Forum Post: Whither OWS?
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 24, 2011, 7:58 p.m. EST by PoadianCotu
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Re Michael Moore's contribution of November 23rd 2011, the following was posted elsewhere, BOWS ( before OWS ---- a la AD, BC, BCE, etc). Some overlap will be noted:
"Four things:
Make the FED a 100% agency of the Govt.
Shut down ALL money creation by private banks. Creating money ought to be a 100% Federal Govt function. Be done with fractional reserve banking.
ALL presidential and congressional elections 100%, yes 100% publicly financed. ALL money out of lobbying ------ ideas (even suggested clauses) on legislation fine. Money NO.
It should be obvious, but money and corporations, etc are NOT people. ONLY people are people. Get rid of this nonsense of, essentially, buying elections and calling it democracy. Elections, though integral and important, are but a small part of democracy. Poverty of body, mind and spirit is THE major obstacle to the possibility of existence of democracy. It facilitates empire just fine. However, empire is fundamentally incompatible with democracy."
In addition, TGAL (think global; act local) is the strategy ------ WORLDWIDE!! should be the vision.
For the sake our 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. They are twisting our laws and manipulating our policies in their favor at the expense of the average American. 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. Here's my 2 cents on what we need to do:
For decades now the corporations and special interests have had our "representatives" bought and paid for (both on the right and the left). Don't get distracted by the symptoms - we need to address the root cause. 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!!!
Regardless of how I feel about them, how do you propose to get OWS to adopt these goals? This forum has people who are full of ideas, some good, some bad, some indifferent, but nowhere does anyone propose exactly how they would go about actually having their ideas adopted, much less implemented.