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Originally Posted by piercehawkeye45
I agree that the Occupy movement did successfully push the income inequality issue to the forefront. However, nothing was done about it in Washington.
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The Tea Party was pushing the debt issue to the front burner and politicians in Washington were really talking about the various programs they would slash and burn, then the Occupy movement came along and put a stop to those plans. It may look like the Occupy movement did nothing, but what they did was put a stop to the momentum of Tea Party's cutting social programs while giving tax cuts to the rich.
I agree with you that the politics should be local. The problems we are facing today are a direct result of efforts by people like Rove who are trying to polarize politics. It's not just the level of discourse that I'm talking about. The Republicans very wisely focused their efforts on the various state houses a few years back so that they could redraw the districts when the 2010 census data came out. It's the drawing of the districts that is the number one reason for the partisanship we see today. If the districts were drawn so that a moderate would be needed to win a seat, we would see moderates in office who would be willing to reach across the aisle at times. But now the districts are drawn so that each one is pretty clearly leaning in one direction or the other. Representatives only have to appeal to their bases and they will be elected. So they compete to be more extreme. That's where their bread is buttered. We need to get the system set up so that the politicians see that their bread is buttered by the moderates.