CITIZENS
IN ACTION CAN DEFEAT GOVERNMENT INACTION
“I
remain just one thing, and one thing only – and that is a clown. It
places me on a far higher plane than any politician.” – Charlie
Chaplin
The
“Occupy” Movement. This movement has been active since
September 17, 2011 . It was formed to bring attention to the fact
that there are strong financial ties and mutual support between Wall
Street and Congress that have contributed to some gross inequality,
inequity, and iniquity. They drew attention to their cause by
establishing encampments in cities across the country. Support comes
not just from New York, but from all over the country and all over
the globe. These are the cries of the weak, the needy, the
down-trodden, the unfortunate, the disenfranchised, and of people of
principle who unite with them in their struggle, not just for
equality, but for survival.
“If you ask the government
for permission to protest it, you deserve to be told no." –
Jim
Lesczynski,
Manhattan Libertarian Party Chair
The
Grievances.
There are massive numbers of problems that beset our country and it
people today, The Declaration
of the Occupation of New York City
by the Occupy Wall Street
demonstrators outlined 21 major grievances, and even then noted that
the list was not all-inclusive. With a little more thought, that list
could easily have numbered 100 or more.
"Our tradition is one of
protest and revolt, and it is stultifying to celebrate the rebels of
the past, while we silence the rebels of the present." – Henry
Steele Commager
"During the last bubble
(from 2002 to 2006) the top 1% of Americans -- paid mainly from the
Wall Street casino -- received two-thirds of the gain in national
income, while the bottom 90% -- mainly dependent on Main Street's
shrinking economy -- got only 12%. This growing wealth gap is not the
market's fault. It's the decaying fruit of bad economic policy …
“My G.O.P. destroyed the U.S. economy. " – David
Stockman,
(former Director of Ronald Reagan's Office of Management and Budget)
The
Over-Riding Point. The most important sentence in this Occupy
Wall Street document sums up all the frustration and suffering that
the people of our country have been forced to endure. It states,
“No
true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by
economic interests. We come to you at a time when corporations, which
place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression
over equality, run our governments.” – Declaration
of the Occupation of New York City
Four key words in this statement
are “corporations ... run our governments.” This is especially
true at the federal and state levels. The bottom line is: All of the
other issues spring from this one root problem.
There are a thousand hacking
at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root. – Henry
David Thoreau,
Walden, 1854
Big
Money Drives Politics. Politicians
need huge amounts of money to campaign for public office.
Corporations (and the financial elite) need strong support in our
legislative branches to ensure that their wealth will be protected
and will continue to grow. The money brokers thereby become power
brokers, helping to finance the campaigns of candidates who will
protect the power elite's interests in return.
"A
relatively small number of deep-pocketed donors exerted an outsize
influence on Tuesday's [election] results," – Michael
Luo/Griff Palmer,
New York Times (11/3/10). "The big corporations are going to try
to get what they paid for. – Richard
Trumka,
AFL-CIO President, New York Times (11/3/10).
Money
can't buy you love . . .
but
it can frequently buy you an elective office. Typically, in federal
elections the candidate that raises the most money wins about 90
percent
of
the time. Most of this money comes from wealthy donors who expect
something in return. And, whenever politicians accept huge monetary
donations from deep-pocket sources, they are likely to feel indebted
to do something for them in return, to ensure that those same sources
will contribute again in future elections. Because money plays an
undue role in how politicians are elected, it also plays an undue
role in how they act. Even Glenn Beck agrees.
“Wall Street owns our
government. Our government and these gigantic corporations have
merged.” – Glenn
Beck,
New York Times (9/19/09)
How
Many Millionaires Does It Take to Take Control of the Politics of a
Whole State? In the October
10, 2011 issue of The New Yorker, Jane Mayer reported how one
conservative millionaire did exactly that. In North Carolina, a swing
state that is expected to be important in the 2012 elections, one
millionaire bankrolled the campaigns of 22 conservative candidates
for the state legislature. Eighteen of them were successful, giving
majority status to the Republicans in both houses of the state
legislature for the first time since 1870.
“For an individual to have
so much power is frightening. The government of North Carolina is for
sale.” – Chris
Heagarty,
Democratic candidate for the North Carolina legislature in the New
York Times (10/10/11)
Money
talks, and politicians listen . . .
and
they respond in kind to the benefit of corporations and the wealthy..
Was it just a coincidence that three
of the five top corporate donors to
the candidacy of Barack
Obama
and
John
McCain
in
2008 (Goldman
Sachs,
JPMorgan
Chase & Co,
and Citigroup
Inc.)
were all among the top ten financial
firms to be bailed out,
to the tune of $80
billion?
That amount of money could have provided from $25,000 to $50,000 for
1.6 million to 3.2 million homeowners to escape foreclosure and
potential family ruin. The big three donors were seen as being “too
big to fail,” but 1.6 million to 3.2 million homeowners,
individually or collectively, were apparently not “too big to
fail.” Let's face it. Big money owns Big Business, and Big Business
owns the government (at both the federal and state levels).
If you are a major
contributor and go to Washington, you might have a chance to have
lunch with a senator or representative; or if you are a really big
contributor, you might even end up at the White House. The closest
chance you or I have at having lunch at the White House is buying a
hot dog from the vendor on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the
building. – Marc
A Triebwasser,
How
Corporations Influence the Government
(1998 )
Congress Members' Loyalties
Once elected, members of Congress
frequently ignore the people whom they are elected to represent.
Their first priority is to get reelected. Their second allegiance is
to their political parties. Third comes their financial backers. Then
come their supporters – the people who voted for them, followed as
a distant fifth the people in their district who did not vote for
them,. And, dead last, come the needs and welfare of our country and
all of its people.
A
politician thinks of the next election; a statesman thinks of the
next generation.
— James
Freeman Clarke
(1810–1888),
Unitarian clergyman, writer
So,
when Congress members say that they are going to consult with their
constituencies, it isn't necessarily the people in their
representational district to whom they are referring. They are just
as likely to be conferring with their financial backers and
lobbyists. When they do meet with their true constituency, it is just
as likely that they will be trying to convince them on his or her
stand of an issue rather than soliciting their input on the subject.
A Congress member's constituency should be all of the people in the
country. Next, it is supposed to be the
voters or residents in a district represented by an elective officer.
However,
it doesn't always turn out that way. Here is a more realistic way of
how many Congress members view their constituencies
Wall
Street's Views of the OWS Protest.
With
regard to the Occupy Wall Street movement, one Wall Street money
manager recently expressed disappointment that their New York
Congress members had not “come
out swinging for an industry that donates heavily to their
campaigns.”
He stated, “They
need to understand who their constituency is.”
He is saying, in effect, “To
hell with the people; we are the ones they really represent.”
Unfortunately, there is a great deal of truth to that premise.
"We've
got government to the highest bidder. We've got auction block
democracy. It's not true that each voter counts for one and only one;
that's the way it's supposed to be in a democracy. Money determines
who gets to run for office, how people run for office, it determines
what people do while in office and the fact of the matter is the vast
majority of people are cut out of the loop." – Senator
Paul Wellstone
(1992)
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