Forum Post: REFORM

There are over 300,000,000 people in the USA. How many of them direct the decisions that shape our country and its role in the world? Honestly. Less than 3,000,000? That seems generous. OWS is not about trying to come up with answers to policy decisions. OWS' point is that no one of us or one group of us has all the answers. OWS shouldn't be struggling to come up with answers, or to crown a leader to speak for us. That is simply clamoring to be part of the 1%. That is exactly what the 1% would like so the 1% can show that its leaders and answers are better than ours. That is the story that reaffirms the 1%. That is not OWS' story. OWS' story is about process not answers. It is about a country's future and present being shaped by more than 1% of its population. Our system has the ability to serve all of us through electoral accountability and check and balances of powers, but our system now facilitates control by a small slice of the population with access to elected and appointed officials through wealth, education, power, influence and whatever else, across the political spectrum. President Obama received nearly 70,000,000 votes in 2008 but are his decisions being guided by the true interests of the country, much less the 23% that voted for him, or the promises he made to them? Or are his decisions being guided by his own perceived self-interest in securing reelection and the interests (whether economic, intellectual, professional or otherwise) of his advisers and major donors? And what are our realistic alternatives? The President's party will not offer one. And the opposition's candidate appears to have been crowned, or nearly crowned, with several months to go before one actual vote has been casted. How do we allow this to happen? And how is the process any different for any other federal or state election? More importantly, how do we change this? The problem is not simply "campaign finance reform." "Campaign finance reform" is an "Issue" for the 1%. We need electoral reform, which is both personal and structural and requires as many of us as possible to assert our role in our country’s governance. We need to be able to cast our votes and feel good that we have done our part to guide our country and that our elected and appointed officials will respect us, regardless of our political or financial position. Let's make that true and start coming up with ways to make it happen.