Forum Post: We are the most coveted constituency, moderate independents. We have great power!
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 5, 2011, 3:20 p.m. EST by WarmItUp
(301)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
From what I have seen on this forum, most people here fall in the moderate independent catagory. Of course there are those more left and those in the libertarian camp but from spending hte past two months interacting with everyone I find most are fed up with both sides. As an old republican OWS supporter told me, I didn't leave my party, my party left me. We really make up that most coveted constituency, moderate independents fed up with both sides. Republicans and democrats know they can count on the far right and left to vote with them, they spend litte time in those states, they are spending most of the time in states with high registered independents or "unaffiliated" voters. You can be certain they will be listening to us especially since the occupy facebook page is now over 1/3 of a million people and should reach half a million people come peak election season. this is the constituancy they will be listening most to when they try to court us as voters. Don't forget how much power this movement really has. The small tea party really had a lot more power than expected. And OWS should have just as much influence come peak election season in a few months. Lets really focus down on that message of removing corporate money from our democracy. Our voices will become more and more important as politicians realize we are the untapped constituency of independent moderates. We are for the most part well educated, and are for the most part registered voters. We will decide the next election. pay attention politicians I know you are monitoring this site, any politician not monitoring this site would be a fool, with so many potential voters here.
This is only if you believe that your vote really counts. Until someone is elected and actually does push for legislation to get money out of politics, our government is still bought and paid for by the banking lobby. Your vote doesn't really matter under the current political system. Just my opinion. Thanks
You are absolutely correct. A National General Assembly is the beginning of the end for the two party system. All the great ideas in the world aren't going to help one bit, that's just putting the cart before the horse. The NGA is the team of horses. Why isn't everyone all over this???
https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/
I agree. As soon as you OWSers create a political party that draws all of you like thinkers to a few candidates we can get this country back on track. You will cripple the democrats and that's a good thing.
And, the term moderate independent....I have no idea what that means. What a contrived term.
No, this doesn't bode well for either the Democratic or Republican parties.
The problem with this all is that POLITICIANS that we elect will never do anything besides SAYING what the electorate wants to hear, while DOING whatever it takes to keep themselves and their buddies in office, in power, and in the money.
So the key to solving this is to elect REAL PUBLIC SERVANTS, who are more interested in doing what is RIGHT than doing what it takes to get more MONEY and POWER.
I think these types of leaders should come out of this movement, and run independently knowing that we all support the honest, rational, everyday people that are above corruption and will honestly CHANGE our government.
We need to populate 2/3 of Congress with REAL PEOPLE that have the best interest of the average American at heart if we actually expect change to occur in our lifetimes.
You say politicians that we elect will never do anything, then turn around and say we need to elect politicians.
If you are arguing against party politics then fine but given the fact that there has been no exception to the two-party system since forever, expecting anything to change until there is an independent third party threat, a la Ross Perot, is wishful thinking.
OWS99% has the opportunity to be that credible threat. The people YOU elect to the NGA are the people you describe, not beholden to money.
http://occupywallst.org/forum/876-leaders-republicrats-worst-nightmare-im-good-w/
Did you miss what I was saying entirely? It seems to me that we are in AGREEMENT. Notice how I said we need to elect REAL PUBLIC SERVANTS and NOT POLITICIANS?
I don't care what method we use to do it, but we need candidates that actually CARE about the PEOPLE more than they care about MONEY.
Same team buddy, same team....
I 1/2 missed what you were saying, sorry about that. I've been so inundated by the "we're leaderless non political" crowd that I mistook it for a 'we don't do representative democracy' type of approach.
Like a soldier out in the woods, I didn't hear the battle was over. I just found out that the Working Group on The 99% Declaration got their pages put back up on this website. One Little Victory : )
thanks for understanding.
http://www.nycga.net/groups/the-99-declaration-working-group/
Thanks for appeasing me there. I apologize for the use of caps which makes me appear at a glance to be a flamer.
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/moyermap.html http://www.the99declaration.org/
you were right, good call, thx.
PandoraK just told me the .org is down. One Bill Shultz (?) pulled the plug so they have to find a new server. Very strange. Damn, I was gonna register tonight.
Got your other reply. It's pedal to the metal to get to Philly on time! Did you vote up the down payment?
Hang in there. I am working with them now to find a better hosting service
OK - moderate independents -
Words are easy - action is hard.
Are you ready
.....................FOR ACTION
Are you ready to
.....................DO SOMETHING REAL !?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Are you ready to
......................join 83% ........ of Americans?
We must not
DEMAND that we WANT THEM.to give to US
We must
DEMAND GOALS THAT WE WILL ACHIEVE FOR OURSELVES
Because of the Supreme Court's decision,
we cannot accomplish anything significant, without FIRST -
Overturning Citizens United !!!
Ending Corporate Personhood !!!
83% of Americans already agree on it
as stated in the ABC/Washington Post poll
In the the PFAW Poll -
IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO ACT ----> JOIN US TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
I feel that we should stay with this simple text to overturn CU:
”corporations are not people”
for four simple reasons and one – not so simple:
1
83% of Americans have already opposed CU in the ABC/Washington post poll and the above
IS THEIR POSITION ALREADY.
