Forum Post: None of the above

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) has had amazing success in recent months at bringing peoples voices to the ears of the politicians. Sadly it remains clear that demonstrations worldwide have not convinced any politicians, never mind governments to change their policies in favor of the little guy! It seems that we are being ignored? In fact I believe the OWS movement as a whole is being ignored by our political masters. Never mind we have elections coming up. This is when a dissatisfied public can remove a government that isn’t complying with the wishes of the majority and install a new government that will do what the public wants. The only problem is that we know things will work the way they always have because 1,000,000 votes, once cast don’t stand a chance against corporate money. Yes the voter has power but only until the vote has been cast. Then the corporations and banks are returned to power. The problem is simple. Politicians not representing the people. The solution is supposed to be elections but this will change very little. Demonstration is the next logical step and I think OWS have done way better than I or anyone else including the founders thought was possible. But nothing has changed yet. I do think that if OWS is still in the occupation business 6 months from now with no progress, then I think its full impact would have been realized and the politicians will just see it as an irritation. But what I have seen in the attempts to evict protesters is the most worrying thing of all. Our democratic system’s primary benefit is that it prevents violent transitions of power. Everyone has a vote and a little of the power. Should that fail you can demonstrate peacefully. But what happens when your vote is worthless and you are beaten for protesting peacefully. It seems strange that politicians should be limiting our peaceful means of expression! Are they trying to make this a violent confrontation? I believe they are but they sure are playing with fire with so many people with nothing to lose in our society. Thankfully the movement to date isn’t seen as violent, rather the Police have been seen to be excessive at times. So how do we keep the movement peaceful, effective and relevant? The lack of structure and leadership oddly enough seems to be the x-factor that is keeping the pace and creativity. If they won’t let us occupy here then let’s try this. What other ideas can we come up with too make the politicians listen to the 99%? I think the movie “Brewster’s Milllions” with Richard Prior has an example we could use. He starts a political campaign in the movie called “None of the above” where he convinces the public to spoil their ballot paper because both candidates where so bad. In the movie the aim is just to chase off these two candidates but this could be used in a different way. If the US went to elections and 20% of the ballots cast where spoiled this would send a clearer message to congress that they are losing their grip on power. We know our votes will not make much if any difference, not voting just gets labeled as “apathetic” but a mass of spoiled ballots is a clear vote of no confidence in the system as a whole. Just imagine an OWS “None of the above” campaign this election. If you want to see politicians panic, then please try this. I would also like to encourage others with ideas to get them out there in the community. Even if you just have the start of an idea it could be the right idea. I believe we have greater resources on our side than our own governments in the collective community online. Those of us that can’t be there occupying can offer support in other ways.