Occupy And The 99 Percent vs The Plutocrats

I've never supported any kinds of acts of violence to remedy anything. But I'm starting to wonder if nothing short of it is ever going to end the Corporate Rule and the Plutocracy the U.S. has become. Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way, shape, or form, advocating any form of violence here. I just don't know if America's ruling class will ever actually listen to the voices and complaints of its citizens.

Washington currently seems to be a money corrupted cesspool for big corporations, special interests, the super rich... It no longer represents "We The People," but rather those special interests. Huge campaign donations to elected officials are legal, but I can't see how it's any different than outright bribery.

Washington today operates on a system of legalized bribery. Give enough money, to enough elected officials, and get the legislation written and passed just as you want it. Financially benefiting you or your company. And in the post Citizens United era we are now in,( or Corporations United era, as I like to call it) the corruption and big money flowing into our electoral process, has gotten much worse.

The "Citizens United" supreme court ruling overturned more than a century of law in the American electoral process that prohibited corporate campaign donations. This ruling now allows corporations to contribute unlimited amounts of money to candidates, which was previously not allowed. In addition, huge unlimited amount contributions can now be given to these Super Pacs, who supposedly operate independently, and are not connected to the candidate or their campaign. (what a crock!)

America is predominately a two party system. The Republicans and the Democrats. Third party candidates rarely get more than 5% of the vote.The great majority of this now allowed huge sums of money are going to one party (Republican) Studies have shown that the candidate who raised and spent the most money on their campaign, wins the election 94% of the time. These new rules are now stacking the deck in our elections. If elections aren't completely fair, one has to wonder how much actual Democracy is left in our Democracy now?

The Dictators of the Mid East knew they could not just ignore the uprisings of their people and the Arab Spring. They didn't have a First Amendment Right in these Arab Spring countries where people took to the streets, yet the regimes knew they couldn't just ignore it.

The Occupy Wall Street and the 99 percent protests are the first social justice movement since the Viet Nam War era here in the U.S. where mass numbers of Americans took to the streets, addressing the long overdo problem of income inequality. Here in the U.S. we do have a First Amendment Right. But the protests were met with tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets...and the message has been mostly ignored by the Plutocrats.

It will be a shame if it has to come to this, but I'm beginning to think that the Plutocrats will defend their cash cow by any means necessary, and resist any change to the money corrupted system that benefits them almost exclusively Even if it means crushing the opposition with police brutality that resembles something you would expect to see coming out of Egypt, Libya...

That's what I thought of the Oakland and NYC authoritarian police brutality I saw on T.V. This can't be happening here in America! But it did! Despite our First Amendment Rights to assemble and protest.

Below are ten steps our elected officials in Washington could take (but probably wont) to put our Government back in the hands of "We The People" and not the special interests, Corporations, and super rich Plutocrats who've (stolen, or purchased it, whichever you prefer) from us.

1. Reenact Glass-Steagal re-separating banks into deposit banks and investment banks.
2. Declare the investment banks bankrupt, which they are.
3. Declare the gambling debts (speculation) null and void.
4. Let them fail.
5. Jail them after 1934-style Pecota Commission hearings.
6. Audit and abolish the Federal Reserve.
7. Restore constitutional money based on national credit which Lincoln brought back with his Greenbacks and Kennedy tried to do. Look what it got them.
8. Remove corporate personhood.
9. Start infrastructure projects to rebuild the country.
10. Clean up the courts and law enforcement.

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible
shall make violent revolution inevitable
-John F. Kennedy-

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future