"Renaissance Thinking About the Issues of Our Day"
the new occupy.
Submitted by Rvsticvs on 8. February 2012 - 6:54
The new occupy should start anew as it did in the begining, in small towns and cities, but each should designate a representative individual or group and establish communication with the other groups and set up a defined line of action such as introduction of legislation or repealment of legislation, protests do not bother politicians, but an organized group with defined goals scares them, just notice their efforts to end labor unions, the right to peacefuly assemble is abouu the last thing we have in this "Democracy" let's use it fully and and right so that we can begin to exert change in our legislative houses.
Comments
The original Occupy movement was isolated from political life because the participants said that they didn't want to be "co-opted" by a particular political party. If massive numbers of people contacted members of Congress on current issues and legislation in an organized way, perhaps they would listen, somewhat. In fact, I just heard on the news that both houses of Congress are in the process of finalizing and reconciling a bill that would outlaw insider trading by members of Congress. Somebody must have called or written letters of complaint about this practice. There needs to be a way for Occupy members to be informed about what bills are being considered by diferent committees or by the House and Senate. What has been lacking I think is a coordinated effort for politicians to hear from voters who don't like certain bills or policies. The "power of the people" hasn't been organized in a way that has been directed to Congress. Instead, lobbyists and campaign contributors representing corporate executives have had a disproportionate say over both federal and state legislation.
In past years, I have visited Washington and have paid surprise visits to my congressman's office as well as to those of my two U.S. senators. Imagine if a whole bunch of other people had come with me with an economic and legislative agenda.
The movement may not want to endorse the Democratic Party, but to accomplish anything, the participants would have to take sides on issues, and would have to show that they don't agree with conservative policies such as deregulation in different areas of business or not helping people in need.
Health care, despite the act that was passed, is still in need of further action to bring affordability and access to many. Perhaps there could be a seperate single-payer, health coverage affordability reform occupation movement, built around this continuing area. Conservatives don't have any interest in health coverage, and progressives were disappointed in the legislation. Medicare expansion I believe is not the answer in and of itself, because Medicare has inadequate coverage as it now stands, but this is something that needs further attention.