By Dante Ramos
DES MOINES -- When police in New York, Boston, and other cities broke up Occupy encampments in public parks, sympathetic commentators expressed some hope that the movement would take the opportunity to transform itself into a conventional political force. If that's going to happen anywhere, it should happen here in Iowa, whose storied presidential caucuses are built on a certain ideal of grass-roots organizing.
And sure enough, there's now an initiative called Occupy the Caucus, which has some of the trappings of a conventional Iowa campaign. For one thing, it's more organized than other Occupy groups; it's an offshoot of Occupy Des Moines (whose encampment remains in place), which in turn is part of Occupy Iowa. And as of last Friday, there's a central headquarters, with handmade political signs lining the walls. When I happened by this morning, a couple of dozen people were milling about -- the official events schedule described the activity as "affinity group planning." Far from trying to disrupt conventional politics, says Jessica Mazour, 24, an organizer at Occupy the Caucus headquarters, "We're encouraging people to engage in the political process."
