Forum Post: Free Our Government From Bondage!

I admire the OWS movement. They have started a conversation in this country that has been long overdue.

However, although I completely understand their frustration with Wall Street, the cause of our current situation lies at the feet of those in Washington. It's the failure on their part to regulate these institutions. By failing to regulate them properly, it has allowed greed to run rampant on Wall Street.

No matter how much you protest outside the stock exchange, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, BofA, or any other banking institution or corporation, it's not going to change their behavior. They wont self regulate or put caps on themselves..it just wont happen.

Those in Washington have to be reminded just whom it is they work for, because, as it stands now, most in Washington are working for Grover Norquist.

I'm sure many of you have asked yourselves, Who is this Norquist guy and why does he have so much influence over our elected officials? or Why, when they took an oath to uphold the Constitution, are our congressmen/women more beholden to a pledge they signed to Norquist? What gives this guy so much power?

Well, Norquist (a corporate lobbyist) began his influence in Washington in the 80's during the Reagan administration with the Americans for Tax Reform group and the tax pledge.

Since then, almost every single republican and two democrats in congress has signed that pledge, not to mention all of the governors that have signed. There has also been other groups to spring up out of this. These are: Americans for Prosperity, Citizens United, ALEC, and The Tea Party, just to name a few.

These corporate funded groups, I believe, are all interconnected, with an army of lobbyists pushing their libertarian agenda..and they do have an agenda...all spearheaded by Grover Norquist. Union busting, deregulation, tax reform, the assault on workers rights, lower wages, defunding the EPA, the FDA, and voter id cards, among others, are all part of a libertarian, corporate driven agenda. Much of the legislation regarding these issues were, in fact, written by corporations and given to those in congress and governors as their own to push for passage. All of whom have signed the pledge, I might add.

This has been going on for the past 30 years with their influence growing ever stronger over the past 10 years.

Truly, the only hope we have of reclaiming democracy is to LIBERATE OUR GOVERNMENT! Set them free from the bondage of the corporate masters and you set us all free.

And I make this pledge. The day the Occupy movement from around the country makes a collective move on Washington DC, I will join them there.