Hey, It Is Worth a Try

This morning I read an article on one of my favorite news blogs -- This Can't Be Happening -- about a new initiative that goes hand-in-hand with the Occupy Wall Street movement. It's called Occupy Government.

To be honest, I figured this new group was calling for government buildings and offices -- like the US Senate or White House -- to be occupied. I was wrong. Their plan is far more audacious! Rather than try to describe their objective myself, here is the explanation straight from their web page.

OccupyGovernment.org's goal is to help elect a pro-99% majority in Washington next year, by assisting honest challengers to every corporate-corrupted member of Congress. We are developing a free web-based platform for peaceful, grassroots political expression by citizens and candidates with the integrity not to be bribed by corporations.

We, the people, can take back our corrupt government if millions stand up and use our social networks to replace the multi-million dollar TV ad campaigns, financed by corporate bribes, that members of Congress in both parties rely on to get elected and re-elected.

Most Americans agree with Occupy Wall Street’s core demand that we must reverse the economic policies of a government controlled by corporate, billionaire and bankster donors. These policies have resulted in the largest redistribution of wealth upwards in modern history. Taxes paid by corporations and billionaires are at their lowest level ever, and corporate profits are at an all time high. But endless tax cuts and tax breaks are destroying jobs, not creating them. Let’s Occupy our corrupt government, now! Not by shutting it down, but by opening it up to the 99% of us that it has been stolen from.

OccupyGovernment.org believes that we, the 99%, need to become, and support, non-corporate candidates who will represent us in Washington. We are not pushing any party or personality. Instead, your Citizen Pledge on this page will encourage candidates who have been turned off by the corrupt, money-driven campaign system to run for office.

OccupyGovernment.org is the citizen's activist arm of BeYourGovernment.org, a new independent non-profit that has created a free system to encourage and enable candidates and citizens to run for Congress and share compelling political information, without ever taking a single corporate dime.

If we do not want a government run by a political class reliant on corporations for their multi-million dollar TV ad campaigns, then citizens must replace those ads by spreading information, and assisting, candidates who refuse corporate money.

We are the 99%, and we are occupying the government to replace it with one that serves us.

I'm not sure if this can work or not, but hey, it's worth a try!