Forum Post: What will happen to you?
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 19, 2011, 8:46 p.m. EST by tedscrat
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You are a leaderless group of people who represent the 99% right? Well, I cannot imagine an organization that represents 99% of anybody, except maybe North Korea. Eventually, someone will have to come forward as a representative or spokesperson. Amid the morass of views represented here, let's hope someone with common sense will step up.
Here's my 2 cents:
There are a lot of improvements that need to be made. The list reforms Americans want to see is long and varied depending on who you talk to. That said, I believe there is one reform that would provide the American people the best chances of seeing other meaningful reforms actually happen - that is REAL, loop-hope free CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM! I have seen others on this site calling this the "fulcrum" or pivotal issue. Right now the current legalized bribery, pay-to-play system of campaign donations and paid lobbyists has disenfranchised the American voter. Until this is fixed, any other reform the politicians may try to placate us with (be it a change to healthcare, clamping down predatory school loans, new financial regulations, etc.) will be about as effective as a farmer putting a new roof on his CHICKEN COOP, but still letting the FOX guard it.
We need to go back to the original political currency. Instead of the current system of who can collect the most money from corporations and special interests it should be who has the BEST IDEAS to EFFECTIVELY RUN THE COUNTRY (we don't need "Wealth Redistribution," what we need is "Political Influence Redistribution")!
For the sake of our children and future generations of Americans, we need to take back our democracy from the rich and powerful who are using their vast sums of money to "speak" as if they represent millions of Americans. This "Corporate Personhood" that has crept into our laws is allowing them to manipulating our policies in their favor at the expense of the average American (the recent "Citizens United" Supreme Court ruling is a miscarriage of justice and must be reversed. The $50 or $100 a normal American may give to a political campaign becomes meaningless when corporations or other special interests are handing our millions to buy political access to the decision making process.
For decades now the corporations and special interests have had our "representatives" bought and paid for (both on the right and the left). Concentrating our efforts on getting the money out of our politics is the best way we can create an environment in which further reforms can be realized. Until we end the current system of legalized bribery (campaign donations) and paid lobbying our politicians will continue to be the LAP DOGS of the corporations and special interests. What we need first and foremost is real, loop-hole free CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM!!!! If the corruption is not dealt with first, the chance of any other meaningful reforms becoming a reality is almost zero - the special interests will just use their money to buy votes and put forward bills that create loop-holes or otherwise twist the law in their favor. If we want our children to live in a country where there vote matters, we need to get the money out of our politics, otherwise they will increasingly become the 21st century version of the "landless peasant." Spread the word - End the LEGALIZED BRIBERY!!! CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM needs to be THE main goal of the protests!!!
Yes Gandhi and King weren't afraid to die.
We need a hundred leaders- that way when one is killed the next one can step up to the plate- or when one is jailed without trial- another will replace him.
Cynical outsiders were skeptical when Otpur activists claimed not to have a leader, when the young people said they were all leaders and shared responsibility for their actions and their common discipline. What the skeptics overlooked was the power of strategy as a unifying force, taking its place beside the rebel energy and the lessons of recent history that the young people shared. Otpur activists didn't need an underground commander giving them their marching orders because they shared a strategy they believed in; they were happy to improvise creatively within that strategic framework.
Bojan Zarkovic, one of the Otpur trainers, told an audience at the A-Space (anarchist coffee house) in Philadelphia about the boundless creativity of the young people. They would virtually fill a wall of newsprint with their tactical ideas, he said. Then they would choose, in light of their strategy and also their preference for humor and pranks. The result was that the media's painting of them as terrorists lost credibility. True, these young people wore black jeans, black leather jackets, and black T-shirts with a clenched fist silk-screened on the front, but their actions had humor and connected with people. Passersby who saw them (and spread the word) debunked the media portrayal. “They're our kids having fun and, you know, they're right about Milosevic!” is what they said as they spread the word. http://tinyurl.com/6lkzgbk
you looking for a leader?
I'll be your leader . . .
here's my want list:
No downsizing the Postal Service
No KeyStone Pipeline
two step approach to the issue of national debt:
short term: end bushite tax breaks and corporate welfare
end debate over entitlements I'm sick of hearing about it as if it were dirty. Forget privatization of social security and just shoot the next bastard who suggests otherwise [speaking for myself of course.]
public health care - forget the option part.
We need an energy policy uninfluenced by fossil fuel industry, one that takes into account the fact of global warming, and institutes a NASA like approach to solving both our need for energy and the need to reduce atmospheric carbon
No to internet censorship in any form
If they engaged in fraud - they see the judge, and the sentencing better be in line with the crime, and had better include serious restitution
End the foreclosures.
End the philosophy of a deregulated economic system - from the Universities to the policy makers
End corporate personhood
campaign finance reform - Sanders Amendment:
Sanders Proposed Constitutional Amendment:
Sanders Petition here:
Full amendment PDF:
end the two party political system
quit fucking around with the issue of terrorism - it's a crime, unless you happen to catch them on an actual battlefield - and if it is a crime, treat them in accordance with our criminal laws. No more indefinite detention
Close Gitmo - we've got large pens practically empty in the mid west. I'm sure they can handle it. Stop fucking around.
Amended: I would like to see energy production, telecommunications, and the economic infrastructure, all secured in public, rather than private, hands.
Amended: we need to provide stiff and compelling sanction to corporations that engage in disinformation - as with the tobacco industry before and the fossil fuel industry now [and for the past 10-20 years]
If we can't accomplish these things, the federal government will lose all credibility with the people.
and if you like the platform,
Lots of empty "FEMA camps" soon to be "occupied" ????The hardcore occupiers may get their wish....hmmmm
The Federal government HAS lost credibility. The recent grilling of corzine has restored some of my faith - took them 2 months to address the MF global looting scandal....I agree with a lot here....I have hope, but we really need a desperate overhaul. Time to clean house, top down.....
We should all write in candidates this time.. Get mass codenames Zen you are nominated.