Marty Kaplan

October 3, 2011

Opinion: Occupy K Street

By Marty Kaplan

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It’s premature to give the Nobel Peace Prize to those Occupy Wall Street kids.  But it also may be too soon to blow them off as clueless hipsters “with nowhere to go,” as New York Times columnist Charles Blow  did, calling the two weeks “a festival of frustrations, a collective venting session with little edge or urgency.”

But there is somewhere for them to go – for us all to go—and it really does have enormous urgency. 

Campaign finance reform.

I know.  Dream on.  Can you think of three words less likely to ignite a movement? 

Even if you give it a snappy name – the Times’ editorial page called it “sewer money” for a few years – it always polls way down on the list of issues voters care about. 

There’s a lot of noise, but Occupy Wall Street sort of has a message. It’s unfair that our generation has to pay for the mess Wall Street made.  They have us over a barrel.  If the banks screw up again, they can just hold the world financial system hostage, and we’ll have no choice but to bail them out again.  And then they’ll give themselves more billion-dollar bonuses just to stick it to us.  While the rich get unbelievably richer, the rest of us are struggling.  We can’t find jobs.  Our prospects are bleak. This isn’t how America is supposed to work.  Something’s got to change.

It’s good that some people who are not in the Tea Party are also getting their voices heard. The more talk about reining in the excesses of a runaway financial services sector, the better.  But I wish these protesters were more pissed that whatever changes they want, the political system they will task to bring them about is rigged for the rich.  It’s hard to imagine anything getting better without first ending the insane, obscene money chase at the heart of our democratic institutions. 

But politicians know that as issues go, getting big money out of Washington, and out of state capitals, too, is about as sexy as steamed broccoli.

The $6 billion it will take to run for office in 2012 has to come from someone, mainly in big bundles, and that someone isn’t you or me.  Those contributions come with strings attached.  It’s illegal to trade money for votes, but few politicians are stupid enough to get caught doing that.  There’s nothing illegal about privileging your big donors and their lobbyists with access to you and your staff.  It’s perfectly understandable that you say, and even believe, that you make decisions by weighing the merits, not the wallets.

But wouldn’t it be bizarre if the insurance companies, securities and investment firms, real estate interests and commercial banks shoveling money into campaigns were doing so without expecting to get something for it?  Drug companies, energy companies, telecoms and agribusiness aren’t in it for generic good government; they’re in it to get the legislative and regulatory outcomes they want.  The same is true for labor.  This is the interest-group system we have, and anyone too pure to play it is committing unilateral disarmament.

The money that politicians raise, and the money raised by “independent” super PACs, doesn’t go for golf trips or tanning beds.  (Not usually, anyway.)  Nor does what campaigns pay for travel, field staff and events amount to much.  The paid media budget is what counts.  It’s the ads, stupid.

Campaigns spend three out of four dollars on media, which is a huge bonanza for TV and radio stations, and for political consulting firms.  The latter not only get paid to produce the ads; they also take a nice slice for buying the airtime from the stations. 

The stations, in turn, have a monopoly on the broadcast spectrum, which we – the owners of the spectrum – license to them in exchange for zero dollars, plus their straight-faced promise to serve the public interest.

For years now, conservative judicial activists on the Supreme Court have been striking down every legislative attempt to check the power of big money in politics.  Their argument is that money is speech, so you can’t restrict it. 

Other democracies guarantee free airtime to candidates and put limits on ads and contributions.  Not us.

Madison and Hamilton and the rest of the Constitution’s framers created a genius of a system that has withstood the ages.  But they could not have foreseen that there would one day be a de facto fourth branch of government, powered by big money in politics, and so they did not check that power with other power.

The Founders could not have imagined how technology and mass media could hypnotize a free people, and how the imperative to buy as much of that juju as you can would throw the whole system they created out of whack. 

They could not have anticipated Karl Rove, Dick Armey or the Koch brothers.  Or the National Association of Broadcasters, Roger Ailes, media illiteracy, civic illiteracy, entertainment-über-alles, the flight from reason, the collapse of moral consensus, and a Supreme Court confirmation process during which nominated Justices pledge allegiance to settled law without meaning it in the slightest. 

Without campaign finance reform, the future belongs to the big dogs in the money game.  I wish Occupy Wall Street would connect the dots between whatever their issues are and the mother of all issues.

Sure, there are slackers, tourists, naïfs, nutcases, opportunists and superannuated hippies among the people being pepper sprayed, dragnetted, or just showing up to say there’s something’s really wrong.  That’s the beauty of spontaneity – real democracy is messy.  But something connects Occupy Wall Street with last summer’s protesters in Madison, Wisconsin: the embryonic notion that the right does not own dissent in America. 