2
We don’t have to work to convince people on the validity of our position.
3
Simple is almost always better.
4
This simple Amendment is REQUIRED to overturn CU.
And all other electoral reform can be passed through the normal legislative process. 5
OWS and these pages are chock full of ( mostly ) excellent ideas to improve our country.
All of them have strong advocates – and some have strong opposition.
None of them has been “pre-approved” by 83% of Americans !
Pursuing this goal – without additional specifics is exactly what Americans want.
What do we want? Look at that almost endless list of demands – goals - aims.
Tax the rich. End the Fed. Jobs for all, Medicare for all. So easy to state! Can you imagine how hard it would be to formulate a “sales pitch” for any of these to convince your Republican friends to vote for any of them?
83% of Americans have ALREADY “voted” against CU. And 76% of the Rs did too.
All we have to do ask Americans is to pressure their representatives – by letters - emails – petitions.
Wanna take your family on vacation?
Convince the 7 year old and the 10 year old to go to Mt Rushmore.
Then try to convince them to go to Disneyland.
Prioritizing this goal will introduce us to the world – not as a bunch of hippie radical anarchist socialist commie rabblerousers – but as a responsible, mature movement that is fighting for what America wants.
YOUR ACTION ----> JOIN US TO ACT MAKE A DIFFERENCE
I feel that using the tactics of the NRA, the AARP an the TP – who all represent a minority – who have successfully used their voting power to achieve their minority goals - plus the Prohibition Amendment tactics – bringing all sides together - is a straight path for us to success that cannot fail to enable us to create and complete one task the MAJORITY.
Join the OWS Restore Democracy Working Group at
..............http://www.nycga.net/groups/restore-democracy
regular meetings 6-8PM @ 60 Wall St – The Attrium @ Wednesdays
Plan details with supporting documentation at:.... http://bit.ly/vK2pGI
IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO ACT ----> JOIN US TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
TO END CORPORATE PERSONHOOD
Whereas --
The OWS Declaration of the Occupation of New York City states that
"a democratic government derives its just power from the people,
not from corporations."
and --
the ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 83% of the entire US population
opposes the Supreme Court Citizens United decision,
which affirmed that corporations are people.
and --
by supporting the overturning of corporate personhood,
OWS clearly aligns itself with the vast majority of the American people
who support ending the fundamentally flawed and anti-democratic concept
that corporations are people.
therefore --
We support a constitutional amendment to end corporate personhood.
To me the most coveted constituency of OWS is, or ought to be the working class and especially the organized working class. In the latter case, we don't have all of them on our side yet, but OWS has built the greatest alliance between sections of organized labor and the radical intelligentcia that this nation has seen since the 1940s.
Not any candidates jumping in front of the parade yet. They would have to be desperate, like the rest of us.
Listening maybe, but are they sipping champagne and having a good laugh or are they secretly hoping and praying this goes away? Both I suspect.
The Dems are licking their chops at all these upset kids in the streets. Hungry campaigners is what they are seeing.
They will begin recruiting them this summer.
Not to worry, it sure looked that way yesterday but today... they're heading for Philly. Glass -half-full and all that. cheers
I've seen a wide variety of political views in my short time here. I also see nutters and trolls, but whatcanyado. I just hope the true American patriots of OWS will always remember who they are protesting for: We the People.
There is very little "moderate" anything here.
I don't think it will affect the next election. The only think that OWS can do is to ensure that they "keep the bastards honest". The people who can change the system are the pension fund trustees. They can take fraudsters to court. That way, most of the job would be done. It needs an independent audit of all pensions, investment funds and the like. The auditors would not be from any of the large accounting firms like Price Waterhouse or KPMG. Such large companies are on record as being heavily implicated in bad frauds anyway. They charge too much anyway.
ok, let's have a poll: if you think Occupycentre has the right idea vote it up, if you think a National General Assembly is the right idea vote me up. But remember, this poll, like the NYCGA, only represents 1% of the OWS movement.
The "right idea" was set out in the Adbusters startup of OWS and the Mission Statement of OWS. It also represents what I believe in, and everyone else I have talked to in the Movement. Some people in the Movement have their own personal hobby horses, which they like to discuss. I have always been interested in trying to cut the speed on roads to prevent road danger, particularly to vulnerable road users - cylists and pedestrians. However, this is personal and outside the Movement's core goal, which is to "end the monied corruption of our Democracy".
Amen. The only real power we have (and the one that the 1% fears the most) is that we can all still VOTE!
We need a new caliber of leader to run for congress that will actually stand for the values of the American people. Then we need to spread the word and get EVERYONE REGISTERED TO VOTE.
The problem with our Democracy is that we've allowed it to become corrupt by simply not caring enough to even know who to vote for, and therefore not vote at all.
Its my opinion that we can use this forum to fight that. The information age has equipped us with a means to spread information quickly and effectively to people all across the nation. We must leverage it to promote new leaders and gather support for them!