bipartisanship is the wrong approach

[mellowtigger]

Republocrats serve the plutocracy, not the electorate.  Doubt any commentary from pundits of the left or the right who try to frame the Occupation using the terms of traditional political parties.  I personally think that it's time to end both major parties so that true democratic representation can begin again.

Whatever it was that motivated the beginning of the Tea Party protest, their effort was quickly co-opted as just a new "brand name" of the Republican party similar to the Moral Majority of the 1980s.  I fervently hope that we can keep the Occupation movement from becoming a similar tool for the Democratic party.

Consider the following commentary from a leftist website:

The False Divide

A joke making the rounds on the Internet goes like this:

There's a plate of 12 cookies sittng on a table. The rich take 11 cookies leaving only 1 cookie left on the plate. They then turn to the Tea Party and say ‘Those unions are trying to take your cookie.'

This works about equally well with Republicans vs. Democrats.

It's why Republicans versus Democrats is largely a false divide. The monied interests would rather have us arguing Republican vs. Democrat (50/50 split) than Rich vs. Everyone Else (1/99 split).

- http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/10/1024591/-99:-A-Warning-to-OWS-and-the-Rest-of-Us

So please consider, when reading any commentary, how an opinion could serve the interests of corporations to keep the electorate divided into their current and ineffective Republocrat camps.  The 99% are larger than either political party, and it's time we worked together to solve the problems that undermine our democratic process.

Here's a sign from #occupyMN that belongs to a small political party in Minnesota.  As it happens, I was one of only a few thousand Minnesotans who voted for them during the last election.  If this ongoing Occupation fails to deliver any change at all except the formation of many, many new political parties, then it still will have served an important role in changing the course of American history and improving our existing political process.

Regardless of your political stripes, please try to find those issues being discussed by Occupiers that you also support.  Add your voice to the chorus asking for change on those issues.  Leaving America to the whims of its politicians (bought by lobbyist money) is what got us into this mess.  Help us demand something new.

Comments

[furr_a_bruin]

I'm a registered member of the Green Party of California - in large part because I like their ideas on changing how we do elections such that smaller parties get a better chance to have a voice.