No one knows if this whole thing will fizzle, or be the start of something.  But if those kids turn their attention from how much money there is on Wall Street to where that money goes, they won’t be called kids for long.

Marty Kaplan holds the Norman Lear chair in entertainment, media and society at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.  Reach him at martyk@jewishjournal.com.

A version of this article appeared in print.

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Maybe your readers could occupy K Street.  Not sleep out in the rain or anything but just get out there on the street and have a march that like-minder would-be reformers can see.  Then other reformers can say, “See?  We’re not alone.  We’re not a bunch of bums”.  Doing it on the street has much more impact than posting about it online

Comment by Siara Delyn on 10/03/11 at 11:14 am

The movement is gaining momentum in its THIRD week now and Occupations are popping up all over the country!  Stand up together and use your voice to give to those without through peace and solidarity.  Tax the rich and feed the poor- you are the 99%!  See my Occupy Wall Street painting and Anonymous homage on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/09/occupywallstreet.html where you can also see videos of the protests and police brutality as well as get other sources for coverage of the movement.

Comment by Brandt Hardin on 10/03/11 at 1:50 pm

Good call, again, Marty.

I REALLY love your work!

Marty for President, soon. PLEASE!

Comment by Guy on 10/03/11 at 4:14 pm

Thank you Brandt and thank you Guy.  Agreed. Written with precisioned gusto separating the chaff from the grain and getting to the heart of yes ... the corruption of our democratic process. Follow the money. Certainly, if lobbying and political “contributions” DIDN’T pay exponential dividends, no one would do it would they?

Comment by hana on 10/03/11 at 5:38 pm

Campaign finance reform is the eye of a hurricane which is buffeted in a thousand different directions. CAN’T BE SOLVED.  /// It is up to Obama to prosecute just a few bankers to add the REAL fear that is needed for these BANKSTERS to understand that they ACTUALLY did something not only unethical, but criminal. and i’m talking big fish, not a few gray men./// That is how real CHANGE can take place. This will vindicate not only the wall street marchers, but all americans.

Comment by justin king on 10/03/11 at 8:50 pm

COMPLETELY OCCUPY K STREET FOR AS LONG AS IT TAKES !! 24/7- for months,if necessary. Get to the epicenter of the CORRUPTION. The Lobbyist system of rewarding ONLY the rich and special interests is killing TRUE democracy./// The greedy,ideologically driven gargoyles at FOXNEWS are leading conservatives to well-deserved disaster on these issues./// It’s time america turned INWARD. KNOW THYSELF.

Comment by justin king on 10/03/11 at 10:04 pm

We live in a Republic, so stop calling it a Democracy! Get the facts and use analysis to asses the real causes. Start with the history of the housing market and how it developed into the big problem that killed the economy. It started with Carter, added to by LBJ, then Clinton and Bush (TARP), and now Obama.  Prices went out of sight. We know the rest, but until prices drop to the market clearing range a recovery is out of the question! There is much more but space is limited. You will just have to do the research yourself!

Comment by Rich on 10/03/11 at 10:18 pm

A sane voice from Marty Kaplan, who is always a sane voice, in my opinion.

And if you can, come downtown and visit the Occupy LA folks at City Hall. No, there is no clear and concise “messaging” coming from any of the Occupy people. Yet. But they (we) are hammering it out and there is real conversation in these camps, amongst people who don’t necessarily share intent and beliefs.

Conversation is what we need now. Yes, there are strong personalities with “leadership potential,” but the main thing is the commitment to community, inclusion, mutual respect and people listening to one another, which is always a big fat mess.

So give them (us) time.

Comment by stacie chaiken on 10/03/11 at 10:42 pm

We should ALL be happy ( for a change ) that the United States is BOTH a republic AND a democracy. // THE GLOBAL CLASS WAR by Jeff Faux details perfectly that our problems are most certainly bipartisan in many ways.There really is no debate. A cornucopia of books have been written on these issues since ‘08. It is only the ignorant who are still debating the obvious. The research has ALREADY been done.

Comment by justin king on 10/03/11 at 10:50 pm

We ARE on K street.  http://occupydc.org/  McPherson Square. http://www.wusa9.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=1198143503001

Comment by Matthew Patterson on 10/03/11 at 10:55 pm

OK, Justin, then follow the research: ...what experts say, is that U.S. households will need time to pay off the debts they ran up during the credit and housing boom in the early 2000s. As they pay down those debts and spend less, the economy will remain stuck in the doldrums for years and markets will soar and tank. And, remember, it was the easy credit for the “poor” that started the class warfare.

