Forum Post: Occupy Theaters -- A New Political Process

The Occupy Movement owes an enduring debt of gratitude to the demonstrators who launched the revolution in 2011 by occupying the capitol in Madison, taking to the streets and occupying public parks in New York, Oakland and across the nation, to awaken America and the world to the ‘repeated injuries and usurpations’ inflicted by the 1 Percent upon the 99 Percent and demand redress. In so doing they demonstrated the courage of their convictions, putting their bodies and very lives on the line in the tradition of those who demonstrated and died in Boston, stood at Concord and Lexington and wintered at Valley Forge.

However, just as the troops at Valley Forge did not win the Revolutionary War by remaining encamped, neither can the Occupy Movement win its revolution by hunkering down indefinitely in primitive, leaderless encampments around the country. The Movement must avoid losing its momentum and thereby becoming ineffectual and irrelevant once the novelty of camping in public parks wears off. It is time for the Occupy campers to come in from the cold and get organized for an American Spring.

While our democracy has taken a pasting at the hands of the 1 Percent over the past three decades, it still respects the majority of votes cast in elections. Numbers still count, so it is the task of the Movement to marshal sufficient numbers to elect representatives who will pass laws and run the country according to the will and for the benefit of We the People.

The question is, How?

To answer the question, we must first discard how not to go about it.

Today’s electoral process is dominated by an unholy troika of the superrich 1 Percenters who pick political candidates and fund their campaigns; the candidates who accept such financial support and who are, therefore, obligated to support policies favoring their benefactors; the media and their hangers-on, primarily television, who are the recipients of campaign funds in the form of paid advertising needed to garner votes. Therefore, money, “the mother’s milk of politics,” equals votes in today’s elections, given the structure of the political process.

The Occupy Movement must recognize the impossibility of competing successfully against the moneyed interests by engaging in a political process where money equals votes. The 1 Percent controlling two-fifths of the nation’s wealth will always be able to outspend the rest of the population, especially after “Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission” gave the rich access to corporate treasuries to fund political action committees. As long as money equals votes, the 1 Percent will prevail.

What the Movement needs, therefore, is a new political process capable of establishing a political consensus, untethered from big money and television ads. Such a political process requires just two critical components: theaters and the Internet -- not much money, no network or cable television, other than free coverage.

Here’s how it works: "Occupy Theaters" at
www.cassandra-chronicles.blogspot.com