Occupy Congress Planned For January 17th… The Million Tent March?

Since its beginnings way back in September, the Occupy Wall Street has repeatedly faced a pointed criticism, mainly from righties- “if you’re so mad, why don’t you occupy the government instead?”

Indeed, it is somewhat naive to gloss over the role of the government in getting America to a place where robber barons rule and the little guy has to pick up the tab, time and again, for their gambling addiction. (Don’t believe me? Check out the Bloomberg piece from last week that made some waves but was largely ignored by most media sources in favor of news that one of the Kardashians got knocked up- sure, Congress didn’t know about the secret bailout, but laws made the deception possible.) There are a thousand reasons why it doesn’t matter that the government has been a smaller target of the Occupy Wall Street protests- mainly that if you reported a crime against you and the police don’t investigate, it’s pretty reasonable your first grievance would be with the criminal and not the cops.

But it’s not like lawmakers are entirely off the hook. Occupy protests have moved away from public squares for the time being- one of the current actions being Occupy Goes Home, involving localized efforts to protect homeowners from foreclosures- but all that is set to change on January 17th. Calls are being put out for a “million tents” and corresponding protesters to Occupy Congress and petition the government for a redress of grievances. Although the Occupy Congress movement doesn’t officially have a website yet, there is a Reddit thread that currently has 911 replies with users across the country voicing support and making plans to attend the rally.

It’s interesting reading over the thread because I keep hearing from mainstream media sources that the Occupy movement lacks a single, cohesive message- that it’s like Burning Man in Zucotti Park. But over and over, in every discussion among actual Occupy protesters, the same refrain echoes: “Get money out of politics. Our democracy is not for sale.” Even if the message isn’t as across-the-board as some would like, one has to wonder why this single message, repeated over and over, has been largely ignored by the media of this country. Is it not loud enough? Do you plan to Occupy Congress on the 17th, and do you think that the occupation of the Capital will finally garner the Occupy movement the attention it deserves from the government?