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Political Capital

By Beacon Staff

Leftist journalist Naomi Klein wrote the books “No Logo” and “The Shock Doctrine.” The social activist spoke at the Occupy Wall Street movement indicating that they can fulfill on the promises of the 1999 global trade action in Seattle. That was the last time a global and youth-led movement took aim at corporate power.

Asked how the Occupy movement deals with establishment politicians, Klein said, “Don’t worry about it. What will make this movement vulnerable is if it doesn’t develop its own democratic mechanisms to speak for itself. Then it’s vulnerable to people using your energy to fight for limited small changes. It’s in your power to not let this happen. You are not cannon fodder for Washington policy wonks.”

Someone asked Klein, “How do we transform the energy of the movement into something that is actually happening?”

“Something is happening,” Klein responded. “You’re giving the people courage. You’re telling them they’re not alone and they’re not crazy. You’re giving them a space to find one another.”

“It just can’t happen overnight, but I beg you not to fetishize not having a structure. We made that mistake, and it destroyed our movement,” Klein continued.

The recent Supreme Court decision, Citizens United, radically returned American politics back to the secret days of corporate political financing.

“Corporations are people, my friend,” Republican Presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney said at a recent political rally. People in the audience shouted, “No, they’re not!”

“Of course they are,” Romney responded.

Secret corporate political spending skyrocketed by fourfold over four years. The next presidential race alone may top $1 billion by each of the general election candidates.

Last week Missoula became the third city in America to call for an end to corporate personhood. It passed by a 3-to-1 margin. Missoula said corporations are not people and money is not speech.

Montanans enjoy some of the oldest campaign finance laws in the nation. Long ago, citizens passed a ban on secret money and direct corporate contributions to candidates.

Those looking to overturn the ban on corporate financing want to “inject unlimited amounts of money into Montana’s state and local elections,” Attorney General Steve Bullock wrote in federal court papers. Former Secretary of State Bob Brown filed a brief in support of the attorney general’s position.

Secret money would return Montana to the political days of the “wild west.” Recent Whitefish city election spending approached $100,000 when combining spending of all candidates, special interest PACs, and the huge influx of non-disclosed individual money.

But a populist uprising occurred in Whitefish as the slate of youthful and progressive city candidates won big. More people turned out to vote than at any time in Whitefish history.

The Occupy movement awoke the courage for youth to mobilize. America will observe how today’s people capital of the Occupy movement competes politically with the dollar capital of corporate America.

In Ohio real people mobilized and voters repealed the state’s controversial ban on collective bargaining rights for public workers.

With an above-the-fold headline in local newspapers reading “U.S. wealth gap is now largest ever,” it is easy to see that a populist “jobs and justice” message from the Occupy movement would resonate.

In 1966 Jesse Unruh said that “money is the mother’s milk of politics.” We will see in the months ahead if it is corporate cash or real people that translate to political capital as candidates vie for elected office.

The Occupy moment sheds light on America’s thirst for work. Perhaps Congress will pass a jobs bill. And perhaps Corporate America will repatriate profits and all those jobs they exported overseas.