I wonder what the voting participation rate is among the Occupy Wall Street crowd. Do you think it’s higher or lower than comparable cohorts?
After all, one answer to OWS is – why don’t you go out an elect candidates who will support your interests? If you want to increase corporate taxes (for example), why don’t you elect someone who will? Why don’t you run for office yourself? Wouldn’t all this be more effective than sleeping in the park?
Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn’t. Many of them would claim that the democratic process is so broken that it’s not worth it. Look at the marginalization of Dennis Kuchinik, Ron Paul, Howard Dean, etc. Any views not solidly in the mainstream are ignored. You cannot run for or hold office without corporate support and the quid pro quo that entails. You can’t fight the system.
And yet, I think for many that is an excuse. My guess is that the OWS people by and large choose to avoid the democratic system. I wonder if I’m right?
I agree with this blogger, who thinks that compulsory voting would be the best thing for OWS. Along the same line of thought, National Voting Day and the National Popular Vote movement. Or indeed any kind of systemic reform that makes it easier for citizens, (particular poor ones) to vote, or makes their votes worth more than they are today. It is no accident that the GOP so stridently objects to the census using statistical measures, and fights so hard to make voting difficult.