Yearning for a real progressive party

SteilacoomOctober 26, 2012 

In November, I’d love to vote for the Progressive Party, but it doesn’t exist. It’s the party that the Occupy Movement could have become had we chosen the democratic process rather than Woodstock.

Political change requires more than an urban camp-out. It requires a legislative platform instead of demands, passionate candidates instead of masked anarchists, and adult communication skills instead of mike-checks.

Just as there are great candidates for progressives to support, like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, so there are attainable legislative goals: overturn Citizens United and institute public election financing; regulate banks and mortgage loan industries, reinstating Glass-Steagall; repair national infrastructure with a federal jobs program; establish single-payer nationalized health care; give tax incentives for ‘made in the USA’ companies; invest in sustainable green energy production; cut military spending and bring our troops home; protect women’s reproductive rights; incentivize worker-owned cooperatives as an alternative to Wall Street mega-corporations; transfer the nation’s wealth from the Federal Reserve into regional, publicly-chartered credit unions.

Next time, let’s occupy the legislative process. Because those who are too good for politics will be governed by those who aren’t.


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