The Disease, the Antibiotic, and the Cure—Occupy Wall Street’s Manifesto as I see it: Occupy Wall Street wants to know WHEN WILL the unconscionable dupes of the Tea Bag movement understand that the Republican Party is NOT about them? The Republican Party is about the top 1%. Most of us do not fall into that category. When will they realize that it was the massive DEREGULATION and insertions of too-big-to-count tax loopholes for the corporations (not the regulation of Wall Street) over decades that led to the too-big-to fail banks poisoning the body politic? When will the ignorant understand that it was the overturning of the Depression era Glass Steagall legislation and the insertion of the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, also known as the Financial Services “Modernization” Act of 1999 (look them up if you do not know what they are) merging the investment banks and savings banks that is an integral part of our too-big-to fail problem?
FINALLY, the occupation of Wall Street movements all around the nation and the world have begun and will NOT stop.
Basic things are needed: The true, real and not planted part of the Tea Bag movement must know that the Koch Brothers, Karl Rove, Dick Army, entities such as "Freedom" Works and those like them, decades before, created this mess. Today they want to sustain this system which works ONLY for the extraordinarily rich. We, the middle and working classes, must join forces to get those Republicans and Conservadems alike, who are perpetuating the problem, OUT. They will NOT solve our financial quagmire but will ADD to it as their kind has created it over time.
We must work within the existing structure of our political system. It is a GOOD system but it has been hijacked by big money, big banks and big corporate behemoths helped by a quid pro quo Congress who conspired to take the people's money. They dismembered we the people who bailed them out, they ate their bonuses for lunch while the rest of us now cannot walk and are starved.
We must use our existing structure within the functioning parts of the Democratic Party and MAKE THE CHANGE THAT WAS PROMISED. Nothing else will work and time is of the proverbial essence. This HUMONGOUS problem was honed over decades and therefore it can be rectified only by the institutions we have in place. Replace the Know Nothings with those who DO know something.
In the biological sciences one trusts what works. The antibiotic developed to cure certain infections works but believing in the power of magic does not. Trust EXPERTS such as Paul Krugman, Robert Reich and people of their ilk who understand well the disease and know the cure. They should become part of the non-violent Occupy Wall Street leadership. Read Matt Taibii's "Griftopia." Read Elizabeth Warren and other intellects who understand the plethora of problems and know what to do. Within the existing structure of a Democratic Party we must elect politicos who AGREE with them. We must show our president, who I believe is with us but has had intractable Republican opposition, that catering to Wall Street CANNOT and MUST NOT STAND!
There needs to be the following: a return to Glass Steagall, the SEC needs to monitor the banks to within an inch of their life, prosecution for those economic crimes against the republic, hopefully convictions and finally jail for those banksters and others behemoths who committed crimes against not only us but global humanity as well. Congressional legislation accompanied by presidential signature is the only thing that can cure our disease.
Moreover, and importantly, the corruption of money MUST be driven OUT of the political sector. The president needs one more Supreme Court justice to overturn the sickening malady of the Citizen's United decision handed down by the five conservatives on the Roberts Supreme Court. That decision introduced BUCKETS of corporate money into the political system lethally infecting all who drink the poison.
ALL these things and more -- as stated by the Krugmanesq experts -- must be done with all deliberate speed if our body politic is to survive!
