Forum Post: I Have Been A Fool

I've been a real fool for a long time now. For a very long time I have been grappling with the question of by what Means this movement could reignite and go forward, and I just haven't seen it.

Thanks to nuclear weapons, the powers that be have their greatest tool against people's movements, the reason being that the risks of political instability in a nation like ours have simply become too great to risk. People, understandably, desperately, want stability, and so the inherantly messy process of people's democracy becomes too threatening.

I think the Occupy movement is the latest movement in America to run into this psychological reticence. An understanding of that need for political stability (as well as a belief that we need to maintain that stability on my own part) have been why I reluctently advocated working through the existing political process, and I still think we should do so.

But when I read gsw's post yesterday, where he talked about trying to implement direct democracy at the level of the state legislatures a light dawned, and I realized what an idiot I had been.

I think there is real power in that idea. By taking the issue away from the federal level, we diffuse the fear of instability. Furthermore, the states could be a proving ground for the process of direct democracy, so that it could be made ready for prime time, so to speak. Finally, and most importantly, everyone can reach their state legislature to protest and make their physical presence felt by government.

So after thinking about this for over a year, I believe this is where we should shift our efforts. I honestly don't know where else there is to shift our efforts to have any real effect.

The question that remains is, if we see the potential of such an effort, have we been too beaten down now to rise again?