Forum Post: Barney Frank is right...
Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 18, 2011, 7:36 p.m. EST by KerryRawe
(47)
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Barney Frank made a good point about the movement. Eventually, this movement will have to overpower and overtake the political system. We need OWS faithful to inevitably flood the vote.
Yeah, I know... the system is broken, bought off, etc. However, this is not entirely the case. I would challenge OWS protesters to flood the halls of government. There is a point when words must become action.
If Egyptians can cause regime change, so can we.
We need to demand MORE options to vote, not less. We need to HALT the districting that is being done behind closed doors to make our voices irrelevant. We need to show the Washington elite one major lesson - that they are beholden to us. They are beholden to the 99%.
No. OWS is not about electoral politics. Barney Frank has a vested interest in seeing people vote; he is a politician, he wants people to vote... for him. OWS is anti-politician. They are part of the 1%. They represent hierarchy. The vote is NOT the only weapon people have, and it is hardly a weapon at all. As soon as you focus your energy on electoral politicians, than you have marginalized yourself. You are competing against corporations who spends billions to buy elections and politicians. You are competing against the mainstream media (corporations who are funded by other corporations through advertising) who are educating and mobilizing the American public to counter you, and have vastly more money and infrastructure than something like OWS. And you are doing it all within a legal and constitutional system designed by elites, and for elites. The REAL WEAPON of the people is direct action; taking power into their own hands. The Egyptians overthrew their government.
I refuse to believe that a system where less than 100 cases of voter fraud in a nation of 300 million people is reality that the system can't be bent to the will of the 99%.
Remove the money from the political process. That changes things. Level the playing field so people who don't have the millions to burn can still be heard, and we all win.
I'm not looking to overthrow my government. It is diseased, but not terminal. It can be changed. It has been changed before. It will be changed more as time goes on. The fight is long term.
The civil rights and labor movements didn't change things by electing people, they changed things with civil disobedience. Protesting, sit-ins, strikes, boycotts, that's how ground in this country has been gained.
You want to remove the money from the elections? I want that too. The problem is, we're not going to do that by electing politicians. The system is rigged against us. We have to force it from the outside to change, to be fair. When there is a fair playing ground then we can talk about electoral politics. I'm not saying don't vote, but right now voting is not the answer.
But if we support candidates that are "OWS" candidates... out own candidates... if we elect people that are NOT a part of that corruption...
The system is still ours to fight for control over.
Restore Glass-Steagall and Wall Street will no longer exist. There are forty congressmen signed on to it already (HR 1489).
We already have the right to vote, but for one reason or another people don't vote. Perhaps they feel disillusioned or disenfranchised, or they exercised their right not to vote (or they get swayed by billionaire advertising dollars and vote for candidates who don't support them.)
I would suggest one the way to fix Congress is to change the systems of incentives. People go into politics for a few reasons: 1) they love their country and think they have a better solution, (2) they love power (3) they love money....
So: 1) Link congressional pay to country performance as in:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/link-congressional-pay-to-performance/
And 2) Change the way powerful committee memberships are assigned.
I'm not sure how memberships are assigned, but I think currently these are assigned by seniority.
Instead, the People need to take back control of these assignments and hold committee members accountable when the nation does poorly. You might say, can't we just vote these poor performers out of power? Unfortunately, no, because these congressmen are voted in by some small congressional district for which they just happen to the most popular and maybe even the best candidate. The answer to this problem is not term limits because that politician may indeed be the best person for that district.
However, just because they are the best person in some small district, does not mean they are the best person for All of America, and when they are chairman of some committee, they have disproportionate influence on all Americans, not just those from their district.
We need to change congressional rules for electing committee members and chairperson to prevent failures from holding important and powerful positions. Perhaps this can be done by banning congressmen and senators from being committee members if they were at the helm when the country performs poorly.
I don't have the answer on how to achieve this. Perhaps some among you would be willing to debate the merits and propose solutions along this line.
Barney Frank and Henry Paulson are Criminals!
Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.): “The more people, in my judgment, exaggerate a threat of safety and soundness, the more people conjure up the possibility of serious financial losses to the Treasury, which I do not see. I think we see entities [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] that are fundamentally sound financially and withstand some of the disaster scenarios.”
You don't give the date on that quote. It might be exactly right at one time, and quite wrong at another. It depends on what had happened up until that point.
Actually, Fannie and Freddie limited themselves to sound loans until quite late in the mess, when their shareholders had a fit because they were missing out on the millions being made on (what we now know were) lousy loans.
Did you hear Barney Frank saying how much he wished OWS had been around when they were writing the Dodd-Frank bill against huge opposition?
Yes. We must
1) Register to vote;
2) Help others register;
3) Help others with transportation to vote.
There is also another easy thing to do that is directly aimed at weakening Wall St:
Demand that Dodd-Frank be fully implemented.
Restore Glass-Steagall and Wall Street will no longer exist. There are forty congressmen signed on to it already (HR 1489).
It'll exist still but it'll be much more stable and a lot less risky for the general public.
4) Decide which puppet to vote for. Hmm... do I want the guy who has been bought by the big banks or the guy who said "corporations are people too, my friend"?
Yes, we must vote, and I will, but we need to do much more than that!
Submit a BLANK ballot.
Just get your ass out there - show them that WE, the 99%, participate.
See, that's just the thing... if you think there's a better candidate out there, then you must do due dilligence to help them. There are many that made it into Government that weren't puppets. Jesse Ventura, for example.
I hear you there. I'm intrigued by Buddy Roemer personally. But the odds of him getting on the ballot aren't very good right now. The AmericansElect Project could be a good place for us to turn for that. http://www.americanselect.org/
Barney frank is always right about everything.
Well, I'm not so sure about that. But he makes a lot of good points. And he does fight for economic justice.
And stuffs the whole place up! You can't legislate economic justice
Of all people to cite about financial inequity, you choose Barney Frank?? That's like saying you're against obesity and then quoting the CEO of McDonalds.
I didn't say he was right about everything. But the man has been one of few that has been fighting for economic equality.
I think you should research Mr. Frank a little more. You would not make that analogy if you knew the whole truth.
Barney Frank is one of them.
I would recommend you look a little deeper into just how hard Mr. Frank has been trying to fight for us. You may be surprised. He's doesn't represent my part of the country, but I respect him for his major efforts to ensure justice and equality for all citizens.
The Egyptians did not cause regime change. They caused a figurehead to step down and are now being ruled with an iron fist by a violent gang.
[Removed]
Right on! If you don't vote, you can't complain. Guns are a political symbol, but the vote is our only weapon.
Right on my friend. This is a government For The People By The People. Take a quick look, chances are, you are a person! Therefore you should A. vote B. tell people how you are voting C. Encourage other people to vote and most importantly, suggest alternatives to what the 1% have put out there.
A government For The People By The People is gone. This affirmation is avalaible in where Iam, but my ears bleeding when i heard the president said : "Since when the people decides?" .....shock
We voted for an Imperor, and we were eluded. I am about to break.