Forum Post: We need a direct message!
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 15, 2011, 9:24 a.m. EST by menelopie
(23)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
We need a direct message-a campaign .... The republicans and those who dislike us disparage us and do not give us legitimacy. We need a leader and a message to get our point across.
the concept of digital voting is in the future ! but for now support the congressional reform act 2011 it would go a long way to make our govt work for us again
I just don't think that people are fully acquainted with the notion that 2005 to 2007 were bubble years that will never come back again whether or not we have a free market system or a socialist system, and its got nothing to do with laziness. The next few years should change the minds of a lot of people.
I was thinking along the same lines: http://occupywallst.org/forum/a-simple-demand-that-needs-to-be-repeated-over-and/ - lets get the money out of politics and have public servants be PUBLIC servants again. Lets make Washington start having real discussions again.
"...make it illegal for any 1 individual to earn more than 40 times what the average workers make at the organization they are associated with."
---> The 40X Rule!
I agree, maybe showing an exemple of the first real democracy, through communication means could be the message. we should be voting on laws instead of voting to elect people who, once in power,become corporate puppets.
Voters’ turnout in North America is constantly going down and people are disillusioned with the electoral process and feel it has now become a bit meaningless to vote. It is not enough for most people just to vote once every four years to elect someone that will later be corrupted or do whatever.
In order to create a better democracy, we need to be able to bypass at least some of the representative process. Modern communications is now allowing us to say what we want as individuals and we no longer need to be represented by people in parliament to take decisions for us. The role of the government should be to propose directions society could take but letting the people decide through referendums (direct democracy). This process, while alleviating corruption by removing some power to elected people, would allow some decisions that no political party would ever attempt to take because they would often be against the interests of influent lobby groups and powerful corporations.
So far, the main stomping block for e voting taking on is revolving around confidentiality (anonymity) and hacking concerns. Those issues could be addressed by having an open e voting system by which the database, although anonymous, would be open allowing voters to verify that their vote is accounted for and accurate. The users could get a random number identifying them in the database and check if that number (or key) is associated with the correct vote for the given referendum, many could be run simultaneously. The best would be to create a package using maybe Open Office as a way for the user to manipulate the database to verify his/her vote and analyze the data if desired. The difficulty in having a representative and legitimate vote is to be able to use the electoral database for the constituencies to generate the individual keys; maybe someone would have to be elected the old fashion way clearly stating this goal as a platform... Looking at what is happening in the Arab world, this might be a way to quickly implement a form of democracy in places where there is nothing yet to support it. Your movement is very fertile ground for these ideas to take roots, there are highly educated motivated people in your group that could make this a reality and elaborate a system that would account for minority rights, server setups, phone interface etc. It could also (one can dream) create a whole new world where every voice can finally be heard and be as important towards decision making as anyone else. No matter the size of the voter’s bank account or number of influential friends: we have to take the power back.
I just posted something similar: http://www.occupywallst.org/forum/whats-the-message/ I think we should start with the biggest and most important, while not excluding anything anyone wants to bring up.
How about as #1 something everyone can agree on: Get the money out of politics! End "corporate Personhood". Make the tax system fair so billion dollar corporate profits are taxed progressively. Hold financial criminals accountable/ impose regulations governing derivatives(credit default swaps).
We make countries, we make businesses, we are the people!
If you are the 99% you must stand for something everyone can agree on, even the republicans, whom you say dislike you.
Unite together, first, under a simple cause. Something everyone can join together in asking for. Something, with which, everyone can show a strong and united from. Something that will have everyone else thinking, whether or not the would ever go out to occupy wall street, that what's suggested is feasible and worthy of support.
2 Simple messages that everyone should consider is this:
Eliminate or severely restrict all corporate contributions so that the only favors politicians have to pay is to the people who elected him.
Reduce the lobbyists access to congress so that we the people will again have more of a voice in congress then the big corporations who can afford plenty of lobbyists