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Forum Post: OWS and their own SuperPAC by the Alabama branch

Posted 12 years ago on Feb. 16, 2012, 9:48 p.m. EST by geo (2638) from Concord, NC
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

WTF????

Are they kidding me. This MUST be a joke. How can they speak for everyone??

4 Comments

4 Comments


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[-] 1 points by ARod1993 (2420) 12 years ago

It looks like Occupy Alabama has finally realized as a group that if we want change we're going to need to get into politics and try to unseat those who disagree with our aims. 2012 is passing us by as we speak, which is quite sad, but it's entirely possible that we could put at least one or two of our people in Congress by 2014 if we set that as an explicit goal and work towards it. If we succeed in even one district it sends a message to the rest of DC that they have to start taking us into account if they want to keep their jobs. The Tea Party did it, the Populists did it, the Green Party does it on occasion, and generally speaking it works.

I completely agree with you that Citizens United is at its core a dirty ruling; it allows corporations and other groups to create war chests that can be spent across the country with little to no accountability and thus in effect it allows them to buy candidates. That said, since the law threw the floodgates wide open for anyone who wants to buy politicians, there is nothing in the law that says we can't do the same. Assuming that Occupy Alabama has a team of activists capable of raising large quantities of money from small donors in a short time period (which is definitely possible) it is entirely possible to build a People's SuperPAC and use that money as a counterbalance to people like Grover Norquist. Is it enough right now? Probably not. Is it better than nothing? Absolutely.

Now, I'm assuming that they're not going to go out and start soliciting corporate funding for it because that goes against everything we stand for, but imagine the power that an independently aligned national coalition of small donors would have to influence this country during elections season. We could throw our people (actual OWS'ers with community organization/activism/legal backgrounds or OWS sympathizers in that category) into Democratic and Republican primaries across the country, and even if we only take one or two seats most legislators will think of the Tea Party and be less willing to ignore our interests. There is no surefire way to win, but the one surefire way to lose is to walk away from the game.

[-] 1 points by freehorseman (267) from Miles City, Mt 12 years ago

Go main stream you pick up more people.Stay radical fewer people, stronger message.I would not worry much about hypocricy in this country.Most people do not care it is the land of the Biggest Loser.

[-] 1 points by geo (2638) from Concord, NC 12 years ago

also the plain hypocrisy of the move. it makes us look like idiots