- Paul Constant
The protesters of Occupy Seattle have real grievances, even if they’ve had a hard time articulating them so far.
So in the interest of promoting an informed public debate, we suggest the protesters look to the following talking points the next time they’re interviewed by a reporter from The Stranger or some other news organization:
We Want Fairness
Our nation is broken. We all know this. The gap between rich and poor is the widest since 1917, and growing. Our legal and political systems have been twisted to favor the wealthy and powerful. Washington State has the most regressive tax laws in the union, with the lowest wage-earners paying taxes at nearly seven times the rate of the top one percent. We want everyone to have the opportunity to enjoy the rights our Constitution promises, and to pay their fair share toward sustaining a working America.
We Want Justice
Wall Street caused the financial collapse. They are the ones who are responsible, yet they are the ones who got bailed out in 2009. Now, Wall Street needs to stop foreclosing on our homes, and start helping to bail us out. Washington Mutual’s suicidal recklessness nearly destroyed our state’s economy in 2008, and now Chase shows the same sociopathic lack of respect for Washington State homeowners, small businesses, and consumers. The laws that control the financial industry are insane. Wall Street needs to be properly regulated, its victims need to be made whole, and the banksters who committed financial fraud and other crimes need to be prosecuted.
We Want Jobs
Tax cuts, bailouts, cheap money, low interests rates—that’s been our government’s response to the economic crisis. And where are the jobs corporate America promised to create with the record profits generated by these pro-business policies? In low-wage markets overseas! Meanwhile, tens of millions of formerly middle-class Americans remain unemployed. It is time to put Americans back to work rebuilding America, creating good jobs at good wages building the roads, rail, bridges, schools and other crucial public infrastructure we desperately need. And it is time for corporate America to help pay the bill.
The people with tents pitched in Westlake Center have just mixed themselves in with all the crazy homeless people and have begun to look crazy and homeless themselves. I’m an idealistic 26 year-old, and it’s hard for even me to take them seriously.
@50 – Yes, focusing creative chaos is worthwhile. I’d also say it’s pretty awesome to be exploring communal social structures in ad-hoc settlements within the American urban core.
However.
These are not things that 99% of the population care about deeply, or even at all.
How many members of The Stranger staff were themselves arrested?
Then shut the fuck up.
Great job getting the one black guy there front and center in your photo, Paul Constant!
That’s so very ‘celebrate diversity’ of you!
@34, yeah, because raising tariff walls during a recession-dare-I-say-it-depression is a proven strategy for, uh, uh, global financial collapse. Hmm.
@49, the problem is reality. Obama’s “bone” is the best you can hope for. Hearing all these discussions about what tax rate ought to be applied to this or what’s “corporate” and what isn’t remind me of nothing so much as the discussions I had with my friends when I was fourteen about what kind of car we wanted. But you’re not getting the Lamborghini Countach.
a fabricated lock safe return on investment of say about 15% with built in tax exemptions has led to this situation in far more ways than unions or govt spending on needed social services…
@50 Shut this thread down. That is what it is all about. If policy is affected by this then great! If not then we have at least energized our base and at least gotten more people informed.
@55 – They do actually make all those cars, you know. Or they did at some point in living memory, anyway.
The point being, there’s a difference between asking for, say, a particular taxation scheme resembling one that was actually in effect as recently as 50 years ago, and asking for, on the other hand, “social justice” or “a rethinking of the capitalist system.”
“A Lamborghini Countach” is extremely unlikely, yes, but “A White Lotus Esprit that turns into a Submarine” is impossible.
No Testarossa for you!!!
@55 You could be totally right. If that is indeed the best we can hope for then we’re headed for a much larger collapse–not helped by the D’s in any way tangible between 2006-2010 (again, I get it, forcing people into Heritage Foundation insurance schemes was a breakthrough, hallelujah–I’m agnostic, time will tell one way or the other.) and especially in 2009 when they ostensibly had a mandate to even pass *moderate reforms*, which they failed miserably at doing. You want to compare these occupations to childish dreaming and I say that reality is sadly ahead of you. While you’re looking for a PowerPoint or for some solid process-oriented “goal,” people are already immersed in the reality of creeping poverty, joblessness, and/or sickness and death. The reality is that this political and economic system is irrelevant and illegitimate to many millions. It has been for a long time. That to effect ANY change may require some stimulus outside the system. It’s obvious to me that D-voters will not provide the appropriate feedback.
@47
Then your beef should be as much with the regulatory (bureaucratic), policy (legislative), executive (agenda) and judicial (justice) systems who have, and continue to, fail(ed) in holding-up their end of the bargain.
Might I point-out that these are all government entities? So by what mechanism are you looking for relief?
Government?
Government is going to solve it? (Yeah, and Obama = Change, right? Sure thing, Guantanamo!)
In fact, the runaway winner in creating the market for the crappy mortgages was… drum roll… Government! http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12221294…
Stop centralizing power in central government and central banks and you wouldn’t have these problems. (Instead of parroting slur you’re heard about Libertarians, maybe it would be time to see if it they now make sense…)
@61 There’s a problem here of course. American Libertarians simply want to replace the state with syndicates that will be like state actors except without any accountability–or powerful States that will be more draconian. I like the whole “monopoly on force” because it fails to account for the transfer of that monopoly to the unregulated megacorps that are already sprouting up.
While I am all for dissolution at this point, I don’t think the current thread of minarchism is anywhere near coherent (take for instance Ron Paul’s belief that the state should intervene in medical decisions like abortions!) and probably more far-fetched than Fnarf getting the Lambo of his dreams.
