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Forum Post: Organize a Nation-Wide Pettition to Place Term Limits on Congress!

Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 27, 2011, 3:08 p.m. EST by NewEconomics (0)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

This is just a thought, but the movement has the numbers to generate petitions to change the law and apply term limits to life-long politicians in Congress. A career politician was not the intent of our forefathers and having term limits will make it harder for special interests to maintain their relationships with our government officials. Research and learn what you need to in order to make a law like this happen. Two term maximum and out! Just like the Presidency.

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13 Comments


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[-] 1 points by aphrodite837 (145) 12 years ago

I think congressional reform is important. I also think that getting the money out of politics is an important way to get the government more in touch with the people they are supposed to be representing. If you agree with me, please check out my post trying to organize people: http://occupywallst.org/forum/call-to-action-get-the-money-out-of-politics/

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[-] 1 points by gawdoftruth (3698) from Santa Barbara, CA 12 years ago

please post these ideas on the wiki.

I have been active here since the very beginning, and since the very beginning I have been trying to make some core points. These points clearly have not been digested or fully understood by the mob, and so I'm going to try to make a further attempt here again.

  1. Merely protesting in the streets will not bring change. In fact merely protesting in the streets is in fact a means to the end of avoiding the real work of a revolution, which consists of the evolutionary solutions, answers, problem solving process, and new political alignment we create.
  2. This forum is absolutely disorganized. It won't be read by most people and it won't and can't function as a core organizational system.
  3. Back at the very start of this, I petitioned the admin to add multiple sub forums and a wiki. Multiple sub forums were promised but have never arrived. I think that this tells us that the intention actually of this forum is message control and containment. The entire purpose really of this forum has always been to keep us spinning in disorganization. We are hanging out on a forum that expressly exists to actually keep us confused and disorganized.
  4. The real work of a revolution isn't going to happen on forums, it needs to happen in a much more organized fashion using collaborative software.
  5. The assorted other details about how to collaborate, how to work open source direct democracy, how to focus in on science instead of isms, how to become hyper rational about this, are details which are essential and crucial, without which we can predict the movement to fail.
  6. Technically speaking we are not 99 percent, we are one tenth of one percent attempting to represent the 99 percent. Our core mission must be to communicate to and with the 99 percent, and get them to join us. This forum will not accomplish that and neither will any of the other main websites.
  7. You can follow other people out to other wikis and other websites, where they will try to get you to get involved with what they want and their program, but frankly speaking, there is no other website and no other operation out there which understands the complexities involved with meaningful organization. In short, everyones being led to get involved here there and everywhere else, scattering the movement in directions which ultimately do not gain us critical mass, criticial momentum, or critical systemic lucidity.
  8. I have managed to get a wiki put up and have already put on that wiki evolutionary details which make it more organized than anything else. I can't do this alone. There are 10 or so wikis now out there, most of which were created in response to my pleas for a wiki, and several of which are in domains owned and operated by some corporation, (wikia, etc) And which we can thus assume will simply be closed, shut down, or deleted if they become useful to the movement.
  9. Probably at least half of the invites you have to go participate at some other site are people who are scamming everyone to waste time and energy, distort the movement, co opt it, and etc. When you walk off into a closet ask yourself how you know that the closet isn't created by some fed, or by some republican, or by some democrat, in order to sway things in their direction.
  10. The only meaningful strategic option we have for real change in this country is to create a new third party, and take every political office in this country.
  11. Once that is done, we can have an article 5 convention. If we have an article 5 convention before getting rid of the oligachs, that just opens the genie from the bottle for them to abuse that process with their corruption and evil.
  12. As of last night and this morning, you can't even answer responses on this site without geting a 403 error, logging in requries you to back click after a 403 error, and the chat simply doesn't load.

For these reasons, I beg of you to please immediately join me on the wiki. We need to have all of these details and all of these ideas put together in an organized fashion, rather than posted in a long scrawl which will never be read.

http://occupythiswiki.org/wiki/THE_99%25_POLITICAL_PARTY

http://occupythiswiki.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://www.followthemoney.org/?gclid=CMbY87bB-qsCFUPt7Qod9HE8mQ

http://maplight.org/us-congress/guide/data/money?9gtype=search&9gkw=list%20of%20campaign%20donations&9gad=6213192521.1&9gag=1786513361&gclid=CP61oYbB-qsCFQFZ7AodcTF0jw

http://www.opensecrets.org/

http://occupywallst.org/forum/our-new-wiki/

http://occupywallst.org/forum/non-violence-evolution-by-paradigm-shift/

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[-] 1 points by Droid24JG (119) from New York, NY 12 years ago

This "Congressional Reform Act" should be the goal of the OWS movement. Once enacted, pick another problem that needs solved (universal healthcare, unemployment, etc.).
Only vote for congress folks that will support the will of the people.

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[-] 1 points by enough (587) 12 years ago

The beauty of the Congressional Reform Act is that it will get 100% support from all Americans, except of course the congressmen affected. Even they will not stand up to defend their special deals and perquisites because they are indefensible. The Congressional Reform Act is a no-brainer that #OWS should endorse and demand immediately for openers. It is always a good idea to promulgate a surefire winner at the outset and then build on that victory.

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[-] 1 points by yankeeleenin (5) 12 years ago

Kanye West for President!

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[-] 1 points by enough (587) 12 years ago

Also, enact the Congressional Reform Act:

  1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
  2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.
  3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
  4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
  5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
  6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
  7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12.
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[-] 0 points by cityrep (20) 12 years ago

Term limits is like throwing out the baby with the bath water.What is wrong with using the existing electoral process? If you don't like your Congressman, just vote for another candidate.

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[-] 0 points by jay1975 (428) 12 years ago

Because the voters have gotten to the point where they always vote for who they know. The incumbent always has a huge advantage in any election year. Congresses approval rating have been the lowest ever these last few years, but all the people that don't like Congress blame all of the members except their own. We have political legacies such as the Bush's, Clinton's, Kennedy's and so on. The majority of Congress is wealthy, lawyers and for those who were not too rich when they started, became rich while serving. The system has gotten too corrupt and it is now self sustaining.

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[-] 1 points by Droid24JG (119) from New York, NY 12 years ago

So how do you get the 99% to vote for a Congress that would support a Congressional Reform Act?

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[-] 0 points by jay1975 (428) 12 years ago

That's the problem, there are no immediate solutions. It has to start at the state level with people fighting for and electing good people to their state legislatures. From there they can then be supported for a national run. I would love to see everyone vote for whoever isn't the incumbent next election. That would send a clear message, but I know that that is not realistic either.

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[-] 1 points by Droid24JG (119) from New York, NY 12 years ago

I think the answer is education, and you are right, it is not going to be immediate. This is where OWS falls on it's face. What has OWS done in the last month to help a voter understand that the congress has their own rules (i.e. "Congressional Reform Act") and who the problem congressmen and women are? How can this be accomplished?

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