As a disclaimer: I believe in the Occupy Movement, I participate in an Occupation but I am not a spokesperson for anyone, the views expressed here are my own and are not sanctioned by anyone but me. I choose to remain anonymous because this message is about the movement, not about me.

First, Understand What It Is.

Much ado has been made in the media that the movement doesn’t have any tangible leadership, goals or demands. It confounds the established system not to be able to put a specific label on the movement. The public is very used to being given their information in 5 second soundbytes and then taking some shortcuts to mentally categorize what they just heard. Once a label has been put on something, most people will take their life-long preconceptions, prejudices, opinions and beliefs then tuck away whatever they just heard under the appropriate subheading. Once the ‘thing’, whatever it is, has a label they no longer need to think about it, they just run with whatever they have already established in their head as their opinion without further need for analysis. This is a very human thing to do. We all do it and I am not exempt from taking this mental shortcut.

Doing that, however, would be a drastic mistake in the case of the Occupy movement.

This organization cannot fit into a 5 second soundbyte because the complexity of the message is something that can’t be boiled down just to ‘banks are bad’ or ‘the system is broken’. Some factions of the established political system would like for the soundbyte to be ‘get a job, hippies’ or ‘they just want handouts’ or even ‘it’s the liberal tea party’. The movement has much more substance than this and for anyone to create an informed opinion it is critical to hear the message and understand what is going on in the movement and not just take some pundit’s word for it.

The Occupy movement does not have any leaders or stated goals or really much of a structure. That much is true and it is done on purpose. The lack of these things is an action deliberately taken in order to have broad populist appeal, to be inclusive to all people and viewpoints, and to not suffer the mistakes of other populist movements centered on a central personality. The movement does have one issue, which I will get to later. But besides that issue, all other issues are on the backburner until this one thing can be accomplished. It is key to understand this and truly accept it: we take no sides on any issue. The reason for this is that at the same instant we take a side on an issue, the established political system will immediately use that as a wedge to label, form sides and then divide and conquer the scraps of popular sentiment, killing any interest in the movement. The same thing applies to leadership, once a leader is selected or rises, the power brokers in the political establishment will find one thing that person has said publicly, label him as a partisan for it and kill the movement. The establishment politicians and their cronies have been doing this for many years and have more experience, skill and money to deflate populist action than can be competed against. Worst case, they will run a very coordinated smear campaign, as we are currently seeing. The only way to win that game is not to play it and this movement is definitely not playing.

The Goal

Now, I mentioned that there is one goal. This is it: take back our democracy. The goal is to get people talking about the issues again without having predetermined party lines or agendas. Once those soundbytes are heard and once those party lines are drawn, almost everyone stops listening. They stop using their critical thinking skills and just go on doing the same thing they have always done and adhering to the same party line they have always adhered to. The truth of the matter is that this is how we got into the mess we are in. People stopped participating in their democracy and let the country run on autopilot. We quit caring that the politicians weren’t listening to us and were instead listening to the people who write the biggest checks. We took it for granted that since we were fairly comfortable in front of our TVs that the duties of our democracy would handle themselves. Of course the system ran amok! In lieu of us participating, the ones with the deepest pockets got to craft the laws in their own interests and set everything up so they got to bypass the system of checks and balances. They built laws against the rest of us while carving themselves special loopholes. They were able to do this because their wealth bought them status, influence and power. It is legalized and legitimized bribery and it is the vilest thing I can think of to have in a democracy. What’s worse, the politicians never wrote a single law against this practice because it was in their own self-interest to keep the gravy train going. The problem with all of that is that we, the people, got screwed over in the process. The only thing this movement wants is an equal shake at a fair government. We want our representatives to actually represent us instead of representing only the biggest donor which, these days, is usually the rich and the corporations. It should be one person, one vote. Period.

The purpose here is to take the system back from the people who have corrupted it. Our forefathers set up this government so that voters get to decide what goes on in the country. They set it up so that every two years through voting we get to have a peaceful revolution. It is inexcusable that the politicians on both sides ignore the voices and the best interests of their constituents in favor of the whims and desires of the wealthy elite. It is inexcusable that the system is rigged so that no matter which side wins an election, the system stays just as corrupt as before. We broke ties with the British over the wealthy aristocracy running over our lives, it’s what the American Revolution was all about. That’s why I keep telling people: this movement started in 1776 when we declared ourselves independent from the monarchy and all the aristocrats. Now we’ve been taken over by plutocrats making back room deals. All of that has to end. This movement is the people taking power back by exercising our rights to peaceably assemble, to speak out to petition the government for redress of grievances and, ultimately, to vote.

So, provided you have really and truly thought about the above, and you are really and truly prepared to keep an open mind if you still want a soundbyte, this is it: “The rich have stolen the system and corrupted it, the people are going to take it back.”

The Meaning of Solidarity.

Solidarity is defined as: Unity or agreement of feeling or action, esp. among individuals with a common interest; mutual support within a group.

Solidarity was the greatest thing since sliced bread when it was the labor unions fighting the communists in Poland during the Reagan years. Now it’s a dirty word that is itself enough to label a group as ‘commies’ when in reality it means nothing of the sort.

Standing in solidarity simply means that on this one issue: I’ve got your back. It means that I may hate your standpoints on the six thousand other issues out there, I might hate the way you dress but on this specific issue I am willing to go to the mat for you and I know that you will the same for me. It is you and I ignoring our differences and putting this one issue above all else for the greater good.