Bah, corporations aren’t the problem. Corporations should try to make as much money as possible, not to look out for mankind. It’s the gov’t that should be looking out for people and ensuring that corporations don’t run wild. This is the real problem, the gov’t isn’t doing it’s job. Worse, the work the gov’t did over 70 years trying to make fair and balance rules for corporations to play by has been undone in the last 20-30 years, by both Dems and Republicans. The protesters are targeting the wrong group, they should be targeting politicians. Could you imagine how powerful it would be if every city had a Occupy your Senator’s/Congressman’s office? Could you imagine how effective it would be if young people showed up in record numbers to vote, and in between elections constantly voiced their opinions to their elective representatives? You know why the tea party has so much power in the republican party? It’s because they target their elective representatives instead of camping out at ground-zero for crazies in Seattle (Seriously people, stop having protests in Westlake, it’s all white-noise now). Corporations haven’t failed you, they never owed you anything. It’s your elected leaders that failed you, they’re the ones that where suppose to have your back.
Also reposting this cause I commented on a pretty dead thread yesterday and think it still is valid:
Bah, will people stop using the westlake park as their protest area? I’ve got nothing against protests or the occupy seattle people, but westlake has become ground zero for crazy in Seattle. If it’s not filled with it’s normal “you’re all going to hell” bible thumbers and the “israeli apartheid” groups, its filled with the cause of the month club, or crack heads, or scammers trying to sell phoney bus tickets, or worse of all, hipster charity canvassers trying to con you into giving them money. Damn it people if you really care about your cause, then you owe it to get the cause out of westlake or else you’re just being lazy. Everyone in Seattle has been condtioned to ignore anyone who tries to talk to them in this area as they’re most likely a) crazy or b) asking for money. If you protest here you’re just blending into the crowd. Try Bellevue Sqaure if you really want to shake things up for a change, or even pike place market or downtown redmond. Protest in westlake and 90% of Seattle will write you off as crazy and ignore you.
Hahaha, number @38 ftw!
I want a) social justice and b) a Countach. Wait, an Espada, that’s the one. Midnight blue. And social justice.
@66
OK, Boom. All yours. Done.
But what do you want next?
If “Fairness”
doesn’t address the fact that
HALF of American households
pay ZERO Federal Income Taxes
then you are a Full of Shit Douchenozzle…..
That headline would be a lot more effective if it read “Here’s what we fucking pissing shitting cunting want”.
It’s easy to write down a wish list. Now The Stranger needs to make this into a three column table:
-Wants
-Implementation
-Markers for Success
The first column is already completed. Now they need to take each want and describe what laws, tax changes, or programs they want to implement that want. Next they need to say what they expect to happen when that want is implemented, such as increased purchasing power by the working class.
Get on it guys!
Thank you, robotslave. What do I want next, you ask? How about an end to global warming and my dick 10% bigger? Wait, make that 15%.
@35: “How many of these protestors are … building apartments for the homeless?”
Food Not Bombs, which feeds a large amount of homeless at least once a week, is involved. So yes, many are doing whatever they can to help out the homeless while you sit at home and do nothing with yourself but judge sanctimoniously.
You are lazy and have no right to act better, you’re objectively doing less for society than these protestors.
Seriously, you’re not even working. Why aren’t you doing anything for the homeless and those worse-off than yourself?
What we poopooping doodooing peepeeing farting cunting want!
Fairness, justice and jobs.
That sounds good to me.
Oh, and roasted Washington Mutual and Chase pigs on a stick, each with rotten apples in their snouts.
I’m heading to the local Occupy tomorrow.
Ok, wait. Was social security a demand of the Hooverville camps of the Great Depression? Were the hords of migrant workers making clear statements of purpose to create the FDIC? No they did not, they camped, shouted, starved and died in the thousands. They created such a hindrance to making money that the elites of that time found a way to make reforms, get them into houses and jobs so they didn’t rip the goddam doors off their limos.
I think if jeff bezos has the brains to outcompete apple with the new “flame” smartbook, he can put his pointy head into the problem of mortgage foreclosure reform. If paul allen can get the city to build the SLUT for his south lake union empire, he can find a way to build a bullet train from here to Portland. If the politicians can’t light a fire under the ass of corporate captains of industry to maintain a education system that provides them code monkeys and electricians, then perhaps a tirefire in the middle of the treelighting ceremony at westlake will persuade them to find a way. I have faith in them, I really do.
EVEN IF THE WALL STREET PROTESTERS WIN A FEW PROMISES FROM POLITICIANS NOTHING WILL MATTER UNLESS THEY FIGHT FOR AND WE GET >>>CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM>>>> THAT SHOULD BE THEIR MAIN FIGHT AND EVERYONE ELSES. GET THE MONEY OUT OF POLITICS! WHY DOES ONE NEED TO BE RICH TO RUN FOR OFFICE? MONEY CAUSES POLITICIANS TO BE CROOKS.
The SLOG comments section was taken over by sock puppets (using MetalGear) working on behalf of central bankers and their transformational UN Agenda 21. These occupy “protests” are no different. They are funded by central bankers. The real revolution WILL NOT be televised, nor will it be covered in the central banker-backed SLOG.
Case in point: MoveOn.org is supporting the protests. A major financial contributor to MoveOn.org is George Soros. Soros co-owns part of the Federal Reserve known as the DTC, or “Cede & Co.”
We’re just scratching the surface here, folks…Michael Moore’s messaging is completely compatible with central banker UN Agenda 21 planning. And on and on and on…
actually there are a lot of articulate people and I’m sure many get interviewed, but the media (mainstream media anyway) just airs the non articulate ones in an attempt to discredit the movement.