Pols of both parties are desperate to define the OWS movement, in order to contain it...

[markpkessinger]

... One of the things that is so threatening about the OWS movement is that none of our professional politicians can quite get their arms around the thing. So they push for a set of defined goals or demands, trying to pigeonhole the movement into a narrower political agenda that can easily be either opposed, co-opted or exploited. In its present leaderless, inchoate form, OWS represents an enormous threat: not only are the political pros unable to pigeonhole it, neither to they know how large the movement will grow or how long it will last. And that is PRECISELY the movement's strength, and exactly why it should resist premature calls to declare a specific set of policy objectives!

[TheWraith]

1. No, it doesn't threaten them.

And amorphous formlessness and relative incoherence is not a political strength, any more than an inkblot test is a work of high art.

[Tiggeroshii]

4. Cause of course there was never a time when a small group of people bound together for a common goal

and created enormous political change. Never.

Not in abolishing slavery, Not in women's suffrage, not in the Civil Right's movement, not in Vietnam. Those hippies man: They were stoned all the time! How could have they have brought an end to Vietnam?

I hope that in a few months you'll be eating your words... Hope is another one of those things: Amorphous and formless when representing peoples' desires.

[markpkessinger]

6. Excellent response! n/t

[nashville_brook]

9. [phone]

[roguevalley]

10. ideas are amorphous and formless, spreading out through the

world and engulfing injustice. If this were a true description of this moment and movement it would not have been taken up by the world. That describes the Tea Party, not OWS.

[Tiggeroshii]

5. ,

[tblue]

2. The #1 policy objective, I hope, will be

getting the corruption out of our gov't. With that, we can investigate, regulate, oversee, and prosecute where necessary. Now our gov't is just sold to the highest bidder and that includes both parties.

[EFerrari]

3. Precisely. n/t

[slipslidingaway]

7. knr nt

[DocMac]

8. Threaten them?

Oh no. They are what they are. If the movement grows in 6 months, they will claim it. If it fails they will proclaim to "understand" it.

The OWS needs no one at this point. And to be honest, the people assembled in all the locations should link up and claim freedom from any party and or persons. The people are better able to make decisions than our government.

If any party member thinks they can do what the people want let them step forward. Or remain seated.