Representation and its discontents --- Anon

Hi there OccupyDSM forums. I've lived in Des Moines all my life and always had an affinity for radical politics, but, for a variety of reasons I have not really been involved with OccupyDSM. I would kind of like to change that, but I have a few questions.

First, I guess, why is there such a focus on representative politics? Granted, I could be COMPLETELY wrong here because I mainly get my information from the news/newspaper, so who knows how accurate it is, but it seems like there is a ton of energy being put into various protests and actions surrounding the caucuses, republican candidates in general, and conceivably maybe stuff about Obama in the future.

Why?

I have not been super-involved because I guess I just haven't felt like OccupyDSM was very relevant to my everyday life. Sure, the republican candidates are corrupt, trying to destroy the working class, environment, etc., etc., etc., but protesting them or doing a symbolic action at there offices or even getting arrested doing an "occupation" seems totally disconnected from my everyday reality.

The things that affect me are rent and utility payments, conditions in my workplace, access to food, etc. These are things I and my friends and family struggle with every day, and it seems to me like by focusing on the horrible stuff that candidates are for, you are reaffirming the belief that representatives can fix this for us, or that we need representatives in the first place. I do not believe this to be the case, and I think that we can only liberate/help/whatever ourselves, and we can't put faith in the political system to do this.

So, things that are really inspiring to me are things like the building occupations that have taken place all over the west coast and in North Carolina, the general strike in Oakland, etc. THESE are things that are relevant to my life as someone trying to avoid homelessness this winter. I couldn't care less about the republican candidates.

I was involved/knew some people involved in some stuff surrounding the caucuses in 2008, and it was honestly one of the most dis-empowering experiences of my life. I want to feel collective power with my friends and other people that share the same material conditions and are working to actively change them, not just get arrested singing a song or something in some office building and pretending to be some kind of martyr or something.

I know that all of the occupations around the country are each unique and different, however, it seems like many people are taking this into real communities where people are actually personally invested in the struggle in a way that can't be replicated, while here (at least according to my very limited information), it seems like the push is to get people to just 'protest' candidates that everyone knows are horrible and fight against abstractions instead of making concrete gains, slipping back into the spectacle of the 'activist.'

I guess on some level I REALLY want to be involved with something like this, especially in my hometown(!), but at the same time, I have zero interest in electoral politics, and as I said, I feel dis-empowered enough in my day to day life, that I don't need the added feeling (I get) from your standard protest, sing songs, hold signs, sit down and get arrested type deal. Anyway, if people respond to this, that would be GREAT!!! I would love to talk to someone about this stuff a little more. If not, thanks for reading this far, I guess.

Peace