11/7/10 FB fan page (click here to comment) — We will make money in politics an election issue for 2012. We will find and support candidates and incumbents who can fight for this in Congress. We will create a PAC to raise money so that we can elect these candidates. The Coffee Party is urgently calling for volunteers to help organize their communities. We will work to create a sustained, citizen-led movement to:
(1) Restore democracy so that Congress represents the well-being of the ordinary Americans OVER special interest. We need representatives accountable to the People, not funders.
(2) Create an informed electorate above the impoverished coverage of politics on cable news.
(3) Fight the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling that established corporations as persons and money as speech.
Remember that without the consent of the People, there is no legitimate government. In the end, we have the ultimate say in this social contract.
From the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
We must acknowledge that as an unfunded nonpartisan grassroots movement, we have a lot of work cut out for us. There are no easy answers. We've got to agree that we are committed to facing the challenge together as Americans and push forward and collaborate instead of everyone demanding answers and actions at the "top" of the organization. There will be trial and error. There is no roadmap to follow in part because (a) we've never been faced with such a concentration of power and wealth in this country before, and (b) we've never had the Internet before. The Internet is both a critical ally and a foe for organizers of this era.
What we hope sets the Coffee Party apart is that we insist on being non-violent, moral, civil, and fact-based in our approach. We hope that we are all students of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement.
Why are we nonpartisan in our approach? If we want to tackle this enormous problem, we just can't do it as partisans and limit our reach to at most 50%. If we approach this as progressives, democrats, moderates, or conservatives, it will not advance very far. This has got to be seen as an American issue that affects the entire country. We've got to put aside our differences and raise civil hell together as Americans.
Join our grassroots campaign to demand power for citizens over the power of money in America.
- Attend our action Jan. 20-21, 2011 in Washington DC, or plan a corresponding action in your area.
- Share this blog post, and two related posts: We Demand Democracy and Action Jan. 20-21, 2011 in Washington DC
- Email summit@coffeepartyusa.com to join the conference call about our campaign.
- You can join our new group/forum focused on this on the Shared Purpose network.
- Please read: http://www.slate.com/id/2266025/entry/2266026
Editor's Note: This post was adapted from a Facebook note by Coffee Party founder Annabel Park, originally posted to our Facebook fan page. From now on, we will be reposting selected items from the Coffee Party Facebook fan page on this blog to help integrate our two on-line communities. We are developing a similar set of tools for this website which you can preview here.
