“Support protesters over the interests of Oakland residents”: Texas Candidate got his Political start in California

Activist turned Congressional candidate, Mike Siegel, has been on the campaign trail the last three years in the 10th District of Texas, but running for Congress was not his first venture into politics. Before moving to Texas, Mike Siegel was a political activist in Oakland, California where he played an integral role in Occupy Oakland, an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement from the early 2010s.

Occupy Oakland was one of the most extreme chapters of the movement. Content promoted on its website condones the vandalization of police vehicles and includes the statement: “If you want to burn something...more power to you.”

It is unclear who this movement was created to help. Although activists said they stood for working families, their goals were at odds with these claims. Part of Occupy Oakland’s mission was to hobble the Port of Oakland. The Port of Oakland generated $8.5 million of commerce per day and supported countless jobs in the community. A San Francisco Chronicle columnist wrote that Siegel “has chosen to support protesters over the interests of Oakland residents.”

Lower and middle-class Californians relying on those jobs were pawns in Occupy Oakland’s larger game. To Siegel, Occupy Oakland was “a legitimate expression of protest, resentment, and even rebellion.” But what was the rebellion’s goal? Siegel wrote “what we are really asking for is a transformational shift in our current economic and political system.” In a debate over the movement’s tactics, Siegel wrote that he was “favoring a more radical position.” In Siegel’s own words, “the radical position is founded in a belief the law in the United States is illegitimate”.

If elected to Congress, Mike Siegel would be responsible for writing the legislation that makes up that “illegitimate” system. It will be up to the voters of TX-10 to decide if they trust Siegel to represent their interests in Congress when he doesn’t believe in the legitimacy of the system itself.