Forum Post: The days of complacency are gone.
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 21, 2011, 7:16 a.m. EST by unarmed
(213)
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People will take their fury to the ballot box, in record numbers next year.
How many people do you think will be registered via the OWS movement for the 2012 election? @ 350 days until 11/06/2012.
yawn.......this was the same hype leading up to Obama being elected.....
Your ability to vote is being eliminated by the Republican party:
"Election measures that make it more difficult for voters to cast ballots may affect nearly 5 million voters, who are more likely to be students, of low income or members of minority groups that tend to vote Democrat, according to a study released Monday by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.
In all, 19, mostly Republican-controlled states including Florida have enacted laws in advance of the 2012 elections that bolster voting requirements, restrict early voting and restrict provisional ballots. The new laws come despite little evidence of systemic or widespread fraud.
"This is the most significant cutback in voting rights in decades. More voters may be affected than the margin of victory in two out of the past three presidential elections," said Michael Waldman, Brennen Center executive director, in a statement."
Good luck with that voting thing....
Potential Goals: I feel with technology there are ways we can take back control of our country. We need to get rid of $1 dollar=1 vote and get back to 1person=1vote. To do this we need to eliminate the power of lobbyists and reduce the power given to our politicians who are money grabbers who do inside trading (legal for politicians) and get bribes (thru there legal political fund raisers) and consulting etc.
To do this we should make the politicians only administrators and move to nationwide or at least a broader pool of electronic internet based voting - this could be all registered voters, this could be state senators and representatives. The power would move out of DC and reside back with the people or states. This would reduce the power of the lobbyists and allow the states to have more control.
First they need to take their fury to Philadelphia. There are proper steps that need to be taken for the 99% to be successful. Actions like shutting down a port is reckless endangerment of the whole movement IMO
https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/
In my opinion when you are protesting a system (that no one will deny is corrupt and continually preys upon the American middle class by way of one clever loophole or another, corruption that has and will cost Trillions of tax dollars), any non violent action that brings this corruption to light and attempts to thwart it's impact is fine by me. And the financial impact of such actions are minute, if recognizable at all when compared to the benefit of eradicating the Trillions of dollars the corruption itself cost.
I think OWS should morph into OLB, Occupy Liberty Bell or OIH Occupy Independence Hall. Have small peaceful assemblies all winter long spreading the word about the National General Assembly starting July 4th in Philadelphia. Ask the people of Philadelphia to invite their fellow Americans into their homes for the NGA and coordinate this all winter too. Have occasional "occupations" throughout the winter, growing in size as the spring approaches, the WE ARE THE 99% growing louder with each event. This keeps the light shining and the movement looks smart, smells like a rose. Imagine the city of Philadelphia's population doubling or tripling for four days in July 2012. Some ideas are just plain better than others.
NGA NOW all roads lead to Philadelphia https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/
There will be no ballot boxes, we will eliminate the election process altogether, General Assemblies{Community, State ,National} Referendums on key issues..Of the people by the people, instead of by the corporation for the corporation..
That is not going to happen. I think you need to get your head out of the coulds.
One down to earth solution is term limits. No politican should serve more than one term.
I agree. The Utopians in here think somehow banging drums and doing mic checks somehow will bring down 250 yrs. of tradition. It won't. I like strict term limits for all of them. The prof. political class has fouled things badly.
The way "the people" decide is by voting. I wish more people did but they do not. There was an election 2 weeks ago and only 23% of registered voters voted across the country AND not everyone is registered! In my town there was a mayor race, two township committee positions, state legislators, country offices.
Now as for the "people making those decisions", there were some very good questions on the ballot, should we but more open space, should we let Verizon put a switching station in town, should sports betting be allowed in AC, and should we fund extracurricular sports at the school.
I voted at about 7:30PM was there for a while talking. The polls closed at 8PM. I asked what the turnout was and the man said it that's 23%. I ask every time and that is about the number I get. In a presidential year we get about 50% but that is still sad in my opinion.
Works in groups of a hundred or so. Would be insane in a country of millions. We simply need fast and easy and accurate vote counting.
I think it would be possible to introduce a "third legislative chamber", virtual in nature, which initially need not be recognized by the government, in which individuals can propose and endorse draft legislation, and proxy votes with organizations they support in order to deliver final drafts with very large numbers of supporters.
an excellent idea.....a sort of steering chamber that reflects the will of the people. When the other two chambers are not in sync with it, a general assembly should be called around the country to discuss recall elections...or something of that nature.....
I agree, I think the type of group decision/policy making forums that happen down at OWS should be standard practice at EVERY MANDATORY MONTHY meeting of every state and local senator and congressman in the country. That would integrate the peoples voice in the decision making process. As opposed to electing representatives based on a few clever campaign slogans, then never having any input again.
No we don't. We need well secured paper ballots with a rock solid set of procedures to count them. Today whole nations use such systems India, Canada and other democracy s. Its been proven very hard to corrupt such a system systemically. Electronic ballots are easily hacked or even programmed in at the factory and such a system on a network is wide open to massive fraud.
That's what the "accurate" portion of my statement implies.
ok, then we agree. Having worked in the IT field for decades I DO NOT trust the use of computers.
like they did in 2008...then went back to bed for 2010. While this political game is played from election to election, the stealth of the corporate aristocracy is honed and they become more powerful.
Time to change the rules, make it much more difficult for corporate aristocracy to interfere in our representative democracy. I think people are sufficiently pissed to finally deal with the exponentially increasing influence corporate aristocracy now wields throughout all functions of our government.
That's just it...representative democracy no longer works. When the "founding fathers" developed the idea, communities were small; the electorate was limited to white men who, for the most part, were familiar with the issues and candidates and the attitudes of their neighbors; corporate influence didn't exist; rampant feelings of helplessness and futility didn't cause many to opt out of the system, skewing election outcomes; and government was much smaller, of course, not having to face the many problems that expansion, increased population, and modern civilization have created. The system has become self-propelling (like a lawnmower!) and no longer needs people to function. Thus, it no longer has the interest of the people as its objective, only its own sustainability. The people MUST make the system theirs again. ONLY the introduction of direct democracy can hope to accomplish that. Tearing everything down and rebuilding (as some suggest) is an insanely impossible venture. Expecting another election or two, no matter how much verifiability, accuracy, and accessibility, won't bring the mechanism back under the peoples' control. Rules (new or otherwise) always have loopholes. Unless the people approve all policy directly, there is no way to completely protect ourselves from those with egotistic and/or fiscal agendas. By making every piece of legislation proposed by government (federal, state or local) dependent on the outcome of referendum, government again becomes the instrument of the people rather than the other way around. Candidates are forced to demonstrate qualifications for the job of enforcing the peoples' will, instead of relying on popularity, rhetoric, divisive tactics, and fundraising. Congress would have to recognize the mandate to address issues raised by large groups of people as the core of their function, translating those issues into legislative terms and presenting them to the people for approval (or disapproval) by the relevant majority. I know this system sounds cumbersome, but, in this age of advanced technology, it is possible.
There is a weird belief in the need for speed in elections and so many believe that electronics and networks are some how necessary. They're not. In fact very good arguments have been made that what we actually need is just the opposite. We need to return to a secured paper ballot as is used in many democratic countries today. Electronic voting devices and especially networks of them are very easily hacked, programmed and corrupted on a massive scale.
All I insist upon is verifiability, accuracy. accessibility.