoid them. We need to focus on practical approaches...Let's fix what we have instead of trying to re-invent the wheel. And:
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Actually communism is working pretty well in China... Not saying it's the right solution here but look they're one of the few countries getting richer. Although India is as well.
The root cause is evil people in positions of power like the very top world bankers in the world and the people who do their dirty work for them around the world and the CIA, FBI you know that kind of scum, not to mention the Pope.
Aside from you opinion about communism (Russia's situation is more complicated than simply communism didn't work), I agree with the whole post.
If we just took those demands and focused of that, then the media couldn't accuse us of being disorganized with muddled messages.
You hit it on the head - the main objective of the protest should be Campaign Finance Reform, first and foremost. Other reforms do not have a chance unless the cycle of legalized bribery is broken.