Occupy Iowa Caucuses

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DAVID GOODNER, david at iowacci.org
Goodner is with Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and has been active with the Occupy Iowa movement. He said today: “Occupy Des Moines started the Occupy Iowa Caucus campaign largely to address the problem of big money in politics — the presidential candidates and their SuperPACs have spent $200 for every vote expected in tonight’s Caucus. Both the Democratic and Republican Parties are largely representing the interests of the major corporations. We’ve occupied all the offices of the candidates — the Republican candidates as well as the state and national Democratic Party. Both establishment parties are getting corporate money by the most corrupt financial institutions, corporations like Goldman Sachs, for example.

“We’ve organized hundreds of people, brought occupiers in from all over the country, ‘mic checked’ candidates like Mitt Romeny and Newt Gingrich, and generated 62 arrests in the last seven days. The campaigns have all ducked us. The Obama campaign even closed their office rather than deal with us. The people at the Democratic Party office called the police on us. Many people outside of Iowa think there’s meaningful interaction going on here, but there isn’t. It’s massive TV ads, 20-minute stump speeches and five-second handshakes. The only meaningful democratic process happening here is in the streets, and we’ve made a big impact. The model we created in Iowa – taking on Wall Street greed and corruption by going after the political parties and politicians that serve the corporate agenda – is one path forward for the Occupy Wall Street movement as the eyes of the nation now turn to New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, and the Super Tuesday primary states. The political system in this country must put communities before corporations and people before profits or prepare to be occupied.”