The great thing is, since this movement is non-partisan on all issues but the one, you can get behind the movement without having to accept a viewpoint on anything else. Try getting that out of the current two party political system. You vote for one party and you have to stomach the whole party platform on all their issues. You may fundamentally and ethically disagree on two or three planks in the platform but you still vote for them because you agree with more planks than the other side.

That’s not what the Occupy Movement is about. You aren’t buying into a whole platform here. Just one great big, giant plank.

The establishment politicians would like you to think you are picking a side of their established system. The Reds will push you away if you stand in solidarity to this movement (a thought which will prevent many from supporting it) and the Blues will try to suck you in to their party (a thought which will also prevent many from supporting it). To both sides, from their point of view, that’s a win-win. The Occupiers, however, think this is vile and co-opting. We are saying that you can stand with us on this one thing and not have to adopt a whole slew of divisive issues. As an independent person with your own thoughts and opinions you should be evolved enough to see that you can support a movement like this without compromising any of your other beliefs. That’s how we can say we represent the 99%. Standing in solidarity with us doesn’t mean you are a liberal. It means you support democracy and it means reforming the system.

We want greater access to democracy, we want our representatives to represent us instead of the people who write the biggest checks. It’s democracy in action. Who can’t get behind democracy? Seriously.

What is our stand on abortion? None. But once all Americans have fair representation from our politicians, we can hash it out democratically.

What is our stand on health care? Or gay rights? The environment? Housing? Taxation? Big Government? Small government? Immigration? Gun Control? None. But once we have fair representation, we can talk about it democratically.

What is our stand on any issue? It’s all TBD once we have fair representation. Fair representation is the key to this. The system has been corrupted and the debates on policy have been so slanted as to be comical. With sane, rational, representation the debates on all of these issues can be worked out for the betterment of the people and with the say-so of the people, the way the founders of our nation intended.

You don’t have to agree with this movement on any specific issue (because there are no specific issues) and you don’t have to hold off on support because of a lack of talking points on your personal hot-button issue (again, no stands on any issue). For now it’s enough to say that all the issues are TBD until such time as we have fair representation and can figure it all out democratically. And let’s be honest: the system needs to be fixed first before any answers to these issues, or others, have any meaning anyway.

The Endgame

As stated above, the views I am expressing are my own and do not represent those of anyone else.

When it comes time to come up with a policy objective, again my opinion, it has to be that we take the money out of politics. The money in the system is the root cause of all our problems. Taking money out of politics is the only way we can be sure to remove the corrupting influence on our representatives. Wall Street wouldn’t have been able to sink the economy if they hadn’t bought their way out of regulation. The money is the corruptive force. Once we get the money out of politics, new laws and regulations will be implemented without special interest loopholes and, once again, we will be able to trust our government.

Sadly, the politicians will never ‘take the money out of politics’ on their own. They benefit far too greatly from the status quo. Since they will not do it voluntarily, the only answer is that We The People need to force them. And force them we shall.

I have a vision for how the movement will force the issue and here it is:

The movement continues to transcend the name-calling from the right and avoids co-opting from the left. We push only one message: “our democracy has been stolen from us, we are going to take it back”. The occupation does not slink back for the winter but instead maintains a steady, core group of dedicated individuals spreading the word and keeping up momentum.

From now until the spring we have concerted monthly marches that are outside of the regular protests. They are full on blasts to show major support from all communities. Like October 15th’s concerted effort but each time growing in numbers and continuously gathering greater support.

In the Spring, the movement comes back redoubled, with greater force and greater urgency. I’m thinking about March 31, during the DC cherry blossoms, the General Assemblies of each Occupy group leaves their encampments, bringing with them the support of all sympathetic groups, unions, and other organizations and, most especially, the 99% in their full glory, to stage a massive march on Washington DC. This will be a super march, the likes of which have never been seen before. A march with the achievable goal of two million protesters, united in getting the money out of politics.

It doesn’t matter if you are a hippy, a liberal, a college dropout, a waitress, a neo-con, a tea-partier, a single working mom or have green spots all over your body, you should support this. This is our country. Plain and simple. It has been corrupted, we are taking it back. The people speaking out is the way of democracy. It is our right, our privilege and our duty, as patriots and believers in our country, to speak up and fight for our democracy.

With such an overwhelming show of support from the people, the candidates for 2012 will have no choice but to listen, lest they be voted out. When it comes to holding politicians accountable for actual lawmaking it will be twofold: first, a constitutional amendment to repeal Citizen’s United and take personhood away from corporations. Second, legislation, or perhaps another constitutional amendment, introducing very strict campaign finance reforms that take private money away from all political races and replace it with public funds. To get this enacted we will make all candidates sign pledges to support and pass this legislation. If they don’t sign, we vote them out in 2012. Simple as that. We continue to occupy public space, increasing popular pressure until the legislation is passed, no matter how long it takes. If they haven’t passed the legislation by next cycle, we vote everyone out in 2014 and put in people who will.

Conclusion

This is a movement that is outside of and has rejected the established political system for very good reasons. The system is corrupt and it needs to be changed from the outside. This movement is a good thing for all Americans and it’s model works for the rest of the world. This is the only movement I’ve seen in my lifetime that seems to be able to avoid playing the two-party game. I am very excited that it has gained traction and has people talking. To me it is a moral imperative that everyone support this. The goals and endgame I have outlined are, in my opinion, the only logical finish to this. Real change can only come from the people. It is time we put aside our ideological differences and fix our broken government. The moment is now. This is our democracy and we need to live up to the duty and responsibility to protect it.



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. Please spread around as widely as possible.