Some politicians and mass media political pundits have gone on the record and have said that the Occupy Wall Street protests are staged events. According to people like Republican Presidential candidate Herman Cane, the demonstrations are political theater designed to deflect attention away from President Obama’s failed policies. Wishful thinking to be sure, but unfortunately, that is not the case.
The Occupy Wall Street demonstrations are a real organic movement that has put a spotlight on the dysfunctional nature of our government and the gross economic disparity among the have’s and have’s not. The recession and social problems that currently affect our nation are not a new phenomena born into existence in the last three years. The issues that currently confront our nation have been looming in the background for the last four decades, and hoping that the problems will magical disappear or the next generation will deal with them is no longer a sustainable policy.
We have two choices before us; we can have a hard decade or a miserable century.
The problems that confront our nation are complex and daunting but not impossible to fix. But everyone, and that means, rich, poor, and middle class have to equally sacrifice in order to turn things around for generations of Americans unborn. Admittedly fixing what is broken wont be easy, but in order to gain some insight into how to proceed, we first need to examine the past…
The stock market crash and the resulting great depression came about in 1929. President Hoover and his administration were more concerned with fly fishing and putting Al Capone behind bars rather than helping reducing the 25 percent unemployment rate in the country. So FDR was elected and probation (18th amendment) was repealed and the country muddled along until 1933 when the American people demanded that the President and Congress do something. This resulted in the much-vaunted New Deal…
Fast-forward to 2011 … massive unemployment, foreclosures, rising poverty rates, out-of-touch-do-nothing Congress, well meaning but impotent President, crisis of confidence, protesters demanding, “do something.”
Sounds familiar? Of course instead of repealing probation, we hear vows to repeal and abolish Obamacare from the face of the Earth, but the similarities are pretty uncanny.
So what to do? Here are a few ideas…
We need to get the big money out of our political process. Super-pacs need to be outlawed. Corporations should not be allowed to pay for political outcomes. Our democracy should not be for sale.
We need to honest with our selves. Tell the truth about the state of our economy, and the plight of the 99 percent. Corporations are not people. Taxing the rich so they pay their fair share wont kill them.
Close tax loopholes for corporations and over haul the tax system.
Arrest and prosecute the robber barons in Wall Street and the banking institutions that caused our economic meltdown. No individual or corporation should have free reign to destroy our economy and the American Dream.
Lastly, stop electing people who are unfit or unqualified to hold office. The crazies should not be running the asylum.
Our political leaders should care about protecting and advancing the interest of our nation rather than lining their pockets with donor money. They should be willing to compromise to serve a greater propose. But most of all they should have some damn empathy.
We have the democracy we deserve, and right now we have grid-lock because we are too easily distracted by the things that separate us rather than focusing on things that we share in common.
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