'Occupy Congress' attempts to get lawmakers' attention

“The occupy movement did not emerge from a desire to become a lobbying body,” he says. He does note that this strategy will parallel other civil disobedience kinds of activities, but adds, “Civil disobedience is more in line with the original Occupy Wall Street movement, much more so than any direct pressure on Congressional representatives.”

But, says Fordham university researcher, Heather Gautney, there may be a bit of both going on in the Capitol strategy.

“The spirit of Occupy is not to turn its back on politicians and the state, it's to take them over, and democratize them,” she notes via email. That is what Occupy means, she points out, adding, “confrontation, taking over, and repossession, including democratic processes.”

 Let many flowers bloom and the meadow will be that much richer, says New York activist and filmmaker David Intrator, who has been involved with the Occupy movement in his city from its beginnings.

“I have always called this a social movement,” he says, “which means it is a very large tent and can accommodate many points of view and strategies.”

“Really,” he adds, “the more the better.” 

As far as impacting national politics, Intrator says this is already happening.

“Just look at the debate among the Republican candidates,” he says, noting that the issue of income equality – one of the key mantras of the Occupy movement – has been bandied about by everyone from Mitt Romney to Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, not to mention President Obama. “We’ve already had a very big impact,” he adds.

Not everyone is convinced, says antiabortion activist Tim O’Brien, who suggests that the media has over-covered the Occupy movement, lending it an aura of much greater importance than it actually has. 

“I would suggest perhaps a story on why some groups, some very small in size, get so much press, while others in unprecedented numbers are obviously, routinely, and intentionally ignored,” he says via email.

He points to the fact that “a group of a hundred or so Occupiers can get national attention from the media across several news cycles,” yet on January 23rd, in the March for Life rally which organizers anticipate could attract over one million people “very civil, and very obedient protesters will converge in the same place and you will be hard-pressed to find mention of it in any newspaper, Web site or TV news report.”

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