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Writing from Night 5 of Occupy Irvine:
So, we hear on the front lines that the Democratic Party of Orange County on Monday night passed a resolution concluding:
BE IT RESOLVED that the Executive Board of the Democratic Party of Orange County conveys its solidarity with both the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York and with the lawful and peaceable solidarity rallies in Orange County.
That’s a good thing and we appreciate it. The Republican Party, Greens and Libertarians should follow suit – yesterday. We also hope to see some more of the OC Democrats who voted (unanimously) to support this resolution helping us out now and swelling our ranks.
Of course his doesn’t mean that the Democratic Party should automatically expect our support… Oh wait, let me be clear here. Even though I have been an active Democrat ever since the mayhem of the Cheney/Bush regnency shook me out of my Green complacency, I’m using “we” to refer to the Occupy movement, and “they” to refer to Democrats.
Like I was saying, resolutions don’t mean that a Party should expect the Occupy movement’s support. If certain Democratic politicians, from the local level on up to our smooth-talking President, continue to pursue policies that benefit Wall Street, bankers and Big Pharma on the federal level, insurance companies and the prison-industrial complex on the state level, and well-connected developers and crony consultants on the local level, over the needs of the 99% of us, they may as well run as Republicans. On the other hand this movement shows that if they address this movement’s concerns of economic justice in an aggressive way, they have a potential dedicated base out here that should support them, to compensate for whatever corporate campaign cash they might lose out on.
That could take a lot of convincing though, as Glennzilla argues in a typically scathing post (which I’d just as soon you don’t read) on the Obama administration’s Wall Street record. Does this President have enough time left in his first term to convince this movement somehow that he’s measurably better than his GOP opponents on these important issues? I sure hope so.
A surprising new study shows the Occupy Movement to be 70% politically Independent – Obama voters in 2008 but not at all loyal to any political party (as well as vastly diverse in age and wealth, but overall highly educated – exactly what we’re seeing in Occupy Orange County.) The same people whose failure to vote in 2010 enabled the disastrous takeover of Congress by Tea-Party reactionaries. It is essential to show them that they have a choice in 2012 that’s not the same old lesser evil.
As for myself I’ll continue to remind the movement that, while we’ve learned that electoral politics is only one over-rated part of being effective responsible citizens, it’s also an ESSENTIAL part that has to be utilized smartly in conjunction with other forms of activism.
And each time I profile a political candidate here, he or she will be judged on their plans to address the issues that are important to our movement, and how they support us. It will no longer be enough to simply be a member of the less-evil Party.
And if there aren’t enough convincing Democrats or viable Greens running, it would be great if some strong Independent candidates emerge from the movement itself! And then good Democrats should support THEM.
First test: Let’s see if Assembly candidate Julio Perez comes out to Saturday’s Occupy Santa Ana event. And let’s see if he speaks – not as a politician but as an activist who sincerely backs our causes. And let’s see if Michele Martinez or Tom Daly does.
La Luta Continua!
Brave New World after all. ? . Support your Irvine Occupiers that have been kicked to the curb at night by the city of Irvine but remain there. Vigilant. Patriotic. Support Santa Ana this Sat. 12:00 noon at the park just west of Federal Building.
If anyone wonders, Occupy Irvine changed its Saturday schedule to allow people from the movement (so long as at least some remain in place) to spend the earlier afternoon in Santa Ana. I’m glad to see the two focal points of OC protest cooperating. Of course, the more people come out, the easier it is to share.
Sure would be nice if this Irvine movement focused just a little on getting a new Congressman or woman for that District, someone who might just be a little sympathetic to their movement.
Yeah … Sukhee Kang doesn’t quite seem the type, but let’s see how he responds to our importunities in his town.
Could be this is where an independent candidate arises, from the movement, to really challenge John Campbell.
The “top-two primary” makes that unlikely. Remember when people warned that this would gut third parties? Welcome to Exhibit A. Barring the highly unexpected, it will be Kang vs. Campbell in the new CA-45 runoff a year from now, no write-ins allowed. Campbell will likely have already staked out the “total hysterical insensitivity” vote.
Well, if there’s no way Sukhee can beat John, which I would think is the case if he doesn’t do something bold to distinguish himself (such as embrace our movement)
then it is an appropriate time to run a decent progressive populist patriot candidate independently so that people can vote with pride.
(I know you can’t agree to that even in theory since you’re on the DPOC e-board… that’s okay)
If said preg-pop-pat candidate didn’t make the top two in June, he or she would not be on the ballot in the November election anyway. That’s what Maldonado hath wrought. If such a person beats Sukhee (or, better yet, Campbell, but let’s get real), then so be it; I’ll support them in the runoff. But that’s unlikely.
Brave new electoral world we have here that excludes third parties so.
To clarify a little about the resolution: I presented a resolution to DPOC with nine “whereas” clauses and three “resolved” clauses. The resolved clause that dealt with the Occupy movement generally passed without dissent; I include the six relevant whereas clauses, printed above, in what I sent to Vern.
The final three whereas clauses and two resolved clauses dealt with support for what the city has so far held would be civil disobedience in Irvine. There was some support for passing that portion outright and some sentiment that people wanted to check with Irvine officeholders first to get their perspective; I didn’t think that that was so unreasonable. We didn’t vote on the civil disobedience portions of the resolution directly. My hope is that we’ll either do so at the general meeting on Monday or — even better — that by then cooperation by the city will render them moot.
Okay, I guess there’s controversy now over how much of the resolution was actually approved – sad. So in the body of this post I only included the “BE IT RESOLVED” section – as I wait for a copy of what Chairman Barbaro will confirm is the officially approved version.
So, here’s the original anyway, parts of which may have been postponed for more discussion:
Democratic Party of Orange County resolution on Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Orange County Protests
Whereas, the Occupy Wall Street protests have captured the attention of the nation and the world over the past month, and
Whereas, the Occupy Wall Street protests have earned enormous respect and affection since their inception, now commanding a majority support of American popular opinion, far in excess of that of the Tea Party, and
Whereas, Occupy Wall Street opposes the untrammeled ability of large financial services companies to work with government support to unfairly and sometimes illegally work to the detriment of the middle class, the working class and the poor, while generating increasing income disparity and shrinking the middle class, and
Whereas, the Democratic Party of Orange County has traditionally stood with both unions and other social forces that support and defend these social classes, and
Whereas, the Democratic Party seeks not to co-opt or take over the Occupy movement, but to earn the trust and respect of its members, and
Whereas, several rallies have been held throughout Orange County, under the general rubric of “Occupy Orange County,” in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street,
BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Executive Board of the Democratic Party of Orange County conveys its solidarity with both the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York and with the lawful and peaceable solidarity rallies in Orange County.
Passed at the Oct. 17 meeting of the Executive Board of the Democratic Party of Orange County.
Happy for you to clarify as you think you must, Vern. This just means that next time a resolution is approved but the full text is not entirely clear, I’ll have to point to this exchange as an example of why we must be more meticulous.
I cannot of course speak for the DPOC, but I will note that the six relevant whereas clauses were on the same page as resolution itself at the time that we voted for the first resolved clause, in case anyone wonders whether the vote just came out of the blue, and I don’t recall there being any debate over any of them. (In fact, what discussion took place was almost all quite heartening; I’m sorry that “Occupy” people weren’t there to see it. It was nice to see.)
I’m surprised that there is controversy over the whereas clauses at all — if the disagreement is about not being willing to say that we don’t want to co-opt the movement, that will end badly.
Anyway, thanks, Intrepid Publisher, for the conflict resolution exercise.
Hm. I’ll see what I hear from Barbaro. I like those whereases.