What Will Victory Look Like for #OccupyWallSt [CNN.com]

One Response to What Will Victory Look Like for #OccupyWallSt [CNN.com]

1. Tony C says:

   October 14, 2011 at 2:31 pm

   The Occupation, Part 3 (beta version);Is There Life After The Manifesto?”The occupiers are coming! The occupiers are coming!”And thar she blows. A movement gone viral. In its wake, the commentary. MSNBC loves it. FOX hates it. Color me shocked. The question is, if 99% of us are getting screwed by 1% of us, why is such a large percentage of the 99% seemingly on the side of the 1%? Are there really 150 million Americans who are such rubes that they consistently vote against there own self interest without even knowing it? Is the average voter P.T. Barnum’s wet dream? The short answer is yes.The recent proliferation of places for us to get our “news” has led us to increasingly get the news we want instead of the information we need. The reason why things happen has become drowned out by people telling us why they think things happen. We listen to them over and over again telling us that we are right and they are wrong. We’ve become a nation of people who scream “How come they don’t get it?” We are angered by their lack of understanding of our point of view. We vote viscerally instead of cerebrally. The ballot box has become the complaint box.And then on the first wednesday in November we wake up and we’re still angry. We’re angry that they won or we’re angry that we won but not enough to overcome a filibuster. We’re angry that things won’t be changing fast enough or we’re angry that things are about to change too quickly, too “radically.”We sit in front of our televisions and computers and ipads and cellphones, and experience stationary road rage. With bulging eyes and flaring nostrils we watch as they march and protest, or as they besmirch the marchers and the protesters. Some vent at a gun range, others in a notebook. We sink into not so quiet resolve as we hope for the best and expect the worst. We shake our fists in the air and then log onto facebook and ask why did or didn’t we or they do this or that? (I considered occupy Kau until I realized I couldn’t think of even one symbol of rampant capitalist greed in the entire district, by far Hawaii’s poorest. Go figure.)Ultimately we are angry because we think that’s all we’ve got and we know it ain’t enough. We see 50 differant signs that give us 50 differant reason to be angry at them or angry at the way they are portrayed. We are either too apethetic or too busy to summon up the time or energy for anything more complex than anger at them. That anger requires more (negative) energy than almost any other emotion matters less to us than the simplicity with which the emotion can be conveyed to them.We’ve become a nation of bullies who force a few geeks to take our tests for us and then beat them up no matter what grade they get. Then we get angry when the geeks go on to make millions while we (metaphorically) are forced to mow their lawns. McFLY!!!When will we learn that standing on the beach and screaming at the ocean won’t stop the tides from coming and going? Now? Perhaps. Maybe this is the time when access to real information in real time combines with enough anger to force us to figure out what the fuck we’re actually angry about. One can only hope, and march, and protest. And then what? Well there’s an answer to that too…To a nation that recently championed enhanced interogation I suggest a paradigm shift to enhanced education. The current state of congress is all the proof we need that torturing the constituency with the white noise that is political advertising and commentary doesn’t give us good results, at least not for an overwhelming percentage of the constituents. The irony is that the constituency is torturing itself by voting from a place of anger brought on by being practically forced to watch a non stop bombardment of partisan rhetoric.But what if that anger was borne of knowledge based on facts? What if the truth was easy to understand? Towards that end…Would somebody please create an easy to understand, NON PARTISAN website that lets me type in my zip code and get a list of my local elected officials, state and federal, the people who represent me here and in D.C. I should be able to click on an officials name and get their entire voting record and be able to easily link to a copy of any bill they voted on as well as a list of the others who voted for or against it. I should be able to link to a copy of any bill my representative has voted for or against as well as an easy to understand, non partisan explanation of what’s in the bill. I’d like a brief summary of which groups lobbied for or against the bill and why, and then be able to cross reference, easily, with a list of my representative’s contributors. Give each elected official the opportunity to provide a one paragraph explanation of why they voted they way they did. If the office of senator so-and-so can’t find the time to put together these brief explanations then perhaps he’s not worthy of your time, or vote. The first step towards government accountability is to actually make lawmakers account, on a bill by bill basis, for their actions/votes.How about an online video tutorial on basic American civics? A brief, easy to understand, non partisan, non condescending explanation of how we can wake up one morning and find the law of the land has changed.I would submit that most of us (and them) are angry because of what we’ve been told, not what we know to be true, because by and large, we (and they) don’t know enough. Most voters don’t know if they’ve benefited or been bent over by a piece of legislation until we actually experience the pleasure or pain. Our representaive votes for or against some bill that, come April 15, makes some of us feel like lottery winners while others feel like the new guy in the shower on cell block D. Why? Because a lack of understanding of how the process realy works (or doesn’t work) leads us (and them) to be subject to those who do understand it.How about a phone app that alerts me when proposed legislation is coming up for a vote so that I can go home, look it up and weigh in with my representative? The more voters understand the process the more they should want to get proactively involved. The only way I can have any chance of influencing my representative’s vote on any bill is if I’m made aware of its existance ahead of time.Not enough to shift the landscape you say? I agree. 2 words: BUS TOUR. That’s right, it’s time for the “Economic Sanity Tour 2012. How business and the business of politics effect your everyday life”Here’s how it works. Get two retired/not currently serving congressmen or senators, one republican, one democrat, and organize a series of debates followed by a question and answer session. Each debate could be moderated by a professor from a local college. What you don’t want to do is actually have it at a college or university, or any major metropolitan area for that matter. Half the people in those audiences will think they know more than the people on the stage. This isn’t about topping off someone’s knowledge of the process, it’s about attempting to fill an almost empty tank.Want to rain some knowledge on folks who are generally pandered (read:lied) to, hit the county fair circuit. Maybe there’s a country music artist sympathetic to “the cause” that we can hitch our wagon to in order to put a few more butts in the seats. Set up part of the newly created website so that people in the towns where the tour will be going can post the questions that matter most to them. That way when the experts arrive they can be prepared with the answers that matter most in any given place. The farm belt’s concerns may be differant from the rust belt’s. Cater the debates to the region.Think of it as Timothy Leary vs G. Gordon Liddy for ma and pa kettle. Have pamphlets available with answers to the most frequently asked questions. What is a derivative? What is a progressive tax rate? What industries spent the most on lobbying and what did all that money get them? Everything has to be designed and coordinated with one goal in mind, educating voters on how the business of politics is conducted. Let a few small town Nebraskans in on how they play a part, or more often than not don’t play a part, in the process and you’ll get them talking at lunch counters, and then you’re off to the races. Educate a few and let them educate the rest.”And you’re gonna pay for this how?” Well, the irony of corporate sponsorship hasn’t eluded me. Want to see all 3 of the Fox and Friends host’s heads explode simultaneously (I know I do)? Pick up the phone and call George Soros. No, turfing this one out will be all the fodder needed for its foes. Grass roots is grass roots.I recommend allowing donations of up to $20 per person or entity. The beauty of this is that the donations will be coming from people hoping that more people knowing more about the process will benefit the nation as a whole. We should be able to get the debaters for the cost of a decent hotel room and a small, compensatory per diem. As for the bus, I hear there’s some chick in Alaska getting rid of one, cheap.In the end I think the occupy Wall St. movement speaks to power being a zero sum game. They (whoever they are)have it and we (whoever we are) do not. It’s only when we educate the citizenry as to the process of obtaining power that we can have a republic that is truly subservient to its democracy and not the other way around.

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