“We Are Living in the World Occupy Made”

[n2doc]

New York City Voters Elect Mayor Who Vows to Tax the Rich

Tuesday’s election signaled a political sea change in New York City as voters chose a candidate who repeatedly emphasized his progressive vision. The city’s public advocate, Bill de Blasio, crushed Republican Joe Lhota in the mayoral race to replace billionaire mayor Mike Bloomberg. De Blasio is set to become the first Democrat to lead the city in two decades. During his campaign, de Blasio’s signature message focused on what he called a "tale of two cities" and challenge the police department’s controversial “stop-and-frisk” program. Mayor-elect de Blasio rose to power with the help of the Working Families Party, an independent political coalition sponsored by labor unions and focused on reducing social and political inequality. The party’s grassroots organizing efforts are not limited to New York. It recently won landmark legislation to tackle the student debt crisis in Oregon, fought the corporate education reform agenda in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and won paid sick days in Jersey City, New Jersey. Voters in New Jersey also approved a constitutional amendment to raise the minimum wage by a dollar to $8.25 an hour and add automatic cost-of-living increases each year. “We are living in the world Occupy made,” says Dan Cantor, executive director of the Working Families Party. “We are the beneficiaries of what they did in terms of making this [about] inequality, which is from my point of view the core issue of our time.”

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/11/8/we_are_living_in_the_world#.Un0CZO04sAI.reddit

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. But, but, but it never accomplished a thing!

(Or continues to)

[bemildred]

2. Yes. nt

[johnnyreb]

3. Occupy.

Fuggin' A.

[OnyxCollie]

4. Listening as I write this.

[Zorra]

5. You ain't seen nothin' yet.

[gopiscrap]

6. yes!!!!

[Dopers_Greed]

7. B-b-b-b-b-but

Occupy were a bunch of jobless hippies

[tblue]

8. Kudos to OWS!

They did what all of us should be doing.

[zeemike]

9. And can you imagine what they could have accomplished

If the Democratic party supported them like the GOP supported the tea baggers?
Hell even here on this progressive site they were belittled every time someone posted about it...
And I suppose this tread will attract the same.

[1000words]

10. Occupy isn't a political movement

It has nothing to do with the Democratic Party. That's why it is belittled here.

[zeemike]

12. You mean like the Tea Party has nothing to do with the GOP?

Yes, but it did not stop them from promoting them....but it did stop the Dems...
Again we went to a gun fight with nothing but our principles of dissing those not in the party favor.

[1000words]

15. The Tea Party was co-opted.

Democratic Party made overtures to OWS, and were rebuffed. Probably why it was crushed.

[zeemike]

21. No it was created and sustained by the GOP

And the Democratic party made no overtures that I ever saw...it did nothing but put them down as liberal idealist, not willing to be true party loyalist.

[randome]

18. Yet it takes someone in the Democratic party to raise the minimum wage.

Getting to Point B by way of Point W is not a very good use of time.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

[1000words]

19. Most folks who don't understand OWS, or see it as a waste of time ...

are usually trying to frame it politically.

[randome]

22. Maybe some don't understand it because no one makes it clear.

Sometimes the teachers are at fault.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

[Mojorabbit]

25. Most people got it just fine

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[pinboy3niner]

23. I think you mean Occupy isn't partisan

Occupy does engage in political protests and seeks solutions through political actions.

[tiredtoo]

11. Will now share this with my occupy friends.

Thank you.

[DirkGently]

13. Yes. Occupy shifted the frame a notch.

The biggest thing, maybe, was that it demonstrated that a lot of people see that we have oriented to much of our society to funnel resources to a few to the detriment of the many, AND that they are not okay with that.

That's a big thing, because the conceit for so long has been variations on "trickle down" theory, wherein as the richer get richer, somehow everyone else does too.

De Blasio does seem to be outside the dominant paradigm that everyone needs to play ball and just give monied interests whatever they demand.

It's gratifying to see him elected. But it's more gratifying that America is now a place where he COULD be elected.

[Uncle Joe]

14. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, n2doc.

[Chathamization]

16. The Working Families Party seems to be doing good stuff

And has been at it for more than a decade. The things Cantor said about Occupy are nice, but I wish the reaction to the success of the hard work of the WFP wasn't just "See? Occupy rocks!"

[NuclearDem]

17. Don't work for the Democrats? Fuck them!

[Hestia]

20. Just don't allow the 1%, as much as is humanly possible, the ability to shut it all down

as we have seen happen with the Obama Administration. As quietly and nicely as you can, firmly show antagonistic lower level staff out the door to retirement. "That's the way we've always done it," shouldn't be allowed to be voiced when you are making the level of changes that he is proposing. Don't talk to disruptive MSM when they show their true colors and constantly report the "other side." WGAF?

All the well-wishes in the world goes out to Bill de Blasio and his administrative staff. What starts on the Coasts will finally make its way here. When y'all do well, we do well. Between de Blasio and Jerry Brown, there just may be hope for us all - Democrats are social liberals and fiscal moderates. (I refused to use the "C" word for Democrats.)

[liberal_at_heart]

24. I listened to that. That was a great segment.

[treestar]

26. How?

It seems the voters made certain choices this election. There is no connection to Occupy. Other than wishful thinking. It talks of a grassroots organizing political campaign.