The political landscape

Occupy Portland, which made the LA Times this morning, is calling for sympathizers to join them so they out-number the police by such large numbers that they can't be removed. Dumb idea. But it speaks to the deterioration of the message, how the Occupy movements become symbolic and impotent of actual political substance.

Look, I want the system changed more than most folks. I divorced the Democratic Party in 1968 and have never seen a reason to return. I'm an independent progressive. I want a redistribution of wealth in this country, and I think capitalism itself is part of the problem. But I'm also a realist.

Here are some political facts.

• If you want substantive change in this country, there are two ways to get it: overthrow the government by force and violence; or change the system from within by electing representatives in Congress and elsewhere who will change it.
  
• Neither the Democrats nor Republicans will change the system. They are, in fact, a part of the problem.
  
• To elect third party candidates takes great numbers of dissatisfied voters.
  
• Those dissatisfied voters exist now more than at any time I can remember.
  
• The main practical goal of the Occupy or any other progressive movement should be to organize those dissatisfied voters into a third party capable of removing Democrats and Republicans from office.
  
• Side issues from this central goal -- like all the symbolic gestures happening across the country -- do not contribute to making the goal a reality.
  

I think the Occupy movement will deteriorate into a movement of young Romantic Revolutionaries who spout the usual slogans, enjoy the usual sense of citizen superiority, get gassed, get hauled away, think of themselves as martyrs, and accomplish nothing. Most grow up, get jobs, and become another cog in the corporate machine.

It makes me wonder if the system can even be changed from within. I've been waiting for a viable progressive third party since 1968.