I have an idea for Occupy Wall Street. Rather than attaching yourself parasitically to an establishment party like the Tea Party did in 2009, why don’t you take your popular momentum and try a third-party contest? The climate is right, with congressional approval at a historically low 9% according to recent polls, a President with waning popularity, and a Republican primary that is the stuff of circus sideshows and Saturday Night Live. Unemployment is high, morale is low, and people are still looking for some of that transformational change. They didn’t get much of it with Obama, though the jury’s out as to whether that’s entirely his fault or the Teapublicans’, and many people seem to want a different option.

In 2009, the Republicans and Tea Party began a love affair of convenience, riding that lusty wave of right-wing resentment right into congress during the 2010 midterm elections with media whore Sarah Palin at the mouthpiece. However, now the Tea Party’s agenda is actually making it more difficult for the Republican party is it’s right-wing radical agenda does not play nice with general election politics. It’s not nearly center enough. I’m seeing that cozy relationship starting to whither. Like a teenaged tryst, it took off like a rocket, but when things settled down a little they realized they didn’t have enough in common.

Now, many hailed OWS and Democrats as a similar popular-movement-meets-political-party-love-story. However, Democrats aren’t biting just yet, and here’s why; Occupy Wall Street is a little too passionate (read: unstable). They’re slowly starting to come around with a political agenda, and they’ve very conscientiously avoided placing any single person at the mouthpiece. They’ve also been dogged by arrests, some violence, and a whole lot of civil disobedience; messy qualities in a potential mate for an establishment party.

So here’s an alternative: start polling the OWS sites around the country and organize boards (some have already been placed in the big ones, like New York City and Oakland). Build a political platform around campaign finance reform, which embodies much of the central grievances of Occupy Wall Street. Find some individuals that you can run in state and national elections on a platform of campaign finance reform and, more broadly, limiting corporate and special influence in state and federal government. Evacuate the parks so they cease being the symbol of the movement; tents and sleeping bags. Then, run a Presidential candidate in the general election. Buddy Roemer, albeit a Republican and former governor, has been pitching his little-known platform almost solely on campaign finance reform and limiting corporate interests.

Additionally, there are plenty of other organizations and interest groups that have two things in common; campaign finance reform and advocating for third-party candidates. Time is short, but the opportunity is great, and with some frenzied organizing, copious use of internet networking, and a big enough media presence, OWS could give birth to something truly transformative.