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Democrats need to take OWS as a challenge and a spur

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Ken Burch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Oct-07-11 08:52 PM
Original message
Democrats need to take OWS as a challenge and a spur
Edited on Fri Oct-07-11 08:57 PM by Ken Burch
Some dismiss it as mere "marching and chanting". Yet, all across the country, the Occupation movement is growing...uncontrollably so in many areas.

There are many people within this party who fear OWS because they see it as a threat to the only goals they believe to matter...the election and re-election of Democratic politicians.

They also refuse to accept the idea that any other form of organizing other than party-based, leader-based organizing is even possible-Or possibly they fear the emergence of a more effective alternative.

In seeing it this way, they utterly miss the point.

OWS exists, in large part, because of the failure of this party's leaders to actually STAND for real, bottom-up change, to actually challenge the upper-class culture of entitlement, to stand up to the arrogance of the financial system, to even bring an end to the useless wars we are continuing to fight in the Middle East.

If you are a Democrat who doesn't want OWS to spread, or who wants to absord its energies WITHIN the Democratic Party, you need to be pushing the party into FIGHTING for the kinds of things OWS a and its supporters are calling for.

You need you be reading the signs at those rallies...listening to what those people, people of all races, ages, genders, sexual orientations and yes, hair lengths, are saying.

The only way for the Democratic Party to stop OWS is for this party to BECOME OWS-to fight for what OWS is pushing for by the means you, as party political people, prefer.

If you're not going to do that, if you're going to simply demand that OWS fold up their tents, roll up their sleeping bags and let "the grown-ups" run things, than you really have no right to ask them to listen to you or cooperate with you at all.

And, while you're thinking about this, if you're still on the fence, go down to the Occupation near you tonight, bring any old heavy coats you've been wanting to get rid of to help those brave people get through these increasingly cold nights...and maybe bring several large Thermoses of hot cocoa or herb tea with you. It's gonna be a long haul for them...and for all of us.
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Modern_Matthew Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Oct-07-11 08:58 PM
Response to Original message
1. I don't want them to get anything they want until this reaches critical mass...
Edited on Fri Oct-07-11 08:58 PM by Modern_Matthew
Then and only then can effective and long-lasting change be possible. Reformism is dead, along with capitalism. We need revolutionary changes to our economic system...
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white_wolf Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Oct-07-11 09:03 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. Spot on!
Reformism is a failure. Capitalism has done its work, it has created the productive forces necessary for socialism. Now it's time to build socialism.
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Mojeoux Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Oct-07-11 08:59 PM
Response to Original message
2. I agree,
We need to push our democratic pols to run with this

And don't look back!!!!!!!

Peace Love and Carpe-Diem.
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FarCenter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Oct-07-11 09:45 PM
Response to Reply #2
7. We need to change out all those democratic pols
Starting with all the septagenarian and octagenarian members of the House and Senate.

Do you expect to ever make progress and to get something different with Pelosi and Reid in leadership positions?
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Mojeoux Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-09-11 09:24 PM
Response to Reply #7
11. All Pols who are shown to be loyal to their corporate masters.....must GO!!! nt/
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Raksha Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Oct-07-11 09:07 PM
Response to Original message
4. In other words: You come to us, because we're not going to come to you.
We'll never get the real, transformative change we want by working within the system, and we know that. But if the system itself transforms...that's another story.
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Dragonfli Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Oct-07-11 09:10 PM
Response to Original message
5. More and more people are becoming aware of how screwed we 99% are with no help
to be expected from anyone on the political horizon, no matter the party.

We have allowed the party of the people to devolve into a co-conspirator that would have us all as slave labor feeding the wealthy, a country where those that have nothing to contribute to the wealth of the few are left to perish as useless eaters. A country where bloody empire for the profit of of an out of control military industry and a thriving new mercenary industry are gorged on the blood of those that are no threat to us in any military sense. A modern form of feudalism that is developing before our eyes.

Without a party to protect us from the unwavering desire of some to re-create this nation as a neo-feudal fascism it's rebirth will continue unabated on it's course toward the neo-feudal goal.

They are beginning to see that they are on their own now against the purchased post-partisanship that will lead us to that goal faster or slower, but on the same course, ever rightward ever more cruel and ever more a threat to their well being and happiness.

We are almost there and there appears to be nothing to stop it.

I blame us that are on the front of liberal thought for allowing our party to so easily be taken over by the republican castaways that dare claim to be more than what they are, purchased lackeys of the wealthy elite.

I blame myself for allowing myself to be used as shamelessly as any trailer park GOP member that would support and vote for what is demonstrably against their best interests and the interests of over 98% of the citizens of this country.

I blame the party faithful for so easily adopting and even cheering well known and deeply damaging right wing policy simply because they follow the party line (policies that they are well educated about and once fought against).

I blame the party itself for being so easily bought and co-opted by the policies of the Heritage Foundation and The Chamber of Commerce simply for a pittance in campaign contributions.


Without a party to oppose the neo-feudalists, what is left to stop them?
What can we do?
What can YOU do?

WHAT THE HELL CAN I DO!

The last sentence describes not only my feelings, but also the feelings of a growing number of citizens that can not help but see what is happening because it grows more blatant every day.
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whosinpower Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Oct-07-11 09:26 PM
Response to Original message
6. Your right
OWS is a symptom of everything that has gone bad - and democrats need to realize they are just as much to blame as republicans.

OWS happened because the politics of the day fail to address the needs of the 99 percent. It is as simple and clear cut as that.

It is an expression that the american dream is dying - that the social contract between government and the people it serves is broken. This goes way beyond democrat vs republican. It asks that people wake up and take notice what is happening...and it parks itself in front of Wall Street, because Wall street controls the politicians - not the other way around. It is envelopes both genders, all religions, and anyone who realizes that the political culture no longer speaks for them.

Our ancestors came to this land to get away from the elites who controlled Europe - to make a new start based on equality and equal opportunity. That distinct character that enabled America to grow and prosper is fading away into stratified economic classes which is rapidly becoming unbearable to the 99 percent.
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coalition_unwilling Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-08-11 02:07 AM
Response to Original message
8. I forsee the Dem Party suffering the same fate as the Whig Party
in the late 1850s, i.e., a fade into irrelevance, and its replacement by a true "Labor Party" that is Democratic Socialist.
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Ken Burch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-08-11 11:17 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. Too many Democratic leaders are acting like Dylan's "Mr. Jones".
Something IS happening here, and they don't know what it is...
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stevenleser Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Oct-08-11 11:19 PM
Response to Original message
10. I phrase it differently in my OP but I think it means mostly the same thing. n/t
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