Comment by Rich on 10/04/11 at 1:08 pm

Call this “occupy” situation THE 99 MOVEMENT.  that’s the crux of it. /// Of course FOXNEWS is calling it the ANTI-CAPITALISM marches. This has to be turned around on them. a definitive concise label is a necessity. DO IT QUICKLY before the movement can be so misinterpreted that it loses power.

Comment by justin king on 10/05/11 at 9:52 pm

Marty decries alleged right wing control of mass media and “big money dogs” lock on public thinking. He begs for campaign finance reform, ignoring fact Obama (spending a record 700 mil in 2008) & posting a 1 Billion goal for ‘12,  trashed his pledge by opting-out of public financing in ‘08; the first Barak’s litany of fab fibs.

Kaplan asserts “the right owns public dissent” in US , flying in face Obama’s pledge of “Hope & Change” winning the day.

And “link between Wisconsin’s and Wall St. protesters?  Those folks don’t resemble 9/11 first defenders. Try
big-union money Marty…...Marty?

Appears alls well in Wonderland. Say hi to Alice Marty. Aunty Mame

Comment by Mr. Againster on 10/06/11 at 3:24 pm

You Hoo Ya’all, your protest are not making it, west of the Hudson! It is sort of a “curse on all your house” out here Must go go now, time for chores, real life!

Comment by Honey Bee on 10/06/11 at 5:12 pm

I just noticed on tv that only about 10% of the amendments in the new Dodd-Frank bill have been worked out so far. TERRIFIC !!  No wonder people have to physically protest. The new law IS in place,but there is so much foot-dragging in congress that the banks could actually be in dire straights again due to the euro fiasco. //  CONGRESS MUST STAY IN SESSION LONGER, no matter who is in the executive.

Comment by justin king on 10/06/11 at 8:26 pm

Justin,darlin, please explain why you put your life and future on hold for the government.  Why do you need the Dodd-Frank bill to live. Go out in the world and find your own way without depending on anyone or anything, especially the government,

Comment by Honey Bee on 10/07/11 at 9:15 am

Marty darling: You already have a liberal prez. Between 2008 and 2010 you also had a Dem liberal congress which managed to shove O’Care down our throat without one Republican vote. You also have a lib governor, a Dem CA Assembly, a lib mayor Tony V, and lib city council. How’s that working for you Marty? What’s your gripe?

Comment by Mini on 10/07/11 at 2:18 pm

Mini carida,  Marty et al is like a barkin dog who catches the car and then doessn’t know what to do with it.

Comment by Honey Bee on 10/08/11 at 8:55 am

Methinks the protestors should protest the current administration for its failed policies for the past 3 years.  How about a new President and Congress for 2012.  That would be change we can all HOPE for.

Comment by Earl on 10/08/11 at 2:27 pm

Methinks Earl,you correct.  P.S. the rich are allready taxed to feed the poor, FOOD STAMPS.

Comment by Honey Bee on 10/08/11 at 4:10 pm

If you want to read an intelligent and meaningful column of common sense and wisdom (unlike Eshman and Kaplan), go to www.DennisPrager.com and read his current column (13 obstacles to being a good person).  A must read for everyone-especially liberals.

Comment by Earl on 10/08/11 at 5:03 pm

Thank you Earl, I enjoy reading and listen to Prager, I also send his musin to my Christiian friends in Texas.

Comment by Honey Bee on 10/09/11 at 9:14 am

Politicians otherwise keen on Jefferson ignore his direst warning: “Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.”

In California, we are fortunate to have Attorney General Kamala Harris, who has courageously formed the first stand-alone unit to prosecute financial malfeasance. Dante consigns those guilty of outright fraud to Inferno’s “Eighth Circle” in the next life. In this life, Dante notwithstanding, unless the jailhouse door “clanks shut” behind these predators, fraud to them is just another cost of doing business.

Comment by Dan Biezad on 10/10/11 at 8:48 pm

Now that Wall Street miscreants have won approval from KKK wizard David Duke , appears Marty displayed usual prescience considering “protesters” for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Marty carps at campaign funding miseries, trotting out usual Republican suspects, ignoring Obama’s refusal of public funding after promising the opposite. He supports his president’s boast of raising 1 billion for 2012 while general public “starves” (Progressive construct) At same time supporting Obama’s spending 60 percent of his time in the hustings on our dime,  rather than doing his job.

Now Barack seeking money from lobbyists he’d sworn to ignore.  Onward and backwards Marty! Aunty Mame

Comment by Mr. Againster on 10/29/11 at 10:18 am

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