CULTURE | A Call to Arms from the Author of ‘The Open-Source Everything Manifesto’

As much as I love all that it represents, Occupy is struggling. The dirty little secret of Occupy is that it is moderately organized in NYC, Chicago, Boston, and Oakland – and a mob everywhere else. The “general strike” called for 1 May is just around the corner, and the truth be told, Occupy may be about to implode for lack of leadership, focus, and financial attractiveness to the non-Occupy majority that actually shares Occupy’s anger and disdain for corruption across the public and private sectors. What I offer in this call to arms is a simple game plan that will allow Occupy to raise one billion dollars if not more, to cleanse the temples of government, and to restore the Republic.

I call on all citizens of the United States of America to coalesce around the spirit of outrage and patriotism that Occupy and the Tea Party represent. I present seven specific actions we can all take such that in November 2012 we elect an honest President and an honest Congress. Anyman can be president because all of us will be the coalition, the congress, and the committee of the whole.

In October 2011, although the video went viral on Reddit and YouTube, my presentation on Electoral Reform failed to impress on Occupy NYC my three core points:

1. Electoral Reform is the ONE THING we can all agree on.
2. Occupy has to agree on ONE THING or be lost in the noise.
3. November 2012 is ours to lose IF we converge on ONE THING.

Despite the lack of traction within Occupy, I knew – I continue to know – that Occupy, the Tea Party, the Independents, the six of eight national political parties that are disenfranchised by the corruption of the two-party tyranny that blocks ballot access, and the moderates from both those parties, could come together on ONE THING –  Electoral Reform.

I did two things in pursuit of what I believe is the achievable goal of creating the Second American Republic, restoring the Constitution, and cleansing the temples of government – all three branches – of corruption.

First, I sent an Open Letter to Occupy, both written and via YouTube on 8 November 2012.  I made two points:

1. Electoral Reform is the ONE THING that will help raise funds from everyone.
2. Electoral Reform is the ONE THING that will justify occupying all home offices of all federal Senators and Representatives over the winter.

My intention was to get Occupy through the winter as a coherent force, to raise several million dollars, and to use the time to identify the Senators and Representatives that should be purged through impeachment, recall, or simply through occupation (hounded out of office). I continue to believe that if we can organize an Electoral Reform Summit in April or May, and place a demand for the Electoral Reform Act of 2012 before the public, all Governors and state legislatures, and before every incumbent Senator and Representative, we can get this act passed in time to make November 2012 the first honest federal election in a very long time.

Second, I submitted my candidacy, and was accepted as a candidate, by the Reform Party, one of the six parties shut-out from the political process by the corrupt two-party tyranny. After being accepted by them, I registered with the Federal Election Commission (Campaign Committee Number C00507756), devised a wicked logo for We the People Reform Coalition (the only candidacy to feature the Eagle rather than an individual), got listed—and since deleted—at Politics1 and also covered by On the Issues. Then I wrote to all the other presidential candidates, which was the real reason I ran for President. My entire purpose was to unify everyone outside the two-party tyranny, into a Reform Coalition certain to win 2012.

Here are the four core principles that comprise the We the People Reform Coalition (now dormant, eager to be awakened).  Each is linked to their specific pages with great detail including the names of a proposed Cabinet to reunite America.

1. Electoral Reform is the starting point for restoring the Republic.
2. Coalition Cabinet (announced in advance and discussed across the land) is the primary means a new president and administration can be legitimized.
3. Balanced Budget (announced in advance and discussed across the land) is the secondary means a new president and administration can be legitimized.
4. True Cost Economics is the only honest foundation for governance, for commerce, and society.  We must end the era of predatory malicious capitalism that externalizes 75% of all costs to the public and the future.

Here are the seven steps to restoring the Republic and the Constitution, in my opinion:

 STEP ONE:  ELECTORAL REFORM SUMMIT.  Let us all agree to come together on or soon after 1 May to discuss, design, and then demand the Electoral Reform Act of 2012 to be enacted by Congress and signed by the President no later than 4 July 2012.  Crowd-sourcing has created both a Statement of Demand and a draft of the Electoral Reform Act of 2012.

STEP TWO:  FORM THE CABINET.  I personally would like to start off with all those named to the Coalition Cabinet at this time – the result of years of non-partisan consultation – and then defer to the gathered stakeholders for any changes.

STEP THREE:  CREATE TWITTER DEMOCRACY.  It’s time we demand a serious capability from Twitter, for issue presentation and universal voting.  We need to end the corruption in Washington by ending their control of both information and money.

STEP FOUR:  NATIONAL BUDGET SUMMIT.  There are existing organizations, notably the National Coalition for Dialog and Deliberation (NCDD), and concepts, notably Meetup and the National Citizens Initiative For Democracy (NCID), that could be integrated with all other interested parties to create a national budget summit both virtual and physical.

STEP FIVE:  CREATE THE LIBERTY FUND.  If every citizen wanted to restore the Constitution and the Republic cared to donate $10 each, with just 100 million of the 300 million citizens actually donating, this would be $1 billion dollars.  Between that and Occupy Congress, we all win big.

STEP SIX:  HIJACK AMERICANS ELECT.  Americans Elect is a brilliant well-funded idea that is totally corrupt on the inside.  We can make it better.

STEP SEVEN:  WIN ELECTION, CREATE OPEN SOURCE AGENCY, GO OPEN EVERYTHING.  We are engaged in a Battle for the Soul of the Republic.  What I really want to do is integrate education, intelligence, and research, cut the bureaucracies by two-thirds, and shift to a focus on open child-driven education, open public intelligence, and open research in  the public interest.

We can do this.  Occupy has the heart, but not head, for revolution.  I call on the Tea Party, the Independents, the four legitimate but disenfranchised parties (Constitutional, Green, Libertarian, Reform), and moderates from the two-party tyranny who are ashamed of what those parties have come to represent, to come together on  the above seven point plan.

Evil has triumphed in America because We the People have been lazy and inattentive.  Occupy is a catalyst but not the total movement.  We can smash the corruption in the White House, in Congress, and within the Supreme Court.  We can do this non-violently, legally, ethically, and NOW.  Just do it.  

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The Open-Source Everything Manifesto is a distillation of author, strategist, analyst, and reformer Robert David Steele life’s work: the transition from top-down secret command and control to a world of bottom-up, consensual, collective decision-making as a means to solve the major crises facing our world today. The book is intended to be a catalyst for citizen dialog and deliberation, and for inspiring the continued evolution of a nation in which all citizens realize our shared aspiration of direct democracy—informed participatory democracy. Open-Source Everything is a cultural and philosophical concept that is essential to creating a prosperous world at peace, a world that works for one hundred percent of humanity. The future of intelligence is not secret, not federal, and not expensive. It is about transparency, truth, and trust among our local to global collective. Only “open” is scalable.

As we strive to recover from the closed world corruption and secrecy that has enabled massive fraud within governments, banks, corporations, and even non-profits and universities, this timely book is a manifesto for liberation—not just open technology, but open everything.

For more from Robert David Steele, please visit his website, Phi Beta Iota: the Public Intelligence Blog.