Occupy Wall Street And Progressives: A Guest Post By John Waltz (D-MI)

I noticed that when OccupyWallStreet participants started articulating some of their grievances they sounded a lot like what many of us in the blogosphere have been talking about, a lot like what perceptive authors like David Korten (Agenda For A New Economy) have been writing about, and a lot like what progressive leaders-- not sold-out Blue Dogs and Democratic Party hacks like Steny Hoyer, Robert Rubin, Rahm Emanuel, Harold Ford, and Debbie Wasserman Shultz, but actual progressives-- have been talking about, many for years-- like Alan Grayson, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Raúl Grijalva, Eric Schneiderman, and Brad Miller. And then there are the progressive candidates trying to appeal to voters who are hearing all kinds of disparate messages from across the ideological spectrum. The Blue America candidates aren't echoing the wisdom of OccupyWallStreet... it's what their campaigns are based on. Here's a guest post on the topic by John Waltz, the progressive running against hereditary plutocrat Fred Upton (R-Whirlpool):

This coming Saturday I am going to be traveling to Lansing as the Occupy Wall Street movement takes hold of Michigan. There have been many folks that I talk to wondering when a populist movement would not only stand up to the Tealiban, but the casino known as Wall Street. One thing that I would caution the Democratic Party is trying to co-opt this movement because they are just as frustrated at how broken our government is as well.

The cornerstone of a democracy is transparency, fairness, and accountability, which in the last decade we have lost any semblance of. You can tell how dysfunctional our economy has become by the great disparity there is between the wealthy and the rest of the nation. It is sad to think that while the economy is crippling working families the wealthy in our nation have prospered off our woes. We have not seen such a chasm since the Great Depression and people are fed up waiting for change so they have taken to the streets.

As I was preparing for this trip there are some demands that folks are making and here are just a few that should be presented:

·         The immediate firing of Bernanke and Geithner.

·         An independent investigation of the Wall Street collapse including any politicians that had a hand in perpetrating it.

·         An investigation into the mortgage mess and a freeze of foreclosures until complete.

·         Elimination of the Bush tax cuts and eliminating all deductions for those who make over a million dollars a year.

·         A true job creation program much like the Works Progress Administration (WPA) that helped lift our nation out of the Great Depression.

These are just a few things that our nation should demand right now. It is time to reverse that trend and it starts with folks like you and I in the streets demanding real change. I look forward to being with many of you in the streets of Lansing to finally have our voice heard.

This sums up John Waltz's campaign. It's what he was talking about before OccupyWallStreet began. It's what he's talking about with Michigan OccupyWallStreet activists and it's what he's telling voters all over southwest Michigan. There are no Wall Street banksters, no Koch brothers, no lobbyists, no corporate PACs rushing to divert any of the immense sums they funnel into Fred Upton's campaign to John Waltz. John Waltz has no one to depend on to get his message across except us. If you'd like to help, you can do it here.

And for those who can't be in Lansing, or at any of the other physical locations this weekend... http://www.occupytheboardroom.org/.