I think Shinra and Geo have nailed a good big part of the problem. Democrats are't willing to disrupt the system that has won them elections and helped them amass money and power.
There's game theory at play too. When you have two people playing pick-a-number, the sensible thing is for the first person to pick five and the second to pick 6 -- that way each has a 50/50 shot at being closest to whatever the correct number is.
But when the first player picks 4, or 3, or 2, then the second player would be a fool to pick 6. The second player's strategy should always be to choose one number higher than the first player. (Or one number lower if the first person picks a high number, but you get what I mean.)
On paper, there's a really, really easy fix for that kind of gridlock: add more players. In reality, our political system is rigged against exactly that fix. Because, again, the entrenched power structures really aren't interested in solutions that might threaten their power.
[NEW REPLY]
Sorry Shinra, money runs your system. The Tea Party, despite having so many successful albums, doesn't have much, but their fairy-tale, rugged individualist ideals can be used to inadvertently support big business and banks (can we call that "big money" or does it have to be "big finance"?). OWS didn't get enough rich people interested, probably because their message was "fuck you, rich 1% who run the country" and that's a hard sell.
Well, a hard sell to the people who run the country. Actually a pretty easy sell to the majority of the public, and I think OWS could certainly have done a better job of it if they hadn't been so focused on goofy shit like building tent cities and waggling their fingers.
People criticize OWS for not having a clear message or clear direction, but I think that's unfair. The message was "I'm an American and I have no power in my country because I'm not rich."
I'll agree. Their direction is a little less clear, but I still think their goals are easily determined and articulated: shrink the banks, eliminate loopholes, raise taxes on the rich, stop giving golden parachutes to people who fuck up. You want to get into a bit more detail, well, I think most of them would support ending corporate personhood and restoring Glass–Steagall.
Once you get down into the "issues" an OWS protest starts to seem less like a unified mob and more like a collage of different people with different ideas who all come from different walks of life other than the fact that none of them are billionaires. How do you take back a democracy from a ruling class that at best is in power due to oversights in the system that never got fixed because the system just happened to be structured in such a way that it perpetuates itself or at worst, they intentionally are keeping the rules the way they are to fuck the rest of you because Jesse Ventura is right and they are really reptiles.
I don't think it's oversight, though. I think the system is functioning exactly as intended.
There's not an easy, civil way to fix this and well, most poor american's are still fat. You are all still fed, mostly employed, entertained, and relatively free so the motivation to do something drastic and/or meaningful just isn't there. Isn't the poster child of the OWS protestors an unemployed grad or some such?
Maybe that's part of it. A lack of motivation.
I mean, we're sitting here talking on a messageboard instead of taking to the streets. We're even less motivated than they are.
The point is, people marched or squatted or whatever, they made the complaint heard, and then they got criticized because the fact that they are 99% of America means they don't all have some magical single voice.
And after thoroughly ridiculing them, the news media moved on to the next shiny thing, because that's what they do.
Are there any even remotely electable politicians that have recognized what OWS is talking about and made any attempt to side with them? At least here in Canada, Elizabeth May got elected.
Elizabeth Warren's got a pretty good shot in Massachusetts. And, via
Politico (granted, a year-old article), there's also John Larson (D-CT), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), and Keith Ellison (D-MN). Generally people with safe jobs in pretty relibly liberal districts. But it's something.
