How to unite and mobilize the full 99%: Get money out of politics and reduce income inequality by taxing the 1%

Americans are frustrated with their government more than they have ever been since the first American Revolution. According to Real Clear Politics, Congress’s approval rating is currently at 12%, meaning that 9 out of 10 Americans disapprove of Congress. What is the root of the problem? If the Tea Party is to be believed, it is that the government is too large and has too much power. But the vast majority of Americans have a different perspective. They see corruption in government—not the size of government—as the true root of all political evil.

When CBS asked Americans who members of Congress are most interested in serving, 80% said special interest groups; 70% said people like them have little say in what their government does; and 75% said large corporations have too much influence in politics. What is the common thread that ties all three polls together? All three of the problems mentioned are directly caused by the fact that large corporations and special interest groups provide the majority of funding for virtually all federal and state political campaigns. This obligates lawmakers to spend about three quarters of their time fundraising, which means they spend the majority of their time talking to and hearing the concerns of special interest groups and corporations. As a result, lawmakers typically don’t listen to the voices of the American people, who they are supposed to represent. Not only that, they’re so overwhelmed with fund raising that they delegate the task of writing the bills they introduce to corporate lobbyists!

Indeed, the problem runs even deeper. There's an episode of Futurama where's there a presidential debate on TV. The two candidates are identical clones. One says something like "My opponent's position on the color orange is unconscionable." The parody strikes sadly close to home. Because corporations, special interest groups, and the 1% are the only ones with enough money to fund a successful federal election campaign, they get to decide who is able to run for office in the first place! Ever wonder why all political candidates wind up catering to Wall St. and corporations in the same way once in office despite superficial differences in their political stances and their political affiliation? Now you know.

What do you replace the current corrupt campaign finance system with? Public financing of elections. In his book Republic Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress—and a Plan to Stop It, Lawrence Lessig outlines a system where every taxpaying citizen would get a $50 rebate on their taxes that they could donate to any political candidate or party. Citizens would be able to divide their money between different campaigns however they wished, and would be allowed to donate up to an additional $100 of their own money. It would be illegal for corporations and other special interest groups to donate to political campaigns or parties at all. Under this new system politicians would still spend a good part of their time listening to their funders, but the funders would be the people.

If we wish to bring real change to this country, we must get money out of politics and implement public financing of elections so the politicians start listening to the people.

For some politicians, this won’t be enough to make them change their ways. In these cases, we the people must run candidates to unseat them. But the only way we’ll have a real chance of winning is if we first get corporate and special interest group money out of politics.

But we can’t just consider how broadly people agree on an issue; we must also consider what their priorities are. According to all polls on Americans’ current priorities, an overwhelming majority think that jobs and the economy are the most important issues. However, people disagree on what should be done about them, with many citing the need to cut government spending, and even more saying we need to pass a new economic stimulus package. We should tell the American people that we want to regain our voice in government so we can cut government spending on corporate welfare and perpetual war for profit, raise taxes on the wealthiest 1% of Americans and Wall St. speculators, and use the money saved to pass a new economic stimulus package large enough to create jobs for every single American who’s currently unemployed or underemployed. This will have the added benefit of reducing income inequality, which according to Robert Reich's book Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future is the root of the current economic crisis. Perhaps the new slogan should be "Occupy: Get money out of politics and tax the 1%". But to do it, first we have to get money out of politics so everyday citizens have a chance to win public office and politicians are forced to listen to the people.

The naysayers will charge that giving Occupy clarity this way ignores the concerns of marginalized communities. I disagree. To the contrary, the smartest way to help marginalized communities is to regain the people’s control over the government. Once we have power in government, we can do whatever we like to help marginalized communities. But as long as corporate money controls politics, we don’t have a chance in hell of accomplishing much of anything worthwhile on the state or federal level.

The naysayers will also say that we must turn our backs on the current system and simply ignore it until it goes away. I disagree. Saying we must turn our backs on the system ignores the fundamental question of why the system has failed us. It has failed us for many reasons, but the root of the problem is that corporate money controls the government.

On no other key issues are the American people as united as they are about getting money out of politics, fixing the economy and creating jobs. Combine all three into one interdependent main political campaign for Occupy, and the full 99% will join the movement.