{"id":33836,"date":"2011-11-16T07:41:51","date_gmt":"2011-11-16T14:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=33836"},"modified":"2011-11-17T08:11:31","modified_gmt":"2011-11-17T15:11:31","slug":"welcome-to-a-new-era-of-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/11\/welcome-to-a-new-era-of-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to a new era of democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

The Internet makes democracy possible in a way the world has never before seen. The challenge for movements like the Tea Party and Occupy is to rise above division and work together to change the world.<\/h4>\n

At a recent gathering of people from various churches in Do\u00f1a Ana County who are fed up with the direction of our country, one woman\u2019s story caught my attention.<\/p>\n

With a message on the screen behind her informing those in attendance that 70 percent of employees at the Santa Teresa Industrial Park are Texans, the woman talked about her own plight.<\/p>\n

She said she did her part, earning a college degree that helped her get a good job, but then was laid off. She said she applied for more than 200 jobs after that and didn\u2019t get a single interview. Finally, she was offered a job that paid a little more than minimum wage and came with no benefits. Though she thought she deserved better, she took the job, since it was the only one she could find.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of this is my fault,\u201d the woman said.<\/p>\n

I believe that sums up the sentiment of many Americans as one of the worst economic downturns in this nation\u2019s history drags on and on. It\u2019s a sense that people are doing exactly what society tells them they need to do to be successful \u2013 getting an education, working hard \u2013 and they still aren\u2019t making ends meet.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sense that the American Dream is dead, and that it was killed by the wealthiest among us who are getting richer and richer while quality of life for the rest of us degrades.<\/p>\n

A larger, worldwide movement<\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve been observing the Occupy movement for weeks without saying much about it. I wanted to spend some time digesting the sentiment that has led people to demonstrate, camp in public places, and boycott banks to shine light on what they see as a devastating problem.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019ve repeatedly been asked to analyze how the Occupy movement compares with the Tea Party movement.<\/p>\n

At this point, my belief is that, though they have significant differences, both are part of a larger, worldwide movement that has the potential to fundamentally change this world. That\u2019s something I find exciting.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen the new movement help topple an oppressive government<\/a> in Egypt that had long been supported by those with power, including America. We\u2019ve seen it help empower people to organize<\/a> across the Arab world, in nations including Iran<\/a>. We\u2019ve seen it in riots in London<\/a>. We\u2019ve seen it in the effort in Wisconsin to defend employee unions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And we\u2019ve seen it in the Tea Party<\/a> and Occupy<\/a> movements. The Tea Party had a dramatic impact on the 2010 election<\/a>. Occupy forced Bank of America and other financial institutions to back off new fees<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These are people from various nations, from across the political spectrum, and from various ethnicities, income brackets, genders and sexual orientations. They may not agree with each other on a lot of issues \u2013 including whether the woman at the start of this column or society is to blame for her plight \u2013 but they agree on one key point:<\/p>\n

Those who control things aren\u2019t playing fair. And that must change.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the Internet<\/h3>\n

Why now? Though there are other factors, I believe the primary reason is the Internet, which makes democracy possible in a way our world has never before seen. People without money or influence over our decision-makers can organize on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a> in spite of efforts to stop them. They can show the world what\u2019s happening on YouTube<\/a> and blogs.<\/p>\n

The voice of the people can\u2019t be silenced.<\/p>\n

Right now, the majority in America says our system is broken and corrupt. The Tea Party and Occupy movements may not agree on the solution to our problems, or even on the cause of the problems, but they agree there is a problem: Whether it\u2019s the government or Corporate America, people with too much influence are grabbing even more at the expense of the rest of us.<\/p>\n

I believe there\u2019s truth in the complaints of both movements. The three-headed dragon that runs our society \u2013 the government, the corporations and other special-interest groups, and the mainstream national media \u2013 uses its power to increase its power. Increasingly, the rest of us are being left behind.<\/p>\n

In America, one needs only to compare the unreasonably high percentage of millionaires in Congress<\/a> with the disproportionately high percentage of black men in prison<\/a> to see that something is drastically out of whack.<\/p>\n

What people across the world are saying is that those who hold power can no longer take advantage of those who don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

United we stand, divided we fall<\/h3>\n

Those who hold power can\u2019t stop the new level of democracy made possible by the Internet. The challenge in the 21st Century and beyond will be for humanity to maturely handle the responsibility that comes with such democracy.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re not there yet. As we saw in London, the threat of mob mentality taking over is a real danger. Polarization is on the rise.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve defended the Tea Party movement<\/a> in the past and I will defend the Occupy movement. I\u2019ve long criticized those in power who try to limit peoples\u2019 ability to organize and change a broken system. Regardless of their ideology, I will continue to defend people who are rising up in this nation and around the world to force change.<\/p>\n

But I will also challenge them to handle that responsibility with care. Only through working together will they change the world. Those who hold power will seek to divide them to keep them from becoming too influential. The challenge is to rise above the division.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not as though everyone who supported the revolution that birthed America was on the same ideological page. They were people with different beliefs who could agree on one thing: The king needed to go. They banded together to accomplish that goal, then created a system of government intended to force them to work through their differences to find compromise that would benefit all.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the Internet, America is in a position today to actually realize that promise. But it will do so only if people put aside their differences to work together.<\/p>\n

In the last few years, we\u2019ve seen glimpses of what that might look like, but we\u2019ve also seen incredible polarization that threatens to put a stop to any attempt to change things. I\u2019m encouraged by what\u2019s possible, but worried about what might happen if people don\u2019t work together.<\/p>\n

The phrase \u201cUnited we stand, divided we fall\u201d seems especially appropriate at this time. If people can agree that the king needs to go \u2013 that our society needs fundamental changes that build a new level of democracy into the system \u2013 then they need to put aside their differences to make it happen.<\/p>\n

Haussamen bio<\/a>\u00a0\u2502\u00a0Commentary page<\/a>\u00a0\u2502\u00a0Feed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Internet makes democracy possible in a way the world has never before seen. The challenge for movements like the Tea Party and Occupy is to rise above division and work together to change the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[222,199,238],"class_list":["post-33836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-occupy-movement","tag-tea-party","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33836\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}