Firstly, I support Occupy and what it is about. I have concerns and I hear concerns from many quarters. I share this conversation that I had with Shepherd at the Occupy Sebastopol Meeting January 9 (and I paraphrase).. E: "Are you going to process us to death?" S: "There is some process." E:"I am short on process. We need to sink our teeth into something that resonates with the people." S: "You need to think outside the box." E: " I am a student of history. Process doesn't carry a movement" S: "That is such 20th Century thinking." It should be apparent that this conundrum stuck because I am responding here. Is there some new process that will carry the day or is history bound to repeat itself and the Occupy movement end up as an entry in Wikipedia?
Skipping through my own internal debate and forty years of protest history, Civil Rights, Vietnam, Iraq I have come to the conclusion that there is no new process that will change the system. Empowering people through encampments and a new language is not going to impress the body politic. It is at best an organizing tool. The Tea Party made significant (right wing) gains through harnessing the anger of the right to the ballot box. They got control of the Congress! Juxtapose this against "re-grouping" and hand signals, and "mic check". I conclude that the only significant non-violent change comes through the ballot box. Therefore, it must be the ballot box for Occupy.
The process of Occupy is the province of thinkers and optimist; not the gnarly political veteran or the middle class. The power structure includes banks, congress, government and the newly labeled 1%. What does Flagstar Bank of Michigan that owns your loan care about what a sign in Sebastopol might read? Read "What's The Matter with Kansas" by Thomas Frank who tells us why Kansans, historically progressive but now conservative, vote against their own interest. Congress? Where are our candidates? Or, consider that LaFollette the last real progressive that ran for President in 1925 was from Wisconsin, whose Governor threw out the unions last year. The Russian Revolution, Utopian movements and the Hippie generation. It didn't take long for the flower children to understand that putting a flower in the gun barrel of a National Guardsmen did not stop the cop from bashing you. History does lie but it is a real good measure of what works and doesn't work.
This is an appeal to move from process to understanding that only issues that resonate with middle-Americans will cause change in America. We are too satiated, fat and lazy for an American Spring. Occupy will only succeed if it hones in on issues like the mortgage defaults, unemployment, environment destruction, candidates for Congress , and restore some balance at the Ballot box. Otherwise, I fear we fiddle while America burns. Newt Gingrich is calling President Obama a "Saul Alinsky socialist". No communist, so no 'red baiting'. So, why not bash Alinsky socialism? The right knows this works even if Alinsky wasn't a socialist. Process will not change this or the American people who tend to vote against their own interest too often. We need to get cracking to register voters, call out the candidates and restore the liberal perspective that says "government should work for the people" and not the corporations. This may mean direct action. But we must do so in an American context and not waste time creating an idealism. Power to the People. Grow Occupy.