Thomas Ferguson: How to Take Back Our Political System From the 1%

The following has been adapted from a version of a speech delivered to Occupy Boston by Thomas Ferguson, the father of the "Investment Theory of Politics."

I’m honored to speak to you today about money and politics, but it’s not the first time I’ve been here. This is actually the third time I’ve visited your encampment. The first couple of times I walked around and looked at the signs. Many were priceless; the best tutorials I’ve ever seen on the subject of money and politics. My favorite was the one that advised that Congressmen and women should emulate NASCAR drivers and show us their sponsors. Another styled contemporary capitalism “socialism for the 1%.” And many sharply attacked the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which helped throw open the floodgates to the tidal wave of secret money that is now engulfing American elections.

I’m a social scientist, so I actually counted: about a third of all the signs that day had money and politics as their themes. It was obvious that you here at Occupy Boston and your colleagues in New York, Oakland, Chicago, and other cities have already grasped the heart of the problem of money and politics in America: that we live in a money-driven political system that works pretty well for the 1%, but no one else.

So I begin by thanking you for reminding the rest of us about what really matters: That our problem right now is not “the government.” And the task is not to dismantle the social achievements of the New Deal so that citizens can look on cheering as people who failed to buy medical insurance bleed to death or old folks whose pensions and home values collapsed in the wake of the Lehman bankruptcy lose their homes.

It is to force government to take account of the interests of the 99% of Americans who have been left holding the bag for bank bailouts, bonuses, and corporate welfare as they scramble to find jobs and dig themselves out of debt. The state has to be rescued from the clutches of the 1% and made responsive to the interests of the broad public.

I know that you’re getting all kinds of advice about programs and what to do next. I’d rather not join that parade. I want to make a few remarks about political money, but my first suggestion is that you just take your time. Think through the situation and don’t get excited about heated demands for immediate “programs."

You are powerfully influencing American politics just by directing attention to the 1% and big money’s hold on American politics. It is a message that makes the establishments of both political parties and the mass media tremble, lest it transmit to the rest the citizenry, which is well aware that something is rotten, but not always sure exactly what is causing it.

Disregard claims that most Americans don’t yet have a clear view of you. In the U.S., many attempts to describe public opinion by analyzing polls are really barely disguised attempts to influence it. The lesson I extract from the early polls is that to the extent most of Americans hear about you, they like your movement. They share your rage at the banks and Wall Street and a political system in which both major parties demand more and more austerity.

Only weeks after you surged in the streets, your numbers are much better than the Tea Party’s. I would guess that in part that is because many Americans have favorably noted your culture of non-violence, tolerance, and respect for individual persons. The contrast with the cults of violence growing up elsewhere in the system is obvious and infinitely refreshing.

Now let’s talk for a few minutes about money and politics. Mostly I want to talk about possible remedies, but first a few remarks about the problem itself.